The case against
capital punishment

By PAUL
BJARNASON

VER since the beginning of
recorded history the insti-
tution. of capital punishment
has been in vogue in ail, or
nearly all, political sections of
the world, and until the last
few generations the wisdom
and propriety of it was never
seriously questioned.

To the rulers of states and
empires human life was al-
- Ways very cheap. To keep the
public in obedience and awe,
the threat of death by decree
Was thought to be the most
effective method of discipline
Within the power of man.

A great many people in our
part of the world base ard
Justify that attitude on the
first divine pronouncement in
Genesis: “The wages of sin is
death.”

True, the biblical god did
Not set the example directly
by executing the first murder-
er, Cain, forthwith. The ver-
dict was implied through the
Sentence already passed on
Mother Eve, and. the delayed
implementation was soon rec-
tified through the enactment
of the Mosaic Law: “A life for

- a life, and eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth” — also di-
vinely inspired,

Consequently the Church, as
@ regular thing, has looked
upon capital punishment as a
Sort of a divine institution to
fill a regrettable need; and the
Church has always had a
bowerful influence on the mul-
titude.

For some reason the counter-
Commandment, “Thou shalt not
kill,” has never acquired the

Same prestige. Generally it has

€en interpreted to apply only
to the lowly.

*

Old customs are not easily
discarded, no matter how over-
Whelming the evidence against
them. He who advocates the
‘Overthrow” of any of our
Cherished institutions is
Promptly labelled a subversive
and a bad citizen. Who would
be so bold as to question our
ideology and our traditions? Is
Not that the essence of treason?

However, deep down in the
. Consciousness iof even the most
Teactionary of men there is the
feeling that progress is really
@ desirable thing, and most of
them give it at least some lip
Service. But progress presup-

boses change — and there is
the rub! Can we afford to
change “our way of life” and

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our old faiths for even patently

beneficial facts? That comes
hard to the solid citizenry; but
somehow it has happened now
and again, or we would still
be where we were in the be-
ginning.

It» would be idle to enlarge
upon the civic justice of the
present day, for, broadly speak-
ing, there is hardly any.

Our courts, in the main, are
perhaps trying to do their best
to give the public a square deal,
but under an economic system
whose every trend inures to
crime it is impossible for them
to turn out a comfortable re-
sult.

The magistrates do not in-
itiate the laws. They are only
expected to interpret wisely
and well — after they have
been torn to tatters by con-
tending advocates — and to
prescribe the penalties.

They must, first of all, satisfy
the powers that placed them
there, and also appease the
public as nearly as they can.
If the people, under the in-
fluence of a sensation-loving
daily press, clamor “Give us
Barrabbas!” then who is going
to blame the modern Pilates
for what they do? They are
but children of their time and
understand the basis of crime
perhaps as little as the average
man. Through constant contact
with the sordid side of human
behavior they naturally de-
velop a disgust, a loss of sym-
pathy, that breaks out in ever
stiffer sentences, in the desper-
ate hope that such a method

may awe the erring into peni- .

tence and be a lesson to those
who are still at large.

The campaign of frightful-
ness advocated and actually

tried in the First World War
wag founded on, the same idea,
as was also the Spanish In-
quisition of an earlier age.

*

Though we may entirely dis-
regard the obvious fact that
no one is personally to blame
for his conduct, that he is the
product of heredity and en-
vironment, it has been proved
conclusively by eminent pen-
ologists that the more severe
the punishment is, the less of
a deterrent it proves to be.

So, even if we overlook the
question of justice and con-
sider it only from the hard,
cold, but ever unbiased stand-
point of science, we have to
admit that all punishments are
not only ineffectual, but posi-
tively aggravating. They de-
base, not only the victim, but
also those who dictate the pen-
alties and the multitudes whose
attenion they arouse, as well
as paining and injuring the in-
nocents amongst the near of
kin on both sides.

Normal people are not natur-
ally bad. In spite of a cruel
and degrading environment
they are often surprisingly
decent. A few, of course, are

incorrigible by reason of hered- -

itary defects, for which they
are in no way to blame. They
are simply moral cripples who
should be treated and cared
fon like any other patients, in-
stead of being abused and pun-
ished for the sins of their
fathers.

All others who run afoul of
the law are misused and misled
by society. and hence drift into
error and crime through the
force of circumstances, for
which they, again, are in no
way responsible.

