Impact of Slavery on Capital Punishment - Research Paper Example

Impact of slavery on capital punishment The two most ruthless social practices of slavery and capital punishment have a long history with us. Most brutal form of slavery was found in America, when a Dutch ship had brought about 20 enslaved Africans to the Virginia colony at Jamestown, around 240 years back. However, in 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution had officially put an end to this brutal practice in the US. (1) "Slavery means economic, social and political deprivation, legal impotence and oppression." (2) In Africa, slave trade was rampant; slaves were traded in the market and valued on the basis of their age, gender or even physical appearance. A stronger and healthier male slave would fetch a higher price than a weaker and older slave. Female slaves were considered more valuable than male and hence would fetch more value as they could reproduce and help increase the number of slaves. Capital punishment is the lawful enforcement of death as a reprimand for hideous crimes. Britain had put an end to the practice of capital punishment in the year1965. However, we find that USA, Japan, China, and many other Asian, African and Middle Eastern still impose death penalty for certain number of crimes and use it with varying regularity. Propagators of capital punishment argue that it is the only way of removing criminals and this would also bring about safety for the people in the society. This can be a permanent way of removing crime completely. In keeping convicts in prison there is a possibility of them escaping from the bars or they could commit crimes within the prison. There is also a third possibility of prisoners being released after the completion of their sentence giving them free rein to start their horrendous practices all over again. There is also a cost factor involved in keeping the convict behind the bars which could be used in a more resourceful way. After the abolishment of capital punishment in Britain, statistics of 2009 reveal that in the past 12 years, 65 prisoners who had served their life sentence and were subsequently released, were yet again convicted for further crime.Their crimes ranged from murder to rape, statistics also show that the people who were given life imprisonment did not serve more than 10 years and moved freely there after.It also revealed that the crimes rose by 125% over the period of five years immediately after the abolishment of the death penalty. The crimes would have attracted death penalty if it were still into force. This means that the removal of death penalty acted as a catalyst to encourage further crime as the criminals became fearless. However, it can be argued that the abolishment cannot be the sole reason for the rise in crime. It might have increased by the same extent even if the death penalty would have been in force. The propagators of abolishment of capital punishment have a vital argument in their support. According to them innocent people could be incorrectly executed and it would not be possible to compensate them for this great injustice done to them and their families as the loss of a life can never be compensated. Secondly, the grievance suffered by the family of the person convicted cannot be totally ignored. The harassment and the trauma that the families and friends have to bear from the time of arrest until the final judgement is unbearable. The anguish and the pain haunts them for many years after the trial. People find it very difficult to accept the fact that their loved ones are guilty of such heinous crime. It is more difficult for them to contemplate such a painful death for their loved ones. However strongly one may support capital punishment, it cannot undo the harm that has already been done. In case an innocent is convicted, it might augment a feeling of revenge among his close ones and thus increasing the probability of crimes. Beccaria introduces one of the first critics of the use of capital punishment. He argues that capital punishment does not necessarily discourage crimes. On the other hand, he believes that lifetime imprisonment is much more influential in abstaining people from committing hideous crimes. He begins by explaining the relationship between right to life and social contact. However, Locke argues that people deprive themselves of their right to life once they commit such a crime.. Beccaria speaking in favor of slavery contends that perpetual slavery will have a greater impact than capital punishment. Thus slavery could be used in place of death penalty as it is less severe form of punishment and it also serves the purpose of discouraging further crimes. Beccaria further argues that the death sentence has adverse effects on the people of the society as it would make them indifferent and insensitive to human suffering. Even though capital punishment is prevalent in many countries around the world, it is a big mistake that will eventually be realized by the masses and abolished completely. Perpetual slavery would be the accepted mode of punishment than death penalty. (4) We must not forget that criminals are also real people with normal feelings of pain, fear and love. They are not devoid of human emotions and also feel the usual anxiety and pain attached to such a death. Execution in any form would cause suffering to a prisoner, one cannot say that a certain method would be more humane than the other. Even though some methods would perhaps cause less suffering than others, however, being executed would be equally is a frightening and terrifying ordeal for any criminal. The mental suffering of knowing the date and time of death is unimaginable, this fact s also overlooked.(4) The death penalty can be claimed to be totally unjustified as it does not consider an individual's humanity. It also deprives the criminal of rehabilitation and to start life all over again. The American Law Institute (ALI) had lately voted to remove a section of the Model Penal Code which is concerned with the capital punishment. This is because the "current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment." The Council's verdict was based on a research specially undertaken whereby the practice of the capital punishment was carefully looked into after going through the recommendations made in Model Penal Code. The recommendations had been undertaken in 1962 to make the death sentence less illogical and were referred by the U.S. Supreme Court in the year 1976, thus renewed the form of death penalty was reinstated. The section 210.6of the Model Penal Code outlines cases which are appropriate for capital punishment, it also provides justification for capital punishment for certain circumstances. Further and special sentencing procedures, and was intended to meet significant concerns regarding the practice. (5) In a national public opinion poll carried out in 2007, it was concluded that people were losing faith in the death penalty or the capital punishment as they are becoming more and more aware about the risk involved in punishing the innocent, about the failure of capital punishment in achieving its purpose and about the fairness involved in the practice of death penalty. Many Americans hold the belief that lots of innocent people have been unduly executed, and that the capital punishment does not in any way reduce crime to any extent, so in time this sort of executions must come to an end..