Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. Chapter. On Punishments
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consideration, when we consider impartially the applicability
of a punishment which excludes all possibility of
restitution or correction.
But, it will be observed, it would be hazardous
to abolish capital-punishment; for should a criminal,
who is imprisoned for life, escape, it would be
exceedingly dangerous, as he could not be corrected by
any higher punishment, than that to which he is
already condemned. To this it may be answered,
that the fault here must be ascribed to the state,
for not having secured the prisoner better. A
raving madman, who has escaped from
confinement, may also be very dangerous to all he meets;
yet no one would probably ever think of the
necessity of his losing his life, to prevent his
committing injuries. This view of prevention cannot,
then, as a principle of justice, be admitted.
One of the arguments, with which capital
punishment is often defended, is, that it should
be retained, in order to enable us to observe,
within the prescriptions of the law, the right of
retaliation, jus talionis, which rests on the
principle, that the criminal shall undergo the same
suffering he has occasioned others. This idea is,
certainly, both beautiful and of deep signification;
but it forms only an abstraction, and is in fact
inapplicable. If, for instance, the criminal has
inflicted on his victim a deep wound, ought he to
be punished by a similar one; if he has burnt
him and his house, must he himself be consumed
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