Death Penalty: should we believe in it?

Reasons one
wouldnt: belief in rehabilitation, belief that the death
penalty doesnt deter crime, belief in God as the ultimate
arbiter, belief in Christian or sentimental mercy/forgiveness,
equating justice as revenge.
1. Jesus Christ is the ultimate case of the death
penalty. He became a man and was put to death to
justify and acquit our egregious sins. Would it have
been justice if our infinite sins against our infinitely
good God were punished by Jesus sitting in a prison for
life (the mere 60 more years on his 33 years of age an
average human would live)? The crime: infinite sins,
the punishment life in prison/60 years. Justice is the
death of Gods son (infinite goodness) who became
man for our infinite sins. An infinite for an infinite.
2. C.S. Lewis explains that treating criminals not with a
view to
punishment, but only with a view to
remediation and deterrence is the end of justice and
the seedbed of tyranny. It is dehumanization with a
gentle face. Here is his quote: Thus when we cease to
consider what the criminal deserves and consider only
what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly
removed him from the sphere of justice altogether;
instead of a person, a subject of rights, we now have a
mere object, a patient, a case. If a criminals
sentence does not have to accord with what he
deserves, it does not have to be just. At that
point we are all at the mercy of those who are in
power to call anything we do a crime and give it any
therapeutic or remedial solution they choose, including
gas chambers and medical alterations.
3. What about Christian mercy? If the concept of what
a criminal deserves, and with it the concept of
justice, is lost, mercy ceases to be. It is replaced
by sentiment and caprice. As Lewis observes, The
essential act of mercy was to pardon; and pardon in its

very essence involves the recognition of guilt and

deserved punishment in the recipient. Mercy, detached
from Justice, grows unmerciful. That is the important
paradox. As there are plants which will flourish only in
mountain soil, so it appears that Mercy will flower only
when it grows in the crannies of the rock of Justice;
transplanted to the marshlands of mere
Humanitarianism, it becomes a man-eating weed.
4. God is the ultimate judge but God has given
license to mankind to conduct societies and
governments and to carry out justice in this life.
He will be the final judge of our souls in the next life but
in this life there are governmental bodies and
manifestations of justice that we, men, are the arbiters
of. Romans 13 sets it up so that the government carries
the sword to reward the good and to punish the evil,
because society won't work if governments don't carry
swords, prisons, fines, death penalties.
5. Revenge is the exact opposite of justice. Revenge is
brazen and chaotic. It is emotional instead of
retributional. Revenge cares not whether the harm
inflicted on someone for the wrong suffered at their
hands is equal in scope to the wrong committed.
Justice, on the other hand, is methodical and rational. It
is the exact degree of punishment a crime deserves
regardless of any one persons wanton feelings about it.
Justice by definition is the impartial adjustment
of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited
rewards or punishments.
6. Here is a hypothetical for the case that the death
penalty does deter crime if it is equally
implemented. Say on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays anyone that commits 1st degree murder gets the
death penalty and on Sundays, Tuesdays , Thursdays
and Saturdays everyone who commits 1st degree
murder gets life in prison with the option of appeals and

a lesser sentence on good behavior. Which days would

1st degree murders happen?

Remember this story? Anders Breiviks sentence for killing

77 people at a youth camp in Norway on July 22, 2011 is
outrageous. He was deemed sane and sentenced to serve 21
years in prison in a three-cell suite of rooms equipped with
exercise equipment, a television and a laptop. Thats 100
days of posh prison time for each person he murdered, with
a legal release possible at age 53. Life is cheap in Norway.
The news agencies explained that such a sentence is
consistent with Norways general approach to criminal
justice. Like the rest of Europe . . . Norway no longer has the
death penalty and considers prison more a means for
rehabilitation than retribution.
They explained that many Europeans consider Americas
criminal justice system to be cruelly punitive.
In fact, the news story explains that, after his 21-year smackon-the-hand for killing 77 people, Breivik could be kept
there indefinitely by judges adding a succession of five-year
extensions. There it is. The issue is not what he deserves.
The issue is not justice. The issue is power in the hands of
judges who will decide if he has been rehabilitated
sufficiently, and if his detainment has served the community
to a suitable degree rather than serving his objectively just
punishment which would be death.
Do you see the error in this? C. S. Lewis did.