CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. [To the Editor of the Srzerieron.] Sri,—The article
in the Spectator of January 13th on the problem of Capital Punishment moves me, as an ex-Colonial Judge, to offer some observations on the subject. No one who has not had to pass sentence on convicted criminals realizes the essential illogicality of the existing position in regard to degree of punishment. There can be no doubt, I venture to suggest, that there are three conflicting principles Involved. First, there is the most primitive consideration of all, the lex talicmis, the revenge of the individual, or the State, on the offender ; secondly, there is the idea that punish- ment acts as a deterrent, either of the criminal or of others ; and lastly, the most modern conception of all, the operation of imprisonment as a reformatory agency. It is the antinomy between these three aspects of the punishment of crime that produces such hysterical outbursts as those commented on by the writer of the article. A striking example of the confusion of thought that exists was provided by the case of the "Dartmoor shepherd." The stealing of a few shillings from a poor-box was punished by a sentence of penal servitude, not because the punishment fitted the crime, but in the hope, no doubt, that an evil habitude might be cured by a lengthy detention in prison.
Applying these ideas to Capital Punishment, it may be argued that, as private opinion (in other words, mass psychology), while it no longer justifies " an eye for an eye," unquestionably demands a "life for a life." The law, in fact, even exonerates the shooting at sight of a burglar detected in flagrante, not because of the possible deterrent effect, but because this extreme application of the lex talionis is still supported by instinctive opinion. The simplest altera- tion of the law needed to cover the cases in which capital punishment for legal " Murder " is inappropriate would be to adopt the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (now in force in many Colonies). That Code sets up two offences Cul- pable Homicide not amounting to Murder, and Culpable Homicide amounting to Murder. The latter is punishable either with Death or Imprisonment for Life. It is then left to the Executive to temper the second alternative with mercy, if and when so advised. But it will be long before heard opinion, as expressed in the Press, recognizes that the punish- ment of criminals by the courts involves a conflict between reason and the ineradicable animal impulse of revenge. Crime is a "sin," and "the wages of sin is death."—I am,
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