Contents
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Punishment ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Aims of Punishment ............................................................................................................................ 2
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ............................................................................................................................ 3
BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT............................................................................... 4
The Old Testament.............................................................................................................................. 4
New Testament Principals .................................................................................................................. 4
GOVERNMENT’S PERSPECTIVE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT .................................................................... 5
CASE STUDIES ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT .............................................................................................. 6
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................... 9
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 11
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INTRODUCTION
Punishment
A basic definition of punishment is that it involves the deliberate infliction of suffering on a
supposed or actual offender for an offense such as a moral or legal transgression. While
punishments can be imposed by anyone in a position of authority, parents, teachers, bosses,
friends, it is criminal punishment that is of issue here, namely, the punishment imposed by
governments for legal infractions. When imposing punishments, governments have a range of
options that differ in severity. At the low end, punishments of community service require
offenders to participate in some activity that benefits their local community, such as picking
up litter, working at animal shelters, or assisting non-profit organizations. Financial penalties,
such as fines, are common particularly with non-violent crimes. Acts of public humiliation,
while more common in previous eras, and are still sentencing options today. The use of corporal
punishment, such as caning, is still an option in some countries today. Incarceration in jail or
prison is among the harshest form of punishment, particularly because of the serious
restrictions that it places on the offender’s liberty.
Aims of Punishment
All punishment has some aim which serves to justify the suffering that is inflicted on the
offender. The main aims are retribution, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and deterrence.
With retribution, punishment is a matter of what is deserved in return for a wrongful act. The
retributive theory of punishment is most often associated with the notion of “eye for and eye”
justice, where the imposed punishment is equal to the harm done. The Latin expression for this
is lex talionis, which literally means “law of retaliation”. Sometimes the “eye for an eye”
concept of punishment is taken literally, such as the following from the ancient Babylonian
Law of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE): “If a man puts out the eye of another man, then his eye
shall be put out. If he breaks another man's bone, then his bone shall be broken.” By today’s
standards, though, strict adherence to “eye for and eye” justice is barbaric: we don’t punish
rapists by raping them, or punish arsonists by burning down their houses. Rather, we seek
redress through more humane types of suffering that we can impose on offenders.
With incapacitation, punishment keeps offenders from repeating similar crimes, typically by
physically restraining them. When we catch violent criminals one of our first thought is to get
them off the street before they harm others.
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With rehabilitation, punishment aims to change the offender’s predisposition towards criminal
behaviour, and thus keeps him from becoming a threat to others when released into the
community. Sometimes rehabilitation is facilitated through psychological counselling or other
types of behaviour-modification therapy. However, the assumption here is that any type of
punishment, if it is memorable enough, will in and of itself discourage criminals repeating
crimes. We expect convicts to have learned their lesson and mended their anti-social ways.
With deterrence, punishment is a means of discouraging others from committing similar
offenses. If I see that an armed robber was punished with prison time, I’ll be less likely to
commit armed robbery myself. The aim here is to use the criminal as an example for others to
learn from.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice
where by a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that
someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, whereas the act of
carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. Crimes that can result in a death penalty
are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital is derived from the Latin
capitalis ("of the head", referring to execution by beheading).
Fifty-eight countries retain capital punishment, 102 countries have completely abolished it for
all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for special
circumstances such as war crimes), and 32 are abolitionist in practice. The public opinion on
the death penalty varies considerably by country and by the crime in question. Countries where
a majority of people are against execution include New Zealand, where 55 per cent of the
population oppose its use, Australia where only 23 per cent support the death penalty, and
Norway where only 25 per cent are in favour. Most French, Finns and Italians also oppose the
death penalty. A 2010 Gallup poll shows that 64% of Americans support the death penalty for
someone convicted of murder, down from 65% in 2006 and 68% in 2001.
Use of capital punishment is growing in India in the 2010s due to both a growth in right wing
politics and due to anger over several recent brutal cases of rape. While support for the death
penalty for murder is still high in China, executions have dropped precipitously, with 3,000
executed in 2012 versus 12,000 in 2002. A poll in South Africa found that 76 per cent of
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millennium generation South Africans support re-introduction of the death penalty, which is
abolished in South Africa.
BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Many Christians feel that the bible has spoken to the issue, but others believe that the New
Testament ethic of love replaces the Old Testament law.
The Old Testament
In the old testament, God was involved in the taking of life as a punishment for the nation of
Israel or for those who threatened to harm or harmed Israel, such as in the following examples:
God destroyed all human and animal life except that which was on the ark [Genesis 6-8]. The
destruction was by water, commonly known to most people as the flood of Noah. God also
destroyed the two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, because of the heinous sin of the inhabitants,
[Genesis 18-19]. Such as homosexuality which involved gaysm and lesbianism.
