THE enormity of killing one's fellow man with premeditation is the
principal reason for the existence of the death penalty; it is also the
principal argument for abolishing it. The dilemma of deciding which
aspect of that paradox should prevail has occupied the minds and
emotions of civilized men for centuries. This week it will be the
concern of the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears oral arguments on the
contention that the death penalty constitutes “cruel and unusual
punishment” in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. The
opposing lawyers are again marshaling the extensive arguments that have
developed over many years of debate. The main question, however, is
this: Has the U.S. reached the point at which the death penalty
affronts the basic standards of decency of contemporary society?For 4 years there has not been an execution in the U.S. This unofficial
moratorium, which currently affects 696 prisoners, is the result of an
intricately planned campaign that used every possible legal tactic or
argument. Even before that, however, the number of executions had been
decreasing markedly. From a 1935 high of 199, the annual total shrank
to 76 in 1955, 56 in 1960 and two in 1967, when the moratorium began.
Meanwhile, Great Britain has joined a worldwide trend toward abolition,
and Canada has followed suit as a five-year experiment.The death penalty has been abolished before in Anglo-Saxon law. William
the Conqueror banished it during his reign , though he did not
object to criminals being mutilated. But a few years later, Henry I
permitted the ax and rope to return, and by the 16th century,
offenders were also being drowned, drawn and quartered and boiled to
death for crimes that ranged from cutting down a tree to stealing
property worth more than a shilling. Traitors were hanged, then cut
down while still alive, disemboweled so that their innards could be
burned before their eyes, then decapitated, and finally quartered. The
high mark of judicial bloodiness came with Henry VIII, of whose
subjects 72,000 were executed.Beginning in the late 19th century, a trend against capital punishment
has continued, if not always steadily, in both Britain and America. In
1846 Michigan, then a territory, became the first English-speaking
jurisdiction in the world to do away with the death penalty for all
practical purposes . Various states have since tried
complete abolition—with some, like Delaware in 1961, later returning
to the death penalty. By now, 14 states have outlawed executions
completely . Still, American juries continue to impose death penalties
at a rate that has remained relatively constant for a decade: 100 per
year. Moreover, while a 1966 Gallup poll showed that a narrow plurality
of 47% opposed capital punishment for murder, the most recent survey
found that, with growing fears about crime, 51% of Americans now favor
the death penalty.
