On Capital Punishment: The Tension between Humanism and Justice

Capital Punishment has been a problematic issue since the emergence of the importance of human rights. Upon labelling ourselves as “civilized” – constructing norms, defining ethics, thinking about the meaning of human life – murder would be deemed something horrible.

Humanism itself, I believe, started to grow exponentially after the conclusion of the World War. The 20^th century was the bloody age. We human beings saw the horror of war as the evidence of our grotesque part of being human. We were consumed by hatred, driven by political agendas, and either we want to or we have to, we killed each other in the noble names of “nationalism” and “patriotism” (it hasn’t stopped for sure, we can see its aftermath in the Cold War and the Middle East crisis, altogether with radicalism as the bastards of war). All these chaos have yielded a wondrous fruit of introspection and silence, where our conceited noises are all brought to a contemplative silence, and we began to ponder upon how valuable human life truly is. And we need to admit that this quiet step that we take is worthy of our appreciation. After millions were killed, stopping is good. Stopping is humane.

Then we look forward to a just society, an ideal one where everyone can “live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my piano; yadda, yadda. ”. With the blossoming existentialism, the call for humanity was a tremendous breakthrough. We saw the establishment of the United Nations. We saw the independence of the formerly colonialized countries. We saw artists such as John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and Celine Dion singing the anthems of peace. And, with a teaspoon of good will and sturdy faith for human, progress seems to be ongoing.

These are all outstanding, that’s true. I give my respect for humanists and I will do my best to support the good force whose ultimate goal is a heaven on earth: equality, happiness, and freedom for everyone. But my question would lie on something that we all believe altogether with Rousseau. Should we believe that human beings are, in nature, worthy of a second chance?

Recently we have all been shaken by the heartbreaking news regarding Yuyun, the 14-year-old girl who was brutally raped by heartless creatures who thought themselves as human beings. I do not have to write the brutality in details. It is too grotesque to write. You all can find all the details in the news. Open your web browser. Google it (because you should. We all should have the courage to look at the uttermost horror of the darkness which is happening among us.).

With a crime this ruthless, how should the law treat them? Many of us believe that there should be severe punishment – as long as it is not a death penalty, believing that capital punishment will never solve the problem, believing that rehabilitation is possible through incarceration, and these criminals should be treated as human beings.

I understand these people’s concern. We should treat everyone equally. Austere actions are not an ultimate solution for these “deviations”.

But I have to apologize to these radical humanists since in good conscience, I do not believe in at least two things. It is impossible for me to believe that humans are essentially good while evil comes from the outside. Secondly, I do not believe that rehabilitation is either possible or just.

I am about to go less subtle in the next few paragraphs, so once again I am truly sorry for what I have to say.

Before I address my own reasons, I would like to discuss the argument about “capital punishment being unable to give a perfect solution”. This might come to your surprise, but I completely agree with this statement. Death penalty is not going to make a heaven on earth. However, what will? We human beings for thousands of years have been thinking about ways to make a world without evil. Philosophers, social theorists, religious leaders, and psychologists have been – in sincere motivations – putting so much effort to make a perfect society come true. But we have to be honest that none of us have succeeded. Abrahamic religions’ heaven, Eastern tradition’s dharma and reincarnation, Plato’s philosopher-king, Aristotle’s truth of majority, Adam Smith’s division of labour, Marx’s utopia of socialism, Machiavelli’s prince, Hobbes’ and Rousseau’s models of government, Sartre’s Existentialism, Buber’s I-Thou empathy, Levinas’  ethics, and even Nietzsche’s post-nihilistic Overman… All of these are trying to give an answer which comes with an overlooked impossible standard. And let’s face it. The best of us have failed. Evil still exists. Human life is still full of suffering. And while we despair on the thin first layer of human misery that we face everyday in our mundane lives, there are people who have to go through the darkest abyss of human ugliness. One of these unfortunate people would be Yuyun. They have to witness and experience something that most of us outspoken humanists do not – the anthropomorphic demons.

It may be true that such antipathy to human being needs to be examined, but I believe that equally, our persistent faith to humanity also needs to be introspected. And based on my own long and arduous contemplation, I have to take a sorrowful sigh and conclude that we human beings – each and every one of us – have a frightening potential to do things which are far worse than a devil would. And that is why both “intangible” crime such as bribery and corruption and “tangible” crime such as war crimes, rapes, murders, mutilations, canniblizations; that’s why both of these ugliness are done by HUMAN. We have to admit that some of us have shown what each of us are. At times, we’re much closer to demons than angels. And if these criminals can do it, I believe you and I have the same capability to do these, too. We are just lucky enough that we have not conducted these evil yet. We cannot blame external forces forever for the sins we have committed. It is not forever about bad parenting, bad education, or bad religion. Sometimes these external forces do not work alone. There is always a choice whenever a situation is before us. There is an antithesis for everything, and the road always diverges in the wood. Sometimes we just choose to do ugly things, and that is what Yuyun’s rapists did. We cannot fall again into a dichotomy that every good action is taken consciously while every bad things happen unconsciously. We need to be honest, and start taking the blame on ourselves. Human being can be ugly.

And upon this frustrating truth about human being, this leads me to supporting capital punishment for certain cases only. We all understand that such rigid, authoritarian measure could very possibly be abused by those who wield the sword. But for a case as ugly as the rape of Nanking (I am referring to Yuyun’s unfortunate fate), death penalty is a treatment which is the closest to justice (Arguably, death penalty would be something too humane for these monsters If we treat people just as what people have done, these people would be raped until death. But this punishment is, certainly, even far more unethical than a capital punishment). It is not just a social deviation. Even the word “crime” is far too subtle to describe what has been done to Yuyun. And it would be quite fair if these demons are given a quick death.

And sometimes we need to empathize to Yuyun more than we empathize to these rapists. Yuyun might have been calling for God when it happened, but she found no answer. The Police were not there. Her family did not know how her body is grotesquely molested. Imagining this despair that we even do not experience, how can we say that the rapists should be given a treatment nicer than death?

Yes, it is ugly. Yes, it looks inhumane. Yes, it looks dirty. Yes, many great people we admire (Camus, for example) have opposed capital punishment. But in the impossibility to create a perfect society, the least that whatever our corrupted, imperfect government can do is to execute justice to these people. Some of us need to get our hands dirty – not to impose fear for deviants – but to give what people like these deserve. Death penalty might not be an answer as much as humanity has not perfectly resolved the problem of evil, but no matter how complicated that may be, it could be the embodiment of our empathy to people who have suffered severely and ask for a fair retribution for the oppressors.

And today, that person who receives our empathy is Yuyun.

May 5, 2016.

Around 11 AM.

Edited at 8:55 PM.