| 1 | | | “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt | | 6 | 55 | | America is still one of the most violent industrial- |
| | | give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for | | | | | ised democracies in the world, despite putting more |
| | | tooth.” The Old Testament words embarrass many | | | | | people into prison than its counterparts and despite |
| | | late 20th-century Europeans; theirs is a Christianity | | | | | more than 4,000 executions since 1930 (another 3,200 |
| 5 | | modelled on the forgiving culture of the New Test- | | | | | or so Americans are on what is chillingly called |
| | | ament, with its gentle advice to “love thy neighbour | | | 60 | | “death row”). Clearly, a system of justice including |
| | | as thyself.” Americans are unembarrassed. More | | | | | the death penalty has had little deterrent effect. |
| | | than any other western country, the United States | | 7 | | | Yet few see that as an argument to change the sys- |
| | | takes religion both seriously and fundamentally. Is | | | | | tem. What matters is not even prevention, although |
| 10 | | that why it still persists in putting its murderers to | | | | | New York’s “zero tolerance” policing has helped to |
| | | death? | | | 65 | | cut its murder rate in half, to 80-odd victims a month. |
| 2 | | | Maybe not. After all, if the polls are right, most | | | | | Instead, what counts is retribution. Retribution is |
| | | people in most countries support capital punish- | | | | | about having to account for one’s actions, and so |
| | | ment. The difference in America is that its politi- | | | | | about the fairness that informs the American view of |
| 15 | | cians, forever running for re-election, do too. Bill | | | | | how a society should be run. |
| | | Clinton, the Oxford and Yale student, was a con- | | | | |
 |
| | | vinced opponent of the death penalty; two decades | | | | |
| | | later the same Bill Clinton, as governor of Arkansas | | | | |
| | | and a presidential candidate, authorised the execu- | | | | |
| 20 | | tion of Ricky Ray Rector, a brain-damaged black | | | | |
| | | convict. In his second term, Mr Clinton is no longer | | | | |
| | | running for office, but why waste political capital by | | | | |
| | | advocating mercy for any murderer, let alone | | | | |
| | | Timothy McVeigh, just sentenced to death for the | | | | |
| 25 | | bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building? | | | | |
| 3 | | | Why indeed? To do so would be to create con- | | | | |
| | | troversy where there is none. True, the Washington | | | | |
| | | Post last weekend editorialised against the McVeigh | | 8 | 70 | | If you work hard, you can and will succeed. This is |
| | | sentence (the state “should not have the authority | | | | | the dogma underpinning the American dream. It ener- |
| 30 | | to act as a killer has acted and take a life for a life | | | | | gises the immigrant and it helps to explain why the |
| | | taken”), but a standpoint of that sort is rare. For | | | | | underclass riots only rarely, despite the country’s enor- |
| | | many, a more convincing reason to oppose the | | | | | mous inequali- ties of wealth and opportunity. On the |
| | | death penalty is its seeming racial bias: blacks make | | | 75 | | other hand, if you are lazy, you will fail; and above |
| | | up some 13% of America’s population, but account | | | | | all, if you do wrong, you will be punished. Or at least |
| 35 | | both for half of its prisoners and half of those who | | | | | you should be. |
| | | are executed. The Reverend Jesse Jackson calls this | | 9 | | | In other countries, legal flaws and inequities – esp- |
| | | “legal lynching” – a view which, incidentally, also | | | | | ecially the possibility that a man may be executed for |
| | | leads him to oppose the sentence on Mr McVeigh. | | | 80 | | a crime he did not commit – are enough to doom the |
| 4 | | | Yet most Americans have little time for the critical | | | | | death penalty. Not in America. Instead, death is modi- |
| 40 | | remarks of the Post or the arguments of Mr Jackson. | | | | | fied by ludicrously lengthy appeals (the average stay |
| | | In a Harris poll carried out immediately after Mr | | | | | of execution for state-imposed sentences is now al- |
| | | McVeigh’s conviction, 75% said they believed in | | | | | most nine years) which put off the day of accounting, |
| | | capital punishment. The support was across all | | | 85 | | but do not remove it altogether. |
| | | parties and all regions, if not quite all races (black | | 10 | | | Arguably, the present passion for executing |
| 45 | | support for the ultimate penalty ran at 46%). The | | | | | murderers is a passing phase: America has dropped |
| | | McVeigh trial seems to have changed no one’s mind. | | | | | it in the past, and some dozen states and the District |
| | | Gallup reckons that support for capital punishment | | | | | of Columbia do not have a death penalty. But Mr |
| | | rose from 42% in 1966 to 79% last year. | | | 90 | | Jackson and the Washington Post should not bet on |
| 5 | | | Now add some history to the statistical mix. From | | | | | the fashion changing fast. They may do better to |
| 50 | | the mid-1930s to the early 1960s, the rate of serious | | | | | remind a nation of believers that everyone, saint or |
| | | crime in the United States barely changed from year | | | | | sinner, must face the judgment of the Lord – so why |
| | | to year. Then came the 1960s, a decade not just of | | | | | anticipate it? |
| | | flower-power and free love but of social upheaval in | | | | | |
| | | which serious crimes soared. | | | 95 | | ‘The Economist’, June 21, 1997 |