God taking the lives of the Egyptians first born sons and destroyed the Egyptian soldiers in the
red sea, [exodus 11]
The bible has a lot of references and examples of god using the capital punishments to deal
with the Israel sins and that of the surrounding nations. The Old Testament teaches that god
instituted capital punishments in the Jewish law code. According to [genesis 9:6] capital
punishment is based on the belief in the sanctity of life. It says whoever sheds man’s blood by
man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of god, he made man. The Mosaic law set forth
numerous offences that were punishable by death penalty. Such as murder [exodus 21],
involvement in occult [exodus 22, Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 18-19], sexual sin
New Testament Principals
God gave the principal of capital punishment even before the institution of the Old Testament
law code, in genesis 9:6. Which says, whoever sheds man’s blood by man his blood shall be
shed for in the image of God, He made man. Capital punishment was instituted by God because
humans are created in the image of God. The principal is not rooted in the Old Testament
theocracy but in the creation order.
When the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and asked him if
she should be stoned, Jesus replied if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first one to
throw the stone at her”. This should not indicate that Jesus was just exposing the hypocrisy of
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the Pharisees. The Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus into breaking the Old Testament law. They
did not really care about the woman been stoned. God is the one who instituted capital
punishment, whoever sheds man blood, and by man his blood shall be shed. For the image of
God he made man.
GOVERNMENT’S PERSPECTIVE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The Governments duty is to serve the interests of its people, therefore most of the moves to
abolish or continue administering or introduce capital punishment is greatly influenced by the
citizens of the particular country. The Governments administer capital punishment through the
justice system by the application of the constitutions as set in each particular country. Some
of the laws concerning capital punishment are similar.
Corporal punishment is lawful as a sentence for crime for males under the age of 18. There
appears to be no provision for such punishment for adults. Article 336 of the Criminal
Procedure and Evidence Act 1927 (amended 2004) lists the punishments which a court may
impose on a convicted person, including “where the convicted person is a male person under
the age of eighteen years, corporal punishment”. Article 353 states that for males under 18,
“moderate corporal punishment, not exceeding six strokes” may be ordered in lieu of or in
addition to other punishments: it must be “inflicted in private” in a manner and place and by a
person prescribed by the court; the boy must be certified by a medical practitioner as fit to
receive the punishment, and the boy’s parent or guardian has a right to be present when the
punishment is inflicted. The Prisons Act (art. 103) states that a sentence of “moderate
correction of whipping referred to in article 353 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act”
should be carried out in the presence of the “officer in charge” and of the medical officer who
certified the by as fit to undergo the punishment. The medical or prison officer may halt the
punishment “if, in his opinion, the punishment is likely to cause more serious injury than is
contemplated in the sentence” (art. 104). The punishment should not be inflicted in instalments
(art. 105). The Government has recommended that article 336 of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act and articles 101-105 of the Prisons Act be reviewed.
Let us examine the situation in three countries, Britain, America, and Singapore.
Britain
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Statistics were kept for the first five years that capital punishment was suspended in Britain
(1965-1969) and these showed a 125% rise in murders that would have attracted a death
sentence. Whilst statistically all this is true, it does not tell one how society has changed over
nearly 40 years. It may well be that the murder rate would be the same today if we had
retained and continued to use the death penalty. It is impossible to say that only this one
factor affects the murder rate.
America.
In most states, other than Texas, the number of executions as compared to death sentences and
murders is infinitesimally small. Of the 1099 executions carried out in the whole of the USA
from 1977 to the end of 2007, Texas accounts for 406 or 37%. Interestingly, the murder rate
in the U.S. dropped from 24,562 in 1993 to 18,209 in 1997, the lowest for years (a 26%
reduction) - during a period of increased use of the death penalty. 311 (62%) of the 500
executions have been carried out in this period. The number of murders in 2003 was about
15,600. America still had five times as many murders per head of population as did Britain in
1997 whilst Singapore had 15 times fewer murders per head of population than Britain
Singapore.
Singapore always carries out death sentences where the appeal has been turned down, so its
population knows precisely what will happen to them if they are convicted of murder or drug
trafficking - is this concept deeply embedded into the sub-consciousness of most of its
people, acting as an effective deterrent? In 1995, Singapore hanged an unusually large
number of 7 murderers with 4 in 1996, 3 in 1997 and only one in 1998 rising to 6 in 1999 (3
for the same murder). Singapore takes an equally hard line on all other forms of crime with
stiff on the spot fines for trivial offences such as dropping litter and chewing gum in the
street, caning for males between 18 and 50 for a wide variety of offences, and rigorous
imprisonment for all serious crimes.
CASE STUDIES ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
In China
Businesswoman Du Yimin was sentenced to death in March 2008. Her appeal was rejected on
13 January, and her sentence will now be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. If it upholds
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her sentence, she could be executed within days. She was convicted of "fraudulent raising of
public funds." According to the verdict, she had illegally raised approximately 700 million
Yuan (US$102 million) from hundreds of people investing in her beauty parlours. According
to her lawyer, Du Yimin should have been convicted of the lesser offence of "illegally
collecting public deposits," which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and
a fine of 500,000 Yuan (US$73,000). Du Yimin argued that she had had no intention of keeping
the money, but had rather put it into her companies, and obtained it without using fraudulent
means. Du Yimin’s death sentence has caused a debate about consistency in the application of
the death penalty. The day before she was sentenced to death, an official who used 15.8 billion
Yuan of public funds to cover his personal spending was sentenced to a fixed term of
imprisonment.
