The sanction of punishment by death is not impassable in a democracy enacting arbitrary law. It is tantamount to vengeance, and the rhetoric and appeal of those who promote it seek revenge, not justice. There is a difference. Revenge is motivated by a desire to inflict the same harm upon another which one has suffered himself. Justice is motivated by a desire to correct the fundamental pathology which has resulted in acts of evil. Capital punishment by death falls into the former category; murder is never the best solution available for punishing or correcting criminal behaviors.

The state that bears the sword in order to deter crime must act with virtuous motives; revenge is clearly not a virtuous motive. Therefore, in the murderous act of capital punishment, the state, acting in vengeance, partakes of (rather than resolves) the sin of murder. The criminal’s initial act of ending a life is not punished justly, but rather, the state itself becomes stained with the blood of an act that is of itself morally repulsive.

Eric Simpson,

Lawrence