We did not grieve for Adolph Eichmann or Ted Bundy, and do not grieve for the perpetrators of the terrible hate crime in Jasper, Texas. But as Michael Dukakis should have pointed out to Bernard Shaw and the rest of us, feelings must not, in such portentous matters as capital punishment, suffice as justifications. Over the years, our opposition to the death penalty has been constant in content, though variable in weight and conviction. Retribution, we find, is an argument with great intuitive force, enhanced with the emotion of indignation when we contemplate particularly heinous crimes. And yet, at the same time, one is hard pressed to support this intuition with a coherent argument.
Deterrence carries more practical weight.
And quite frankly, if there were compelling evidence that each execution deterred the murder of ten innocent victims, this would likely suffice to change our position on capital punishment. But there is no such evidence. Perhaps, but I really couldn't say, since I am so far removed from that possibility. I am not a murderer, nor are you, dear reader. Murder is so abhorrent and so remote from the contemplation of most of us, that we are quite unable to imagine the mind-set of those capable of such an act.