life imprisonment, we must follow common sense and assume that if one punishment is more fearful than another, it will deter some potential criminals not deterred by the less fearful punishment" (p. 282). In an effort to deconstruct the tenability of van den Haag's assertions, Reiman takes the deterrent analogy to an extreme and suggests that the death penalty is insufficient and that death by torture would serve as an even more effective deterrent.
While some observers might suggest that this is precisely what is happening to internees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Reiman's extreme position concerning capital punishment does serve to highlight the moral and legal ambiguities involved in assessing the value of the death penalty for a modern society. Notwithstanding these moral and legal ambiguities, though, in the case of capital crimes, there is far too much at stake to allow such heinous acts to go unpunished, and van den Haag's "best bet argument" maintains that it is better for society to err on the side of safety by using the death penalty rather than taking a chance on alternative punishments. This pragmatic perspective is reinforced by the fact that having been convicted of a capital offense, death row inmates forfeit all of their cards (e.g., right to life) in favor of the house (e.g., the state) in the gambling analogy presented by van den Haag's "best bet argument." According to White, "van den Haag's 'best bet argument' [maintains] that given uncertainties about whether execution deters, the best bet is to execute, for this involves gambling with guilty lives rather than innocent ones. The bet, of course, is that executions will deter and thus save innocent lives" (p. 249). Indeed, it is difficult to argue with the reality that an executed criminal will not commit any further capital crimes, just as it is difficult to challenge the rationale that at least some people will be dissuaded from committing capital crimes because of a fear of the death penalty.
Conclusion
One of the fundamental challenges involved in living in a free...
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