The History of Political Violence -

Is Capital Punishment Sometimes Acceptable?

WS 2003/2004

by

Verena Kettenhofen
Robert Mihelli

Contens

1. Introduction  4

2. The Definition and Origin  5

3. The Approvement Of Death Penalty  6
3.1. The Punishment  7
3.2. The Effect: Deterrence  8
3.3. The Reparation  8

4. The Opponents  9
4.1. The Innocent  9
4.2. The Racism  9
4.3. Other Views  10
4.3.1. An Example: The Iran  10
4.3.2. An Example: The United States of America  11

5. Resume  13

Bibliography  14

Appendix  15

Charts and Table Content
Chart 1: Prisoners on Death Row, 1953 - 2000  6

Table 1: Global Development of the Death Penalty 1980 - 1996  5
Table 2: Executions registered Worldwide 1984 - 1995  7
Table 3: Gender and Racial Statistics of Death Row Offenders 11

"Once upon a time, executions were more art than science. Designed
for show, they aimed to send off the condemned with a sense
of poetic justice."

John Allen, "The Switch", On Wisconsin, 2001.

1. Introduction

The History of violence goes along with the history of Human Kind¹. If someone have invariably felt that they had been wronged in some way, it was his or her right to take vengeance on the person that had wronged them. The crimes committed needed a punishment, but this violence needed also a juridical guidance, The Law. Amendments were made to reflect the changes in the society′s views on the morality of punishment, including the highest sentence of all: The Capital Punishment².

The mental construction of the "an eye for an eye" policy exists today all around the world, but the actual use of this punishment enforced by law varies in form. It is all a question of a definition³. And it is also a point of view whose conclusions determine the destiny of a human life.

2. The Definition and Origin

Capital Punishment is a »punishment by death according to law«⁴. It is inflicted by a court and the accused person shall be punished for »serious crimes« which definition vary from culture to culture. This sentence origins from the beginning of legal terminology, and was conducted by the sufferer himself or his next of kin. Since this penalty is irretrievable, there have been persons bringing out arguments against this kind of punishment, due to the possibility that a court can make a mistake. This polarization is one of the most emotionally charged and controversial issues today⁵.

Tab. 1: Global Development of the Death Penalty 1980 - 1996

[in Downloaddatei enthalten]

3. The Approvement Of Death Penalty

There has to be certainty that the convicted person is really the guilty one. The execution has the purpose to lessen potential crime, to intimidate others from committing dreadful criminal actions. For example spread terrorists with destruction and murder constant fear all over the globe, an ill mind takes a life of a passer-by and the child molester destroys the innocence of a minor soul.

Chart 1: Prisoners on Death Row, 1953 – 2000

[in Downloaddatei enthalten]

Not only near relatives could experience "justice been done" but also the cultural environment gains confidence in the system that is supposed to protect them.

3.1. The Punishment

Germany rejected the death penalty after the Second World War, other countries of the European Union followed shortly after; only Belgium kept this sentence until 1996⁶. Serious crimes were punished or changed into lifelong sentences, which became the highest aspect of civilized penalty for the majority of the northatlantic cultures. The criticism here is that the timeline is usually bend; some of the lifelong convicted criminals leave correction institutions after a decade or two, probation gives some lifelong convicts a second chance their victims never had. The chance that they commit crimes again is present. The recidivism quota of crimes in Germany runs up to 48,3 %; rape 58,0 % and murder 57,1 %⁷. Supporter of the capital punishment argument that these statistics would be much lower if the dangerous ones would be executed.

[....]

1 Eg. Müller, Frank: Streitfall Todesstrafe, Düsseldorf, 1998, p. 7 ff.

2 Eg. Buchhorn, Martin: Sie haben es nicht anders verdient, Weinheim and Basel, 1979, p. 18.

3 Eg. Ferrington, Karen: Geschichte der Folter und Todesstrafe, London, 1997.

4 Eg. Longman: Dictionary of Contemporary English, Berlin, 1987, p. 142.

5 Eg. Martschukat, Jürgen: Inszeniertes Töten, Köln, 2000, p. 12 ff.

6 Eg. Müller, Frank: Streitfall Todesstrafe, Düsseldorf, 1998, p. 19.

7 Eg. Amt für Kriminalstatistik: Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik 2001, 
<http://www.bmi.bund.de/Annex/de_20088/Polizeiliche_Krimi nalstatistik_als_PDF-Download.pdf> [accessed: June 14th 2002].