An Eye For An Eye

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There is much to be exercised about in the news this week, even aside from the continuing military conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. The botched execution of Christa Pike in the state of Tennessee for one. If there was ever an argument for ditching the death penalty - and there always should be, in my opinion - this is it. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Part 1., Article 1 paragraph 1. states: '..."torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such [a purpose as] punishing him (sic) for an act he (sic) or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed...' The end of the paragraph carries an unfortunate apparent caveat in '... It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or accidental to lawful sanctions...'. This sufficiently vague statement could be taken to mean, even to actually condone or expiate, any number of actions taken against an individual or individuals by an institution, state or government body; up to and including state-sanctioned capital punishment. That state-sanctioned execution is inherently unsafe in that the legal systems that employ it are de facto themselves flawed, often biassed and prone to errors and miscarriages of justice; and that it serves no particular prophylactic purpose in the form of deterrence to the commission of serious crimes, should bring it within the realm of the original intention of the above document and be abandoned forthwith worldwide. A desire for revenge or the commission of cruel and unusual punishment because of religious or political enmity is no sound reason, morally or practically, to continue killing people under state sanction...

During the spread of the Black Death across Europe in the fourteenth century, the King of Tharsis was of a mind to seek their conversion to Catholicism, fearing that the disease was a punishment from the God of the Christians for their own "sinful disbelief". After twenty days travelling to seek audience with the Pope at Avignon however, they found that the disease had even spread to the Christian community as well, and so abandoned their quest and turned for home. The Christians followed them and slaughtered 2000 of their number. [source: Henry Knighton, 1348]

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