Day 83: Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment

More extracts from The Spirits’ Book by Allan Kardec:

760. Will capital punishment disappear some day from human legislation?
“Capital punishment will, most assuredly, disappear in course of time; and its suppression will mark a progress on the part of the human race. When men become more enlightened, the penalty of death will be completely abolished throughout the earth; men will no longer require to be judged by men. I speak of a time a long way ahead of you.”

761. The law of preservation gives man the right to preserve his own life; does he not make use of that same right when he cuts off a dangerous member from the social body?
“There are other means of preserving yourselves from a dangerous individual than killing him; and besides, you ought to open the door of repentance for the criminal, and not close it against him.”

762. If the penalty of death may be banished from civilised society, was it not a necessity in times of less advancement?
“Necessity is not the right word. Man always thinks that a thing is necessary when he cannot manage to find anything better, In proportion as he becomes enlightened, he understands more clearly what is just or unjust, and repudiates the excesses committed, in times of ignorance, in the name of justice.”

763. Is the restriction of the number of the cases in which capital punishment is inflicted an indication of progress in civilisation?
“Can you doubt its being so? Does not your mind revolt on reading the recital of the human butcheries that were formerly perpetrated in the name of justice, and often in honour of the divinity; of the tortures inflicted on the condemned, and even on the accused, in order to wring from him, through the excess of his sufferings, the confession of a crime which, very often, he had not committed? Well, if you had lived in those times, you would have thought all this very natural; and, had you been a judge, you would probably have done the same yourself. It is thus that what seemed to be right at one period seems barbarous at another. The divine laws alone are eternal; human laws change as progress advances; and they will change again and again, until they have been brought into harmony with the laws of God.”

764. Jesus said, “He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.” Are not these words the consecration of the principle of retaliation? And is not the penalty of death, inflicted on a murderer, an application of this principle?
“Take care! You have mistaken the meaning of these words, as of many others. The only righteous retaliation is the justice of God; because it is applied by Him. You are all, at every moment, undergoing this retaliation, for you are punished in that wherein you have sinned, in this life or in another one. He who has caused his fellow-men to suffer will be placed in a situation in which he himself will suffer what he caused them to endure. This is the true meaning of the words of Jesus; for has He not also said to you, ‘Forgive your enemies,’ and has He not taught you to pray that God may forgive you your trespasses as you forgive those who have trespassed against you, that is to say, exactly in proportion as you have forgiven? Try to take in the full meaning of those words.”

765. What is to be thought of the infliction of the penalty of death in the name of God?
“It is a usurpation of God’s place in the administration of justice. Those who act thus show how far they are from comprehending God, and how much they still have to expiate. Capital punishment is a crime when applied in the name of God, and those who inflict it will have to answer for it as for so many murders.”