|
天涯法网 王琳 推荐
下面是五月间正值Timothy McVeigh之execution执行前后，美国基督教科学箴言报报所发一
篇关于死刑的社论。
死刑之理由大致有三：1.对罪犯罪行之报复，以告慰亡灵及其亲人。2.震慑犯罪。3.按罪定
刑。
作者逐条批驳，令人耳目一新：1.人死不能复生，杀凶手万次也于事无补。2.可能造就更多
亡命之徒。3.对杀一人与杀百人者，又如何区分以公平定刑？莫不如永囚铁窗，予以教化，
尚存促其改悔之可能。
正如摩西在西奈山上所说：“You Shall Not Kill”。
EDITORIAL
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2001
Like Madame LaFarge doing her knitting while taking in
guillotine executions in
Charles Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities," many Americans may be
tempted to view th
e scheduled May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh as a morbid
but necessary spectacle.
The atmosphere in Terre Haute, Ind., where the federal death
chamber is located,
is already circuslike. Execution T-shirts and "souvenirs"
abound. More than 1,6
00 foreign and domestic journalists, and who knows how many
activists and curios
ity-seekers, are expected to descend on the city before next
Wednesday.
Actual viewing of the death by lethal injection will be
limited to the execution
ers, along with select witnesses, while family members of the
168 people killed
in the 1995 bombing can watch via closed-circuit TV.
The spectacle aspect of this execution is a throwback to an
unpleasant past of p
ublic hangings. It's a reminder of the coarsening effect on
public values of sta
te-sanctioned killings, which usually take place far out of
public view.
The wide interest - almost enthusiasm - in this execution is
due to the magnitud
e and malevolence of Mr. McVeigh's crime, his lack of
contrition, and his hatred
of federal power. With so many Americans supporting this final
resolution, thos
e who oppose the death penalty may feel defensive. They
needn't.
Since 1976, when the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty as
constitutional (u
nder strict standards), 707 individuals have been put to death
by states. McVeig
h's will be the first federal execution since 1963.
But some states are now considering a temporary halt to
executions after many de
ath-row inmates were found to be innocent or inadequately
defended. One state, I
llinois, has a death-penalty moratorium.
Such doubts are a valid starting point for rethinking capital
punishment. But th
ey're just a start. Society has more at stake in this issue
than the risk of wro
ngful executions.
A civilization's core reason for existence lies in its ability
to uphold the san
ctity of life and perpetuate it. How much is that purpose
diminished when the st
ate executes criminals for reasons of justice? It's worth
looking at those reaso
ns in this case:
Avenging the wrong done to victims and the harm done to their
families. Ending t
he life of someone who takes life so coldly is seen as the
ultimate act of retri
bution. Some family members of the Oklahoma City bombing
victims understandably
seek closure to their hatred of McVeigh by having him die.
Some doubt the execut
ion will settle anything for them.
But one father whose daughter died in the blast, Bud Welch,
has become a fervent
campaigner against the death penalty. He has said he realized
his initial desir
e to see the bomber dead sprang from the same sources as the
bombing itself - ha
tred and vengeance. He decided he didn't want to perpetuate
those motives, which
rely on the archaic eye-for-an-eye sense of justice.
Trying to find finality in the death of another human being is
to treat criminal
s the same way they treat their victims: as unworthy objects.
Where's the healin
g in that?
A deterrent to crime. The death penalty may give some would-be
murderers second
thoughts. Most experts doubt it does; death-penalty states
have higher murder ra
tes. If anything, the threat may make a murderer desperate to
kill if trapped. A
nd it's unlikely to keep fanatics like McVeigh from terrorist
acts. He saw himse
lf as an avenger against government actions like the federal
attack on the Branc
h Davidians in Waco, Texas. Now he seems to welcome being a
martyr in hopes his
cause will rise again and inspire future martyrs. So much for
deterrence.
A penalty befitting the crime. Meting out a punishment that
somehow matches the
severity of the crime is the basis for most sentencing of
criminals. For McVeigh
, whose act was the most heinous in US history in terms of
loss of life, just ta
king his life will hardly measure up. For most murderers, a
life behind bars wou
ld be a daunting punishment. That's almost certainly the case
for McVeigh.
He should remain in a cell for life, compelled to discover a
conscience, and per
haps compelled to recognize that he, too, can stand for the
sanctity of life wit
hin the very society he so perversely thought he was
correcting by killing feder
al workers and others. His execution means that both he and
the government will
have one thing in common: They both kill to prevent a society
from killing its o
wn.
Finally, beyond these reasons for capital punishment in the
name of justice lies
a simple dictum that has stood the test of nearly 3,000 years.
It's a four-word commandment, brought down from Horeb by
Moses, that continues t
o challenge mankind:
"Thou shalt not kill." |