Should Pakistan Abolish or Retain Capital Punishment?
Background of the Movement
To understand the origin of this idea, one shall have to travel back in European history to the age of the industrial revolution. Like most of the notions, theories and beliefs practiced in and promoted today by developed Western nations, the movement for abolition of capital punishment has evolved from a political and social experience expanding over different phases of history that is essentially peculiar to their part of the world.
In the society crafted by the Industrial Revolution, the quest for superiority and dominance through newly explored means of earning had created unprecedented economic disparity and polarization. Those who owned and ran industry were obsessed with the desire to safeguard their interests, even at the expense of others. Posing the slightest threat to the assets and capital of an industrialist could be a fatal mistake. In England, death was decreed for several hundred specific offences, particularly those against property.[22] Cutting down a tree, stealing an animal,[23] pick-pocketing goods worth more than one shilling, being out at night with a blackened face,[24] impersonating a Chelsea pensioner or damaging London Bridge[25] could mean a summons from the gallows. Michael Hammond and his sister, Ann, aged 7 and 11 respectively, were reportedly hanged at King’s Lynn on September 28, 1708 for theft. The local press did not, however, consider the executions of two children newsworthy.[26] Harsh and ruthless modes were adopted for execution. The English legal system from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century is today remembered as the “Bloody Code.”[27]
Voices were raised against this tyranny and injustice and the plight of the poor was highlighted by many, including Montesquieu, Beccaria, Voltaire, John Howard and Bentham. Individual voices soon joined into a movement which was, of course, reactionary in nature. Better sense seemed to prevail and reforms began. In Britain, for example, where at the beginning of the 19th century more than 200 offences were graded as capital crimes, the list of such crimes was reduced to just four by 1861.[28] However, like most movements launched in reaction to a wrong, the movement against the death penalty also swung to the other extreme, calling for a complete abolition of the death penalty from the legal system. This initiative received strength from the widespread popular movement that was reshaping European society. The Church had been ousted from public life and all that it believed and preached was under attack-including capital punishment. Human rights and individual freedoms constituted the new gospel for the modern world.
Gradually, the momentum and scope of the movement increased and in 1863 Venezuela became the first country to abolish the death penalty for all offences.[29] During and after World War II, a number of irregularities were noticed in the executions carried out by the warring nations. Military organizations employed capital punishment as a means of maintaining military discipline. The Soviets, for example, executed 158,000 soldiers for desertion during World War II.[30] When such facts came to the limelight, there was naturally a public outcry and the movement for abolition of death penalty gained further impetus. It has made rapid progress ever since.
[22] Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed, s.v. “Capital Punishment,” 536.
[23] Wikipedia, s.v. “Capital Punishment.”
[24] Durham University, “The Bloody Code.”
[25] Capital Punishment, UK, History of Judicial Hanging.
[26] Wikipedia, s.v. “Capital Punishment.”
[27] Durham University, “The Bloody Code.”
[28] International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, s.v. “Capital Punishment,” 291.
[29] Franck, The Barbaric Punishment, 51.
[30] Paul Shaheen, “Patriots ignore greatest brutality,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 13, 2007, http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/patriots-ignore-greatest-brutality/2007/08/12/1186857342382.html (accessed April 27, 2009).
