Tracks Of A Rolling Stone - Henry J. Coke (novels in english .TXT) 📗
- Author: Henry J. Coke
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All Punishments Or Penal Remedies For Crime, Except Capital
Punishment, May Be Considered From Two Points Of View:
First, As They Regard Society; Secondly, As They Regard The
Offender.
Where Capital Punishment Is Resorted To, The Sole End In View
Is The Protection Of Society. The Malefactor Being Put To
Death, There Can Be No Thought Of His Amendment. And So Far
As This Particular Criminal Is Concerned, Society Is
Henceforth In Safety.
But (Looking To The Individual), As Equal Security Could Be
Obtained By His Imprisonment For Life, The Extreme Measure Of
Putting Him To Death Needs Justification. This Is Found In
The Assumption That Death Being The Severest Of All
Punishments Now Permissible, No Other Penalty Is So
Efficacious In Preventing The Crime Or Crimes For Which It Is
Inflicted. Is The Assumption Borne Out By Facts, Or By
Inference?
For Facts We Naturally Turn To Statistics. Switzerland
Abolished Capital Punishment In 1874; But Cases Of
Premeditated Murder Having Largely Increased During The Next
Five Years, It Was Restored By Federal Legislation In 1879.
Still There Is Nothing Conclusive To Be Inferred From This
Fact. We Must Seek For Guidance Elsewhere.
Reverting To The Above Assumption, We Must Ask: First, Is
Chapter 18 Pg 95The Death Punishment The Severest Of All Evils, And To What
Extent Does The Fear Of It Act As A Preventive? Secondly, Is
It True That No Other Punishment Would Serve As Powerfully In
Preventing Murder By Intimidation?
Is Punishment By Death The Most Dreaded Of All Evils? 'This
Assertion,' Says Bentham, 'Is True With Respect To The
Majority Of Mankind; It Is Not True With Respect To The
Greatest Criminals.' It Is Pretty Certain That A Malefactor
Steeped In Crime, Living In Extreme Want, Misery And
Apprehension, Must, If He Reflects At All, Contemplate A
Violent End As An Imminent Possibility. He Has No Better
Future Before Him, And May Easily Come To Look Upon Death
With Brutal Insensibility And Defiance. The Indifference
Exhibited By The Garrotted Man Getting Up To Adjust His Chair
Is Probably Common Amongst Criminals Of His Type.
Again, Take Such A Crime As That Of The Cuban's: The Passion
Which Leads To It Is The Fiercest And Most Ungovernable Which
Man Is Subject To. Sexual Jealousy Also Is One Of The Most
Frequent Causes Of Murder. So Violent Is This Passion That
The Victim Of It Is Often Quite Prepared To Sacrifice Life
Rather Than Forego Indulgence, Or Allow Another To Supplant
Him; Both Men And Women Will Gloat Over The Murder Of A
Rival, And Gladly Accept Death As Its Penalty, Rather Than
Survive The Possession Of The Desired Object By Another.
Further, In Addition To Those Who Yield To Fits Of Passion,
There Is A Class Whose Criminal Promptings Are Hereditary: A
Large Number Of Unfortunates Of Whom It May Almost Be Said
That They Were Destined To Commit Crimes. 'It Is Unhappily A
Fact,' Says Mr. Francis Galton ('Inquiries Into Human
Faculty'), 'That Fairly Distinct Types Of Criminals Breeding
True To Their Kind Have Become Established.' And He Gives
Extraordinary Examples, Which Fully Bear Out His Affirmation.
We May Safely Say That, In A Very Large Number Of Cases, The
Worst Crimes Are Perpetrated By Beings For Whom The Death
Penalty Has No Preventive Terrors.
But It Is Otherwise With The Majority. Death Itself, Apart
From Punitive Aspects, Is A Greater Evil To Those For Whom
Life Has Greater Attractions. Besides This, The Permanent
Disgrace Of Capital Punishment, The Lasting Injury To The
Criminal's Family And To All Who Are Dear To Him, Must Be Far
More Cogent Incentives To Self-Control Than The Mere Fear Of
Ceasing To Live.
With The Criminal And Most Degraded Class - With Those Who
Are Actuated By Violent Passions And Hereditary Taints, The
Class By Which Most Murders Are Committed - The Death
Punishment Would Seem To Be Useless As An Intimidation Or An
Example.
With The Majority It Is More Than Probable That It Exercises
Chapter 18 Pg 96A Strong And Beneficial Influence. As No Mere Social
Distinction Can Eradicate Innate Instincts, There Must Be A
Large Proportion Of The Majority, The Better-To-Do, Who Are
Both Occasionally And Habitually Subject To Criminal
Propensities, And Who Shall Say How Many Of These Are
Restrained From The Worst Of Crimes By Fear Of Capital
Punishment And Its Consequences?
On These Grounds, If They Be Not Fallacious, The Retention Of
Capital Punishment May Be Justified.
Secondly. Is The Assumption Tenable That No Other Penalty
Makes So Strong An Impression Or Is So Pre-Eminently
Exemplary? Bentham Thus Answers The Question: 'It Appears
To Me That The Contemplation Of Perpetual Imprisonment,
Accompanied With Hard Labour And Occasional Solitary
Confinement, Would Produce A Deeper Impression On The Minds
Of Persons In Whom It Is More Eminently Desirable That That
Impression Should Be Produced Than Even Death Itself. . . .
