| | There are several compelling justifications for the death penalty today. It promotes conversion and confession by the criminal. It can bring closure and relief to the families of victims of terrible crimes. It can deter wrongdoing. It can be a helpful negotiating tool for prosecutors to obtain a prompt confession and life sentence rather than force victims' families to endure delays in justice, and a disturbing trial. The death penalty also helps ensure that the criminal does not repeat his crime in prison, or escape and harm the public further. | | There are several compelling justifications for the death penalty today. It promotes conversion and confession by the criminal. It can bring closure and relief to the families of victims of terrible crimes. It can deter wrongdoing. It can be a helpful negotiating tool for prosecutors to obtain a prompt confession and life sentence rather than force victims' families to endure delays in justice, and a disturbing trial. The death penalty also helps ensure that the criminal does not repeat his crime in prison, or escape and harm the public further. |
| − | Opposition to the death penalty ignores its foregoing justifications, and instead resorts to [[pacifism|pacifist]] arguments. Most opponents of the death penalty are inconsistently [[pro-abortion]]. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] supported the death penalty for most of its existence, but has changed its doctrine in 2018. [[Pope Francis]] argued that capital punishment is unacceptable in all cases.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/world/europe/pope-death-penalty.html</ref> [[Jesus]] never denounced the death penalty despite clear opportunities to do so. | + | Opposition to the death penalty ignores its foregoing justifications, and instead resorts to [[pacifism|pacifist]] arguments. Most opponents of the death penalty are inconsistently [[pro-abortion]]. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] supported the death penalty for most of its existence, but changed its doctrine in 2018. [[Pope Francis]] has argued, without any assertion of [[infallibility]], that capital punishment is unacceptable in all cases.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/world/europe/pope-death-penalty.html</ref> [[Jesus]] never denounced the death penalty despite clear opportunities to do so. |
| | Although support for the death penalty has largely been Christian and conservative-based, with most of the opposition coming from the left, there's at least one case where the death penalty was supported by leftist people, although only if its use is due to "political crimes" rather than the listed crimes above, as [[Jean Paul Sartre]] when asked about this bluntly answered with the following: "Yes. In a revolutionary country in which the bourgeoisie has been swept from power, the bourgeois who would foment a riot or a plot would deserve the death penalty…A revolutionary regime must get rid of a certain number of individuals that threaten it and I see no other means for this than death; it is always possible to get out of a prison; the revolutionaries of 1793 probably didn't kill enough people."<ref>Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, Bernard Henri-Levy. p. 344</ref> Similarly, Vladimir Lenin was notoriously against the abolition of the death penalty, even screaming at Kaminev when the latter offered to get rid of the death penalty: "Nonsense, how can you make a revolution without firing squads? Do you expect to dispose of your enemies by disarming yourself? What other means of repression are there? Prisons? Who attaches significance to that during a civil war?"<ref>''A People's Tragedy. A History of the Revolution 1891-1924'' by Orlando Figes</ref> | | Although support for the death penalty has largely been Christian and conservative-based, with most of the opposition coming from the left, there's at least one case where the death penalty was supported by leftist people, although only if its use is due to "political crimes" rather than the listed crimes above, as [[Jean Paul Sartre]] when asked about this bluntly answered with the following: "Yes. In a revolutionary country in which the bourgeoisie has been swept from power, the bourgeois who would foment a riot or a plot would deserve the death penalty…A revolutionary regime must get rid of a certain number of individuals that threaten it and I see no other means for this than death; it is always possible to get out of a prison; the revolutionaries of 1793 probably didn't kill enough people."<ref>Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, Bernard Henri-Levy. p. 344</ref> Similarly, Vladimir Lenin was notoriously against the abolition of the death penalty, even screaming at Kaminev when the latter offered to get rid of the death penalty: "Nonsense, how can you make a revolution without firing squads? Do you expect to dispose of your enemies by disarming yourself? What other means of repression are there? Prisons? Who attaches significance to that during a civil war?"<ref>''A People's Tragedy. A History of the Revolution 1891-1924'' by Orlando Figes</ref> |