Death Penalty as Retribution
The Retributive Nature of the Death Penalty
The peaceful fabric of society is torn whenever a crime is committed. In the case of murder, the suffering of the victim's loved ones can be unbearable and last for a lifetime. The destructive ripple effect of these tragedies cannot be compensated for in any way, not even by the capture, conviction, and execution of the killer. However, many states still rely on the death penalty as a form of retribution for capital murder, but if the wrong committed cannot be corrected or compensated for, then what value does the death penalty serve?
One argument in favor of the death penalty is that it allows the government to exact retribution by taking the life of the killer (Budziszewski). Retribution, known by some as 'an eye for an eye' and 'just deserts' form of retaliation, attempts to reestablish social order by forcing the criminal to suffer in the same way that his or her victims did. This form of justice has been attributed to Genesis 9 (5-6) in the Old Testament of the King James Bible, which states that "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed & #8230;" (Budziszewski para. 4). The equivalent phrase 'an eye for an eye' can also be found in three other locations in the bible.
However, retribution can be defined a number of ways. To better understand the nature of retribution, this essay will examine how retribution, in the form of the death penalty, is being used in the United States.
1. Instrumental Retribution
Gerber and Jackson conclude that retribution can be roughly grouped into two forms, instrumental and retributive (62-63). Instrumental retribution implies the penalty serves some purpose, such as deterring future criminal acts and/or compensating victims. As discussed above, common sense dictates that victims cannot receive just compensation when an act of murder has been committed. In addition, the value of the death penalty for deterring future murders has been questioned by legal experts (Fagan). As Jeffrey Fagan discusses, the FBI reported that 16,137 murders were committed in the United States in 2004, but only 125 killers were given the death sentence and 59 were executed (para. 11). U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, when deciding Furman v. Georgia (1972), claimed that such a small number of executions, in the face of so many murders, would have little or no deterrence on future crimes (para. 15). The instrumental value of retribution for capital murder is therefore questionable at best.
2. Retribution as Revenge
The need for revenge is a universally experienced emotion when a loved one has been murdered; a response is that is both understandable and expected. Revenge as retribution is a form of retaliation against the perpetrator, with the goal of causing at least as much suffering as was caused by the criminal act (Gerber and Jackson 63). Retributive revenge has been defined by researchers in this field as primarily an emotional response to see the offender suffer.
What are missing from revenge as retribution are the goals of material compensation or proportionality (Gerber and Jackson 63). In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the execution of inmates for crimes that did not result in death is excessive and therefore unconstitutional (DeathPenaltyInfo.org), which means that revenge as retribution is not formally practiced by the U.S. criminal...
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