PENALTY

“The way to restore a wrong is not through
another wrong. Rather, a counterweight is needed, so
that the more evil there is on the one side, the more
good there is on the other side.”
Parents of victim granting mercy to convicted murderer by removing the rope from around his neck and halting the execution at the last minute. © EPA/Arash Khamooshi
CHAPTER 4
VALUES
This chapter, which focuses on values, contains articles by a Catholic nun who
works with prisoners on death row, two authors active in both civil society
and politics and two experts in human rights. Sister Helen demonstrates the
fruitlessness of the death penalty from the perspective of the healing process for
family members of the victims. Marazziti finds arguments against the death
penalty in the world’s religions, while Bhatti warns of its social and political
dangers. Rodley describes the evolution of Human Rights Committee’s jurisprudence
on the death penalty, while Heyns focuses on the right to life and
the way that the UN and regional bodies increasingly interpret it to reduce the
scope of the death penalty.
Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun, has for over three decades engaged in accompanying
the condemned on death row and through this experience, has also
come to know many murder victims’ families. From her experience, wounded
and grieving families—even after many years of waiting—can never be healed
by watching the Government kill the perpetrators. What they need instead are
compassionate people who will accompany them on the long road to healing,
as well as counselling and sometimes financial help.
Mario Marazziti, an Italian parliamentarian and affiliate of the Community
of Sant’Egidio, a Christian lay association, examines the doctrines of
Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity as they apply to the
death penalty, looking for arguments against it. Each of these large, complex
communities of believers has an ancient tradition that has inspired both reverence
for life and, sometimes, support for the taking of life. But while individual
believers have sometimes chosen death, he argues, these religions’ core teachings
emphasize the sacredness of life.
For Dr. Paul Bhatti, civil society activist and former Minister for National
Harmony and Minorities Affairs in Pakistan, giving or taking a human life is
a divine prerogative. However, there are social and political arguments against
the death penalty as well. National criminal justice systems are less than
perfect, and the death penalty can be misused against political opponents. He
argues that imposing the death penalty on terrorists is dangerous, as it may
transform criminals into martyrs, justify the taking of life, and aid future
recruitment.
—Mario
184
Marazziti
185