All That Renders Death Less Formidable To Them Renders
Laborious Restraint Proportionably More Irksome.' There Is
Doubtless A Certain Measure Of Truth In These Remarks. But
Bentham Is Here Speaking Of The Degraded Class; And Is It
Likely That Such Would Reflect Seriously Upon What They Never
See And Only Know By Hearsay? Think How Feeble Are Their
Powers Of Imagination And Reflection, How Little They Would
Be Impressed By Such Additional Seventies As 'Occasional
Solitary Confinement,' The Occurrence And The Effects Of
Which Would Be Known To No One Outside The Jail.
As To The 'Majority,' The Higher Classes, The Fact That Men
Are Often Imprisoned For Offences - Political And Others -
Which They Are Proud To Suffer For, Would Always Attenuate
The Ignominy Attached To 'Imprisonment.' And Were This The
Only Penalty For All Crimes, For First-Class Misdemeanants
And For The Most Atrocious Of Criminals Alike, The
Distinction Would Not Be Very Finely Drawn By The Interested;
At The Most, The Severest Treatment As An Alternative To
Capital Punishment Would Always Savour Of Extenuating
Circumstances.
There Remain Two Other Points Of View From Which The Question
Has To Be Considered: One Is What May Be Called The
Vindictive, The Other, Directly Opposed To It, The
Sentimental Argument. The First May Be Dismissed With A Word
Or Two. In Civilised Countries Torture Is For Ever
Abrogated; And With It, Let Us Hope, The Idea Of Judicial
Vengeance.
The Lex Talionis - The Levitic Law - 'Eye For Eye, Tooth For
Tooth,' Is Befitting Only For Savages. Unfortunately The
Christian Religion Still Promulgates And Passionately Clings
To The Belief In Hell As A Place Or State Of Everlasting
Torment - That Is To Say, Of Eternal Torture Inflicted For No
Chapter 18 Pg 97Ultimate End Save That Of Implacable Vengeance. Of All The
Miserable Superstitions Ever Hatched By The Brain Of Man
This, As Indicative Of Its Barbarous Origin, Is The Most
Degrading. As An Ordinance Ascribed To A Being Worshipped As
Just And Beneficent, It Is Blasphemous.
The Sentimental Argument, Like All Arguments Based Upon
Feeling Rather Than Reason, Though Not Without Merit, Is
Fraught With Mischief Which Far Outweighs It. There Are
Always A Number Of People In The World Who Refer To Their
Feelings As The Highest Human Tribunal. When The Reasoning
Faculty Is Not Very Strong, The Process Of Ratiocination
Irksome, And The Issue Perhaps Unacceptable, This Course
Affords A Convenient Solution To Many A Complicated Problem.
It Commends Itself, Moreover, To Those Who Adopt It, By The
Sense Of Chivalry Which It Involves. There Is Something
Generous And Noble, Albeit Quixotic, In Siding With The Weak,
Even If They Be In The Wrong. There Is Something Charitable
In The Judgment, 'Oh! Poor Creature, Think Of His Adverse
Circumstances, His Ignorance, His Temptation. Let Us Be
Merciful And Forgiving.' In Practice, However, This Often
Leads Astray. Thus In Most Cases, Even Where Premeditated
Murder Is Proved To The Hilt, The Sympathy Of The
Sentimentalist Is Invariably With The Murderer, To The
Complete Oblivion Of The Victim's Family.
Bentham, Speaking Of The Humanity Plea, Thus Words Its
Argument: 'Attend Not To The Sophistries Of Reason, Which
Often Deceive, But Be Governed By Your Hearts, Which Will
Always Lead You Right. I Reject Without Hesitation The
Punishment You Propose: It Violates Natural Feelings, It
Harrows Up The Susceptible Mind, It Is Tyrannical And Cruel.'
Such Is The Language Of Your Sentimental Orators.
'But Abolish Any One Penal Law Merely Because It Is Repugnant
To The Feelings Of A Humane Heart, And, If Consistent, You
Abolish The Whole Penal Code. There Is Not One Of Its
Provisions That Does Not, In A More Or Less Painful Degree,
Wound The Sensibility.'
As This Writer Elsewhere Observes: 'It Is Only A Virtue When
Justice Has Done Its Work, &C. Before This, To Forgive
Injuries Is To Invite Their Perpetration - Is To Be, Not The
Friend, But The Enemy Of Society. What Could Wickedness
Desire More Than An Arrangement By Which Offences Should Be
Always Followed By Pardon?'
Sentiment Is The Ultima Ratio Feminarum, And Of Men Whose
Natures Are Of The Epicene Gender. It Is A Luxury We Must
Forego In The Face Of The Stern Duties Which Evil Compels Us
To Encounter.
There Is Only One Other Argument Against Capital Punishment
That Is Worth Considering.
Chapter 18 Pg 98
The Objection So Strenuously Pleaded By Dickens In His
Letters To The 'Times' - Viz. The Brutalising Effects Upon
The Degraded Crowds Which Witnessed Public Executions - Is No
Longer Apposite. But It May Still Be Urged With No Little
Force That The Extreme Severity Of The Sentence Induces All
Concerned In The Conviction Of The Accused To Shirk The
Responsibility. Informers, Prosecutors, Witnesses, Judges,
And Jurymen Are, As A Rule, Liable To Reluctance As To The
Performance Of Their Respective Parts In The Melancholy
Drama.' The Consequence Is That 'The Benefit Of The Doubt,'
While Salving
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