Specials

... clemency to a convicted murderer made the national headlines. But does that decision, however motivated, also fuel the nation’s debate on capital punishment as an appropriate retribution and an efficient deterrent for crime?

Does it mean that justice in America is shifting, at least in practice, towards the custom of every other Western country, which have all formally abolished the death penalty as a tool for justice?
Popular support in America for such a cruel punishment has declined from 80 percent to 64 percent in the last 20 years, while some American states have abolished it altogether. The states that still apply it maintain that it is the single most efficient deterrent against crime. This is quite a weak argument, since it is impossible, in statistical and conceptual terms, to prove a negative. The only true deterrent against criminality is the certainty of punishment, not its severity.
The abolitionists have better arguments. They would like to offer convicts a chance for redemption and avoid the risk of executing innocent people by mistake, as Sacco and Vanzetti were. It wasn’t until 50 years after their execution in Charlestown prison that Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis issued a proclamation that absolved the two men of their alleged crime. Religious and human rights groups have asked for an end to capital punishment. Italy abolished it even for military crimes, and it has declared constitutionally illegal those norms in its national legislation that allow for extradition to countries that will not give full guarantees on the protection of the lives of the guilty, thus becoming a world leader in the abolitionist movement.
In order to celebrate the first instance of the abolition of the death penalty in a European country –- in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1786 –- the Community of Saint Egidio promoted spectacular events, with illuminations and speeches from the Roman Coliseum to Moneda Palace in Santiago, from Florence to Vienna, London to Ottawa, and Madrid to Buenos Aires. No such events took place in the United States. Only a new civil conscience could lead to decisive steps being taken by single individuals, communities, and public institutions towards total abolitionism. Pope John Paul II, during his visit to St. Louis, Missouri, asked for the end of the death penalty, since it is both cruel and unnecessary. Last month, the Conference of American Bishops declared it unnecessary and unjustifiable at any time and under any circumstances. This is a long way from the position of some of the fathers of the Catholic Church, such as Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who supported it on the basis of the principle of the preservation of the common good! According to the Catholic Church, the fight against abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment belong to the same fight to protect the dignity of each human life from its beginning to its natural end. For the Catholic Church, supporting the death penalty while opposing abortion is an unacceptable contradiction. So far, 106 countries of the world have abolished capital punishment formally, as well in practical terms. They have recognized that violence only breeds further violence, and that human life remains the most important value of all, under any circumstance.
No legislation can be enacted if it goes against popular opinion. There is probably no better way to achieve a general and unconditional abolition of the death penalty than to strengthen the abolitionist trends that are emerging in people’s opinions, which are growing increasingly hostile to a profoundly immoral and judicially illicit measure. How can this be done? By starting with civil societies in order to reach the world’s parliamentary halls. Democracies work from the bottom up. It seems very unlikely that an American congressman –- or for that matter a member of parliament from any other country –- could support legislation in favor of the death penalty if most of his constituency is against it, and vice versa.
We have seen the abolition of slavery and torture, the condemnation of genocide, and the protection of human rights. We must move in the direction of the recognition of the right not to be killed by a legal sentence as a new inalienable aspect of our humanity. The failure of the great revolutions of our day stems from their inability to ensure direct popular participation in decision-making regarding the commonweal. The challenge is not only a matter of political structures. More broadly, it concerns the basic sense of a people as a whole. It involves issues of human dignity, of the nature of human person and hence the basic right of every person to have his or her own life not be taken away for any reason whatsoever. Civil society has an irreplaceable role to play in the abolition of capital punishment. Let’s have a thousand events such as those organized by the Community of Saint Egidio, and we shall see what effects they will have on the governments of those countries that have not yet abolished the most inhuman of human punishments.

Previously Published in US Italia Weekly, December 18, 2005