Sir, - Despite the call of your Editorial (June 25th), it is most unlikely that international pressure will in any way sway the people of the United States from their devotion to the death penalty. As I have written in these pages before, the American people, overall, want the death penalty to the extent that any politician who comes out against it is signing away his or her career. Even if public support has declined somewhat - but note that 62 per cent are still for it - most people favour it not for its unproven deterrent effect but for reasons rooted in vengeance. The most prolific executing states are in the so-called Bible Belt, and this is no coincidence. Religious certainty on the correctness of exacting an eye for an eye is central to the support for this most heinous of state actions.
The most commonly adduced recent argument for the death penalty side is also the most insidious. It claims that the killing of a murderer is necessary to help victims' families gain "closure" for their loss, and that it is the state's duty to respect the wishes of the innocent and injured over the guilty and the harmful. This, of course, is a bogus argument. Some families do not want the perpetrator of their relative's murder killed (most prominently the father of one victim of the Oklahoma City bombing), but the state feels no duty to respect their wishes. Also inherent in the "closure" argument is the notion that the law is there to mediate vengeance between injured parties: if X kills my relative, it is my right to see the state kill X. On this logic, if Y rapes my sister or vandalises my car, I should be able to witness police officers rape that person or vandalise their car in retribution. It's a mean and narrow vision of the law's purpose and accepted nowhere else than in capital cases.
In the final analysis, we have to accept that support for the death penalty is not based on reason or on sociological studies of its application and effects, but on emotions. Unfortunately, those emotions, principally demands for retribution and vengeance, are among the basest human beings are capable of. And international calls for the end of the death penalty in the US are unlikely to change them. - Yours, etc.,
Garrett G. Fagan, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.