If I were to ask you your opinion on killing, what would you say? Would you look at me in disbelief, stating matter-of-factly that “It’s wrong?” Or would you say it’s a just practice and you support it? I’m not talking about just any type of killing here, in case you haven’t guessed yet; I’m commenting on the routine execution of criminals in our justice system — the death penalty.
Most people don’t start talking about things as dark as the death penalty unless it affects them personally. It’s just one of the things in this world that is unpleasant to think about. By some odd coincidence, two of my favorite television shows last week both dealt heavily with the death penalty and the possibility of killing innocent people. Unlike most opponents of the penalty, I don’t want to argue about that possibility. Instead, I want to target the root of the problem, the justness of the penalty.
I feel that a penalty such as this is merely a primitive version of revenge, only it’s been legalized. Killing someone who committed murder is like me stealing something from the person who stole my bike tire last month. Be honest with yourselves, would my doing that make any sense or help make the world a happier, safer place? So how, then, do we justify to ourselves the killing of those who kill others?
Let me make another example. We attacked the nation of Iraq, completely unprovoked. Our attacks killed innocent civilians and soldiers who were likewise innocent because they had done nothing to us. Does this give the nation of Iraq the right to turn around and attack our country? No. And by my analogy, it doesn’t either. However, working within this analogy, Iraq would have the power to watch as the United Nations executed such an attack.
But when you think about this, none of it makes sense, does it? But apply that same logic to the death penalty. Neither makes logical sense, but for some odd reason we continue to practice the former in many states. Remember the immortal words of Gandhi, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
You can also look at the argument of rehabilitation. After a person has been rehabilitated, if they ever are, they are not the same person who committed the crime. Even if you are able to justify the death penalty, how could you justify killing someone who has seen and corrected the error in his life? I can’t.
I realize that many people will just read this in passing and many won’t actually care about what I’ve written here. I hope, though, that at least one person takes my words to heart and thinks hard about the point I am trying to get across. I don’t intend to start a national campaign to end the death penalty, I just want to get more people thinking on the same wavelength so that, one day, such a campaign might be possible.