In the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, public hysteria was a primary cause their execution. Not only did public fear create a predisposition to a harsher punishment than was justified, it caused government agencies including the F.B.I. and the A.E.C. to flagrantly violate the law in prosecuting the case. They were so eager to fight Communism that they used illegal means to insure the execution of the Rosenbergs. While these facts are, by themselves, damning indictments of capital punishment, the best argument against execution stems not from statistics or historical example, but from a basic feeling of human compassion. The history of crime and punishment is one of slow but steady progress away from brutality and towards mercy and rehabilitation.
Capital punishment is an expression of humanity's most base desires for bloody vengeance.
One who has sympathy, imagination, kindness and understanding, will hate it and detest it as he hates and detests death. However, before giving in to fear of crime and justifying the deaths of innocents that inevitably result from the institution of capital punishment, we should remember that one of the few things that distinguishes human from animal is the capacity for mercy. Even if we could be absolutely certain of a person's guilt, by killing him or her do we not make murderers of ourselves. Mr. Krumholz, who hails from good ole Teaneck, New Jersey, makes his third contribution to the Prog.