Capital Punishment

There was a time when people were executed by boiling, crushing by elephants, devouring by alligators and crocodiles, tearing apart by horses, burning alive, removing skin from the body, decapitating, breaking back, and even cooking to death. Most, if not all of these executions were carried out by the then governments, and were in accordance to the laws that existed.

The various governments around the world establishes different fundamental rights, including the right to equality, education, freedom of speech, cultural rights, right against exploitation and many others. However, one cannot deny that the most fundamental of all rights is the right to live, or in other words, the right not to get killed. Interestingly, the importance of this right discussed in the context of capital punishment is rare, compared to those of euthanasia, abortion or wars. Is this because the "unconditional" right to life is just an illusion?

One question that I had asked myself for quite some time is what grants the government, the right to kill people. Is it a certain set of books which has a system of rules to regulate the behavior of countrymen that we call today as “law”? Or is it a tribunal presided over by people who have expertise in the so called regulating rules? Then, why is it that the killer cannot believe in his group of advisors, and his rule-books, which asks him to kill others! How come, it is “illegal” when an ordinary person kills and “legal” when the government does it? Isn’t the concept of law and legality relative?

Generally speaking, the principle that binds together human life is not law, but morality. If you consider the moral aspect of killing, you tend to observe that you are talking about matter in vacuum. There is absolutely no morality in killing, whoever the killer is, be it the person we tag as a criminal, or the system we refer to as the government.

The only argument which I had for supporting capital punishment is that it will be a deterrent for similar crimes in future. But again, if you think about it, do you think serial killers and rapists consider their potential demise via capital punishment? Do you think they are scared and their “psycho” mindset is bothered by capital punishment? Criminals, especially psychologically affected ones, operate with the belief that they never get caught. Now, coming to terrorists or religious fanatics, they are people who are ready to operate as suicide bombers. And you think capital punishment is going to change them from committing crimes or terror?

One thing which we all easily forget is that there is no “un-do” option in life. By killing the person who committed the crime, we are not “un-do”ing /cannot “un-do” the crimes committed by him. Of course, we can prevent him from committing future crimes, but that can be prevented by far better means than killing. Depending upon the level of crime, people think that retribution is the only option, and that is mostly because they are driven by emotions, rather than by logic. The very basic fact that most of us ignore is that killing one person is never “more right” than killing someone else.

After reading the methods of execution that existed earlier, we feel happy that the world has “evolved”. Decapitation, boiling and cooking has undergone “reforms” and are now replaced by quicker electrocution, lethal injection and hanging. However, on deeper analysis, we understand that there has been no significant change. We have just changed the method of execution, we might have reduced the torture associated with it, but execution as such still exists, and it will exist as long as there are like minded people supporting it.