The struggle for a living, as
conducted by society up to the
present, inevitably creates the
crimes that occur and the for-
tunates at large who get by
through better luck or more
strength are in fact guiltier,
were there any guilt, than the
ones who fall.

Economic conditions are the
cause of all ordinary crime,
and those who cause the hard-
ships for the weak are there-
fore those, if any, who should
be punished.

Bad economics, always even-
tuating in gross inequality and
distress, cultivate and foster
the crimes that disgrace our
civilization, and the customary
administration of so called jus-
tice, instead of doing every-
thing in its power to expose
the cause and reclaim the fal-
len, adds injury to error by
practising the same principle
as a prerogative of the state.

Crimes of passion or for some
great hypothetical profit have

a compelling, though spurious,
basis; but manslaughter in cold
blood, without thinkable bene-
fit to anybody, is pure and
simple savagery.

*

While the youth of the Jand
are being deliberately trained
in the art of killing, for the
sole benefit of the few that
have the power to dictate our
way of life, one can not expect
much solicitude for the com-
mon welfare or the dignity of
the individual.

From what was then the im-
munity of Washington, Presi-
dent Harry Truman, 12 years
ago, ordered the dropping of
atom bombs on a half million
civilians, and was actually en-
couraged to boast about it.
Governments still speculate
and speak with casualness of
plans to annihilate the entire
population of nations.

In such an atmosphere is it
to be wondered at that odd in-
dividuals imbibe the philo-
sophy and act upon it in their

own spheres?

So long as those who make
and administer the laws con-
tinue to prescribe and practice
manslaughter, both in war and
peace, regard for life among
the lowly is naturally bound
to suffer. Life becomes cheap
to them, as it is to the state, and
respect for all other virtues
follows in its train.

It is reliably reported that
three out of every four killings
are done with firearms, and
surely pocket-guns are used for
no other purpose. Yet pocket-
guns are made in quantity and
sold to all and sundry with
little reservation. Can it sur-
prise anybody, then, that they
are put to use occasionally?

The proffered supply is a
tacit invitation. The one who
pulls the trigger is only the
last actor in the drama, but
by no means the only one. We
are all to blame, including the
judge in his high seat of sanct-
ity, so it behooves us to look
at ourselves before depriving
any fellow being of his life.

Let us abolish forever the
crime of capital punishment.
Let. the Sunday-saying, “We
are our brothers’ keepers,”
begin to mean something more
than strong enclosures — or
the noose.

That the

Not guilty

pag BJARNASON of Vancouver, the author of this
poem and the article on this page, is known in Ice-
landic communities in this and other countries, and in
Iceland itself, as an outstanding poet
These verses are taken from his poem, “Not Guilty,” an
original work published in his work, Odes and Echoes.

At school he was ordered to push and compete

Ts prey on the weaker and strive for a seat
Where honor and ease were the prizes.

In church he was told that the Christian goal

Was to capture a berth for his own little soul,
And prey as the preacher advises.

He learned from his cronies to lie and deceive,

To lurk in the darkness and byways to thieve,
A. course that his conduct was shaping.

No father commanded, no mother implored;

By most of the “great” he was shunned and ignored.
“What chance has his class of escaping?

Ye judges, I ask who is innocent here?
Who offered a lead to a nobler career,
rest of his bents might awaken?
Who showed him the path to his portions of earth,
The plenty the toilers had left him at birth,
And his purse that the pirates had taken?

eK

His parents were wealthy and born to the blood.
No beggar was he in the slums and the mud.

Not much was denied him that money could buy.
His mates in the play were the rich and the high.
So when he in turn threw his hat in life’s ring,
Of hardship and troubles he knew not a thing.

He graded/all men as the good and the bad.

The good were the smug and the idle who had.
The poor were to him as the ass or the ox,

Just an ancient need, like the goose to the fox.
So when he developed a craving to kill,

His conscience felt but an innocent thrill.

He had, like the other, been often misled.

He honestly thought he had paid for his bread.
He thought that the buying of bonds on the mart,
And bleeding the toilers, was doing his part.

So when you are tempted to censure his sin,

Be sure that you probe where the efforts begin.

and _ translator.

*

PAUL BJARNASON

APRIL, 26, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE I] |