Well, every civilised society has abolished the death penalty. That says a great deal to me. The main objection one could raise to that statement is the US - but that was a deliberate omission.
A criminal justice system has four basic things it has to do to the society:
- Protect the citizens (prevention)
- Make restitution when a crime is committed (where possible)
- Rehabilitate people who commit crimes
- Punish people who commit crimes
Different people might frame these slightly differently, but these differences are usually trivial. What is usually far more significant is the relative weighting one puts on each of these things. For example, I put protecting society and its citizens at the top of the list and largely disregard punishment and push it to the bottom of the list: I only really consider punishment relevant to the extent it contributes to the other three. Other people will consider punishment essential.
In terms of these dimensions, the death penalty can be evaluated. It protects society against future offending by the perpetrator. However, it's not the only way to protect society. Some suggest it acts as a deterrent to offending - unfortunately, there's no real evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent. It obviously doesn't rehabilitate the perpetrator - but some argue that certain people cannot be rehabilitated. It doesn't make any real restitution for the crime committed. There could be an argument of 'a life for a life' - but this sounds more like revenge than justice to me. I don't see how it makes any real restitution. And it can obviously be conceived as a punishment - whether it's just or appropriate is another matter.
You also need to consider the justice system itself. While most western justice systems are reasonably fair, in most countries, you get a better deal if you're the right sort of person - affluent and white in most cases. If you're not, then there are a raft of statistics that show that you're treated differently in the justice system (for example, in the US if you murder someone and happen to be black, then you're far more likely to end up on death row than if you're white; US death rows are also heavily populated by people who are poor and have a range of mental problems).
Finally, I flip the argument around. I consider the punishments meted out by a society to tell you far more about the society than about the crimes committed. Personally, I don't want to live in a society where it's considered acceptable to kill anyone, regardless of circumstances. Acceptance of killing as a solution to a problem is, to me, a failure of the society. I want better answers.
Oh, and I highly recommend that everyone watch "A Short Film About Killing" by Kieślowski. He does a beautiful job of comparing and contrasting murder with the death penalty. it's brutal - and draining to watch - but well worth the effort.
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