While listening to the parliamentary discourse on the resumption of the death penalty, one could easily assume that there are no voices opposed to state-sanctioned murder. This is however not so and those who have been charged with the responsibility of representing the people need to take this into consideration.A great clamour is being made by our parliamentary representatives on both sides, as well as by others who support this pro-death regression, that the law must be upheld. What exactly is it that must be upheld, the law or morality?
Law is the form of the morality of a people and as a society progresses increasingly uprooting injustice, the law must necessarily change reflecting such growth. If this were not so, today many of us would have still been deprived of the opportunity for self-determination or denied the privilege of electing our own civil leadership.Laws must and do change and a sure measure of a society in which justice is truly enshrined, is one in which its laws tend to move toward a progressive respect for life.
How does a punishment intended to communicate that the life of a person is invaluable, unrepeatable, precious, and indeed sacred, in the very act of its being performed, overturn its very premise?One cannot instruct another in non-violence by inflicting violence, one cannot teach respect by practising all manner of dishonour, in the same way one cannot say: "You cannot kill, so I will kill you." Statistics worldwide, as well as our own experience, support this logical thesis.
The terrible state of crime in our nation may move many in our society to sincerely support the reintroduction of capital punishment and this is a position that can be easy to identify with. For I, as do the vast majority of citizens of this nation, am outraged at the heinous crimes being perpetrated on our shores and do deeply empathise with victims of crime.However, bringing back the death penalty does not move toward the re-establishment of law and order. It will and can only deaden our sense of the worth of human life and thus lead to more disregard for human life. The only value it adds is vengeance. And this is no value. It raises no one back to life. It heals no wounds. It only brings death, perpetuates death and holds death honourable.
It is difficult to acknowledge, but those who we deem monsters and demons, who commit the atrocities of which we are all appalled, especially against the youngest members of our communities, are made of the same flesh and blood as we. A horrendous indictment to the human race indeed! But if we are to defend our humanity and promote the respect which men and women deserve, we must reject every temptation to destroy life.All human life matters. Great men such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr understood this. We should work rather to defend life by, as a nation, placing our energies behind areas in which positive change can bring long-term growth, such as prison sector reform, police sector reform and modernisation, judicial reform and preventative work among groups at high risk for crime. Let us think and act for life and we will foster life.
Kwesi Q Alleyne
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