The death penalty is applicable for 68 offences in China, including non-violent ones.
In U.S.A
Troy Davis has been on death row for 17 years for a crime he maintains he did not commit.
He was scheduled to be put to death on 27 October 2008 but on 24 October, the US Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit granted him a provisional stay of execution.
Troy Davis was convicted in 1991 for the murder of 27-year-old police officer Mark Allen
MacPhail -- who was shot and killed in the car park of a Burger King restaurant in Savannah,
Georgia on 19 August 1989. Troy was also convicted of assaulting Larry Young, a homeless
man, who was accosted immediately before Officer MacPhail was shot. At the trial, Troy Davis
admitted that he had been at the scene of the shooting, but claimed he had neither assaulted
Larry Young nor shot Officer MacPhail. There was no physical evidence identifying him as
the gunman and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted
of witness testimony. In affidavits signed over the years since the trial, a majority of the state’s
witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony. In addition, there is post-trial
testimony implicating another man as the gunman.
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In March 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court denied Troy Davis a new trial or a court hearing
in which post-conviction evidence could be presented. The Chief Justice of the state Supreme
Court, joined by two other Justices, dissented from this decision, arguing that “In this case,
nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her
ability to do so reliably. Three persons have stated that Sylvester Coles confessed to being the
shooter. Two witnesses have stated that Sylvester Coles, contrary to his trial testimony,
possessed a handgun immediately after the murder. Another witness has provided a description
of the crimes that might indicate that Sylvester Coles was the shooter.” The Chief Justice stated
that “the collective effect of all of Davis’s new testimony, if it were to be found credible by the
trial court in a hearing, would show the probability that a new jury would find reasonable doubt
of Davis’s guilt or a least sufficient residual doubt to decline to impose the death penalty.”
The 11th Circuit has not yet ruled on the case.
In MAURITANIA
Yacoub (23) was arrested in May 2008 for complicity in murder and brought to the police
station in Nouakchott, the capital, where he was tortured for 13 days. He confessed and was
sentenced to death in November 2008. He explained to Amnesty International researchers:
"They tied my feet and handcuffed me. They suspended me by the feet to the ceiling with a
rope and beat me. They did that every night for 13 days asking me to confess. I finally said I
did it".
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CONCLUSION
Capital punishment as discussed above is exercised in many countries. The question of whether
administering capital punishment is ethical or not still depends on the values and code of
conducts that exist in the respective countries.
Each country has its own constitution that
guides the conduct of its citizens. The laws in the constitution are amended by the ruling
Governments at that time. The constitution has specific laws which when broken require the
administering of capital punishment. Each country has its own reason for administering capital
punishment. The basic reasons as discussed above are:
Retribution, punishment is a matter of what is deserved in return for a wrongful act. The
retributive theory of punishment is most often associated with the notion of “eye for and eye”
justice, where the imposed punishment is equal to the harm done.
Incapacitation, punishment keeps offenders from repeating similar crimes, typically by
physically restraining them. When we catch violent criminals one of our first thought is to get
them off the street before they harm others.
Deterrence, punishment is a means of discouraging others from committing similar offenses.
If I see that an armed robber was punished with prison time, I’ll be less likely to commit armed
robbery myself. The aim here is to use the criminal as an example for others to learn from.
Different views come up in the society concerning capital punishment because the people are
affected differently. The victims would want revenge or justice, the defendant too would want
justice in the way that the case is handled; they want enough evidence to form the basis for
carrying out the judgement. The people in the society want their loved ones to be protected.
The real question becomes, why should it be the Government that should have the authority to
administer capital punishment? The bible also bears record of the destruction of people and
other creatures by God. The flood during the days of Noah and the burning of Sodom and
Gomorrah by fire from heaven are examples of such records. God can destroy His creation
because it is His creation. God in all the instances mentioned saved those who were faithful to
Him. The Government serves the interest of the people. It is the body that is given the authority
by its people to lead and to serve them. If there people in the society that are oppressing others,
the Government has the responsibility to help its citizens from there oppressors. Is it ethical
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for the Government to administer capital punishment? Yes it is. The Government has the duty
to carry out its responsibilities in serving the people that gave it the authority to protect their
interests. This includes employing hush measures like capital punishment, in order to serve its
people effectively.
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REFERENCES
Capital Punishment; From Moral Issues that Divide Us and Applied Ethics: A Sourcebook.
James Fieser. www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class. Copyright 2008. Updated: 1/1/2015
Kronenwetter 2001
"DEATH SENTENCES AND EXECUTIONS REPORT 2015". Amnesty International.
Retrieved 10 August 2016.
"Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union" (PDF). Retrieved 23 August 2010.
A Christian view and Biblical Perspective of capital punishment. Probe Ministries.
www.probe.org
Bible. (exodus 22, Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 18-19, exodus 11, Genesis 18-19, Genesis 6-8)
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