新編大學(xué)英語第四冊(cè)u(píng)nit11 Text A: Death and Justice

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UNIT 11 IN-CLASS READING; New College English (IV)

Death and Justice

Edward I. Koch

1 Last December a man named Robert Lee Willie, who had been convicted of raping and murdering an 18-year-old woman, was executed in the Louisiana state prison. In a statement issued several minutes before his death, Mr. Willie said: "Killing people was wrong... It makes no difference whether it's citizens, countries, or governments. Killing was wrong." Two weeks later in South Carolina, an admitted killer named Joseph Carl Shaw was put to death for murdering two teenagers. In an appeal to the governor for mercy, Mr. Shaw wrote: "Killing was wrong when I did it. Killing is wrong when you do it. I hope you have the courage and moral strength to stop the killing."

2 It is a curiosity of modern life that we find ourselves being lectured on morality by cold-blooded killers. I can't help wondering why these murderers spoke out against killing as they approached their own death. Did the new respect for life stem from the realization that they were about to lose their own?

3 Life is indeed precious, and I believe the death penalty helps to affirm this fact. Had the death penalty been a real concept in the minds of these murderers, they might well have stopped their acts of murder. They might have shown moral awareness before their victims died, and not after. Consider the tragic death of Rosa Velez, who happened to be home when a man named Luis Vera burglarized her apartment in Brooklyn. "Yeah, I shot her," Vera admitted. "She knew me, and I knew I wouldn't go to the electric chair."

4 During my 22 years in public service, I have heard the pros and cons of capital punishment expressed with vigor. I still support the death penalty by examining the arguments most frequently opposing it.

5 The death penalty is "barbaric". Sometimes opponents of capital punishment shock us with tales of painful death by hanging, of faulty electric chairs, or of agony in the gas chamber. Partly in response to such protests, several states such as North Carolina and Texas switched to execution by lethal injection. The condemned person is put to death painlessly, without ropes, electricity, bullets, or gas. Did this answer the objections of death penalty opponents? Of course not. On June 22, 1984, The New York Times published an editorial that attacked the new "hygienic" method of death by injection, and stated that "execution can never be made humane through science". So it's not the method that really troubles opponents. It's the death itself they consider barbaric.

6 Admittedly, capital punishment is not a pleasant topic. However, one does not have to like the death penalty in order to support it any more than one must like major surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy when treating cancer. Ultimately we may learn how to cure cancer with a simple pill someday. Unfortunately, that is not yet possible. Today we are faced with the choice of letting the cancer spread out or trying to cure it with the methods available, methods that one day will almost certainly be considered crude. But to give up and do nothing would be far less effective and would certainly delay the discovery of an eventual cure. The analogy between cancer and murder is imperfect, because the "disease" is injustice, not murder. We may not like the death penalty, but it must be available to punish crimes of cold-blooded murder, cases in which any other form of punishment would be inadequate and, therefore, unjust. If we create a society in which injustice is not tolerated, incidents of murder the most evident form of injustice will diminish.

7 Capital punishment cheapens the value of human life. On the contrary, it can be easily demonstrated that the death penalty strengthens the value of human life. If the penalty for rape were reduced, clearly it would signal a reduced regard for the victims' suffering, humiliation, and personal integrity. It would cheapen their horrible experience, and expose them to an increased danger of recurrence. When we lower the penalty for murder, it signals a lowered regard for the value of the victim's life. Some critics of capital punishment, such as columnist Jimmy Breslin, have suggested that a life sentence is actually a harsher penalty for murder than death. I don't agree with this. A few killers may decide not to appeal a death sentence, but the overwhelming majority make every effort to stay alive. It is by imposing the death penalty for the taking of human life that we affirm the highest value of human life.

8 The death penalty is state-sanctioned murder. This is the defense with which Messrs. Willie and Shaw hoped to soften the resolve of those who sentenced them to death. By saying in effect, "You're no better than I am," the murderer seeks to bring his accusers down to his own level. It is also a popular argument among opponents of capital punishment, but an obviously false one. Simply put, the state has rights that the private individual does not. In a democracy, those rights are given to the state by the electorate. The execution of a lawfully convicted killer is no more an act of murder than is legal imprisonment an act of kidnapping. If an individual forces a neighbor to pay him money under threat of punishment, it's called extortion. If the state does it, it's called taxation. Rights and responsibilities given by the individual are what give the state its power to govern. This contract is the foundation of civilization itself.

9 Everyone wants his or her rights and will defend them strongly. Not everyone, however, wants responsibilities, especially the painful responsibilities that come with law enforcement. Twenty-one years ago a woman named Kitty Genovese was assaulted and murdered on a street in New York. Dozens of neighbors heard her cries for help but did nothing to assist her. They didn't even call the police. In such a climate the criminal understandably grows bolder. In the presence of moral cowardice, he lectures us on our supposed failings and tries to equate his crimes with our quest for justice.

10 The death of anyone even a convicted killer diminishes us all. But we are diminished even more by a justice system that fails to function. 16 It is an illusion to let ourselves believe that doing away with capital punishment removes the murderer's deed from our conscience. The rights of society are essential. When we protect guilty lives, we give up innocent lives in exchange. When opponents of capital punishment say to the state: "I will not let you kill in my name," they are also saying to murderers: "You can kill in your own name as long as I have an excuse for not getting involved."

11 It is hard to imagine anything worse than being murdered while neighbors do nothing. But something worse exists. When those same neighbors shrink back from justly punishing the murderer, the victim dies twice.