Re: The Death Penalty is never a solution - Cape Times 12 June 2001

Letter to the Editor
Cape Times
Monday, 18 June 2001

Re: The Death Penalty is never a solution - Cape Times 12 June 2001

The death penalty is a difficult issue for most of us, especially since
human beings are fallible and our justice system reflects our
fallibility allowing for the possibility that a mistake could be made
and an innocent person could be executed.

The most common argument used is that there has never been any proof
that it deters criminals, this I personally think is the weakest excuse,
just ask any criminal. Your editorial in the Cape Times on the 12 June
2001 was the first time however, that I've heard the excuse that it
shows a "lack of creativity"! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Your comment that "our humanity is diminished every time, and wherever
it (the death penalty) is carried out", makes me think of the argument
by CS Lewis in his essay, "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment."
Lewis acknowledges that for years, modern psychology has argued that the
criminal is not guilty of crime, that he's just sick, and in need of
therapy but he argues that this view strips man of his dignity in that
it says we are not free moral agents, responsible for our actions, but
instead we are patients to be manipulated for the good of society.
Lewis wrote, "To be punished, however severely, because we have deserved
it, because we 'ought to have known better,' is to be treated as a human
person made in God's image."

The Scriptures teach that people are responsible for their own behaviour
and the object of justice is not to get even or change the person it is
simply to see that justice is done and in this way it is about
preserving the dignity of man.

The state has an obligation to wield the sword to preserve order and
when the state fails to fulfil this God-given mandate, a spirit of
violence is unleashed in communities who then feel obliged to take
justice into their own hands. For this reason I have no difficulty
whatsoever with the state carrying out its sentence in the McVeigh case.
McVeigh committed a horrendous crime and there is absolutely no excuse
for taking the lives of innocent people in such a senseless act of
terrorism. Extreme cases, demand extreme punishment!

Any time a death sentence is carried out it is indeed a solemn occasion,
the McVeigh case, being no exception. This is not a reason for
celebration or political posturing, 168 people died, and countless lives
have been shattered, it is a tragedy and we ought to be saddened that
sin has led us to this point.


Cheryllyn Dudley MP
African Christian Democratic Party