(6) A survey was undertaken to prove how many Americans feel that death penalty is deterrent to murder. A bar graph depicting the same is given below: . 60% of the American believe that it does deter murder 38% of the Americans believe that it does not deter murder 2% of the Americans were not sure (6) Americans are also of the belief that due to their moral objections they might not be called to serve on a jury in cases involving capital punishment. Almost half the women and Catholics are against this type of execution. Two-thirds of blacks are also among the opponents of capital punishment. The supporters of this type of retribution who might be qualified to serve on a jury in such cases might not vote for a death penalty due to the risk involved in convicting an innocent. In theory, many Americans still support capital punishment but gradually it is becoming rare and rare in actual practice. Secondly, hundreds of prisoners were sentenced to death in America as they did not have a competent lawyer to defend against the harsh judgment. In these trial cases no witnesses were presented, or arguments made to defend the convict and to present the case so that he may get a fair trial. This resulted in innocent getting the death penalty just because he did not have adequate resources to prove himself not guilty of the crime. Currently, ninety cases were reported where innocent people have been incorrectly sentenced by the judicial court for the crimes they did not commit. One out of eight people were wrongly executed in the United States of America. (7) In order to save the innocents from being wrongly convicted, they need to remove the abolition on slavery. It does not require an amendment in the Constitution, as the Thirteenth Amendment only declares: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,exceptas a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States." Accordingly, slavery can be used as a mode of punishment in place of death penalty. In the Roman law, two types of capital punishment were acknowledged namely, death and slavery. Slavery was considered to be a type ofcapitalpunishment as a slave had no legal subsistence as a person. A slave was a person who had no position in the court of law for any reason other than to dispute his position as a slave. A slave cannot own any property and do not have any rights, in any form. A master has a power of life and death of his slaves. By imposing slavery, persons mistakenly convicted can even be freed, although they would have undergone some harm in the period they were held captive. Under the process of slavery, the criminals would be released from the prison and held as slaves. They would not have any rights in the eyes of law and cannot dispute that fact in the court. They would be considered dead. They can only bring forth an argument if they want to plead innocent. On the other hand, if such a criminal escaped from the shackles of the owners and committed a crime, then the police had the right to shoot him without any trial or any legal formalities of being heard in the court as he does not hold any right. On the other hand seriel killers at large could pose even a greater threat to the society even if they do not hold any legal right. There is no surety of his rehabilitation. It could be dangerous even to the owners of the slaves. In order to bring about justice to innocent the release of all prisoners could inflict more harm than good Slavery could also serve another purpose. The victims of the heinous could take settle their scores with the criminals for the injustice done to them and their families. They could buy the criminals as slaves to inflict punishment they deem to be fit, in order to restore justice against the trauma and harm it had caused to them. This would serve as a compensation for the victims and their families. They would no longer have to be worried about the convicts getting released as they would buy them and make them pay. When the sufferers feel that they have been compensated for their loss, then they could kill the criminal. People, who disagree with the harsh treatment, are free to give whatever punishment they think appropriate. Contemporary philosophers bring forth two principle theories to justify punishment. First theory known as the retributive approach says that punishment should be equivalent to the harm done; it should compensate the victim appropriately for the injustice. This approach is vengeance oriented and seeks retaliation. The second theory is utilitarian which advocates that punishment should in fact increase the level of happiness in the human race. It should not be vengeance oriented unlike the former. This type of punishment involves rehabilitation of criminal. Thus making him incapable of repeating such crime and it should also discourage others from committing crimes. Capital punishment is based on the retributive theory while slavery is based on the utilitarian theory. Capital punishment believes in killing the convict who has committed crimes like murder, thus meeting eye for an eye. Slavery on the other hand is not completely utilitarian as it takes away all the rights of a slave. However it does give a chance to the criminal to turn into a new leaf, which is not there in case of capital punishment. The family f the victim who has bought the criminal as slave could release him in case they feel that he has paid for the crime and is repenting for the same. This would in turn create a better and a happy society. Moreover the punishment inflicted should be swift so as to deter the criminals from committing further crimes. Both slavery and capital punishment are such ruthless practices that the reinstating or abolition would take time. There are both positive as well as negative impacts on the society which these form of punishment brings about. One cannot ignore the negative impact of slavery if it takes the place of capital punishment. Hence one has to look in a broader perspective to arrive at a decision 1. History of slavery in America. www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/overview.htm 2. Suzanne Miers, Igor Kopytoff, Slavery in Africa: historical and anthropological perspectives, Univ of Wisconsin Press, England,1979 3. Arguments for and against capital punishment in the UK. http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/thoughts.html 4. Against capital punishment http://www.iep.utm.edu/beccaria/ 5. Death penalty Information system http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/past/19/2009 6.A Crisis of Confidence: Americans' Doubts About the Death Penalty. (released June 9, 2007) Media Coverage Report 7. The crisis, Jan -Feb 2001, Vol. 108,No. 1, The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. 8. Alan Watson,Roman Slave Law, the Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987 Read More