The imposition of the death penalty for certain crimes has been an issue under constant discussion and division in most countries for decades—but not that many decades. It is good to remember that the last public execution by the guillotine in France occurred on June 17, 1939, of a man convicted of multiple kidnappings and the murders of two women and four men.
In 1977 France executed its last convicted murder by guillotine, although the public was not allowed to watch.
Virtually every—but not all—religion through the millennia has supported, either directly or indirectly through interpretation, capital punishment. Even traditionally nonviolent Buddhism includes “scripture” that authorizes violence to prevent suffering, telling the story of a Bodhisattva who saved hundreds of people by killing a murderous thief.
Unofficial opinion polling in the Philippines shows that people are divided on the topic with a leaning toward “No to the death penalty”. That probably describes how most of us personally feel. On one hand, we might see a justification. On the other, we also see and understand the brutality of the state taking a life even under the law.
The fact that we are individually and collectively even a little torn on the subject is intellectually surprising. The arguments appealing to our “heads” to reject capital punishment are strong and persuasive. Even our “hearts” know there is an element of revenge by sentencing even the most vile and nonrepentant criminal to die.
However, there is not a universal rejection of the idea. An opinion poll in France conducted in 2013 showed 50 percent supported reintroduction of the death penalty. The lowest support in 2011 still was 35 percent. In Japan 85 percent believe in capital punishment. Although having declined through the years almost everywhere, support for capital punishment in Britain, Canada and Russia is almost evenly divided. One-third of those surveyed in Australia, Finland and New Zealand favor it. Americans, too, are split, 44/48, against the death penalty.
A postelection analysis showed that Donald J. Trump far outperformed expectations in those counties with the highest drug, alcohol and suicide mortality rates, even as those places had high minority demographics that went almost exclusively for Hillary Clinton. The Pennsylvania State University study called these the “deaths of despair” and people voted their “hopelessness” looking to someone, anyone who could maybe solve the problems.
Perhaps, it might be the same “voting pattern” from those who, given a chance at a binding vote on the death penalty, would call for its restoration. Trying to reconcile the intellectual arguments—no deterrence to crime, sentencing mistakes are made too often, and murder is murder whoever takes a life—a sizable portion (and 20 percent to 30 percent is sizable) of civilized societies see the final solution of capital punishment as reasonable.
Few of us would be willing to “pull the trigger” to execute someone even if we felt the punishment was deserved. But few also would be willing to take responsibility for telling a murder victim’s family why the killer would be able to live to a natural death.