April 1868 Speech on Capital Punishment

Conclusion:  Mill defends capital punishment (death penalty) as the “most humane” punishment accessible for those who deserve severe punishment compared to the alternative, life imprisonment with “hard labour” and beneficial to society.

Premises:

I.                   “…aggravated murder is now practically the only crime which is punishment with death by any of our lawful tribunal…(65).

a.       “aggravated murder”, the only offense for which Mill defends the death penalty.

II.                "I defend this penalty, [the death penalty] when confined to the atrocious cases, on the very round for which it is commonly attacked- on that of humanity to the criminal; as beyond comparison the least cruel mode in which it is possible adequately to deter from the crime"(65).

           

a.        Mill views capital punishment as a tool to keep society in order, and as the greatest deterrent from future crime;

b.      The death penalty is the strongest deterrence against murder;

                        c.      Capital punishment is less cruel than the alternative of lifelong imprisonment

III.             “If in our horror of inflicting death, we endeavour to devise some punishment for the living criminal which shall act on the human mind with a deterrent force at all comparable to that of death, we are driven to inflictions less severe indeed in appearance, and therefore less efficacious, but far more cruel in reality”(65)

a.        The threat and carrying out the death penalty not only saves more lives than it takes away but also creates a social foundation where people are not living their lives in fear of being murdered;

b.      The ideal punishment, therefore, achieves the maximum in social benefit at the cost of the minimum in social harm.

IV.              “What comparison can there really be, in point of severity, between consigning a man to the short pang of a rapid death, and immuring him in a living tomb, there to linger out what may be a long life in the hardest and most monotonous toil…” (66)

a.        Stating a quick death is much more humane than a life full of suffering. 

V.                “There is not, I should think, any human infliction which makes an impression on the imagination so entirely out of proportion to its real severity as the punishment of death.” (66)

            a.   Mill believes that punishments should be intended that the hardship inflicted                                  on the subject is minimal but the message to the rest of society is a strong deterrent.

b.      He believes that the death penalty is the most humane way of punishing criminals and that the effect upon the observers is appropriate.

VI.              “-that if by an error of justice an innocent person is out to death the mistake can never be corrected:…” (69)

a.       A justice system using the death penalty could allow innocent people to be executed, subsequently if a justice system cannot be trusted it would be dangerous to its society.

1.       “countries where the Courts of Justice seem to think they fail in their duty unless they find somebody guilty,…” (70)

VII.           “I think, Sir, that in the case of most offenses, except those against property, this is more need of strengthening our punishments than of weakening them; and that severer sentences, with an apportionment of them to the different kinds of offenses which shall approve itself better than at present to the moral sentiments of the community, are the kind of reform of which our penal system now stands in need”. (71)

a.        In opposition to a motion calling for the abolition of capital punishment; “I shall therefore vote against the Amendment”

b.       The amendment was defeated