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Margin for Error

With the suggestion from England that an innocent man may possibly have been executed and with execution in the U.S.A. of the Rosenbergs the issue of capital punishment comes once more to the fore. .With this topic as with many others there is, unfortunately a great deal of loose thinking; on the one hand there are people who without knowing why, would abolish it for sentimental reasons, On the other hand there are those who blindly assert that the death penality is necessary if we are to avoid a spate of killings.

One thing, however is clear. The death penalty cannot justify itself, like any other punishment it must depend for its justification on the end it achieves. One eminent New Zealand jurist has summed up the purposes of punishment as being threefold: retributive, corrective, deterrent. A preliminary investigation of capital punishment on this basis, does not. We feel, justify it.

Retribution, or vindictiveness should have no place in a modern civilised society. It remains in our law, because, to a very great extent our law grew from it, its disappearance is gradual, but we cannot see how it can provide a justification for anything in a Christian community.

We cannot deny that legal killing is preventive in the tense that a dead man must find it difficult to repeat his crime, in this world at least, it is understandable that prevention should be substituted for correction in the punishment allocated to the murdered. Nevetheless, life [unclear: imprisonmnt] would be just at effective and less drastic a justification of hanging it not to be found on this ground.

We turn then, to the last of the three great reasons. The common attitude that the [unclear: death] penalty reduces the number of murder is an unthinking one. Having examined the figures available in relation to this country. We have no hesitation in saying that statistics cannot prove that the death penalty reduces the number of murders On the contrary, it can be said that it is not certain that the death penalty has saved even one life—and this is the very least conclusion to be drawn from the facts. Mere possibility it not enough to justify a killing Nothing short of certainty could possibly justify the taking of human life.

Its continued existence is caused by a general feeling of moral superiority and complacency.

There are positive reasons against the death penalty. One of the two most important things a man possesses is his life: it is his own; it is precious; it is the gift of God and as such it is His prerogative to recall it. On this ground alone it is doubtful if the hanging even of a guilty man can be justified. What then are we to say if an innocent man is executed. Our Opinion is that the execution of a thousand guilty men does not justify the execution of one who is innocent.

Most important of all is the fact that human justice is fallible: it cannot be perfect, but it can achieve the nearest to perfection that man can reach: it is this human perfection that should always be aimed at But to make a final judgment is incompatible with human justice, because by making that judgment it denies its own fallibility: thus the judgment becomes in itself a denial of justice. The execution of a man leaves no margin for error.

F.L.C.