評論
打印
This is what counsel always says to the jury in the course of a murder trial and counsel is right: far better hang this man than "give him life." For my part, I would choose death without hesitation. If that option is abolished, a demand will one day be heard to claim it as a privilege in thename of humandignity. I shall believe in the abolitionist's present views only after he has emerged from twelve months in a convict cell.
在法庭審訊殺人犯時，辯護律師往往會對陪審團這樣說：與其這樣"饒他一死"，還不如干脆賜他一死。這話的確不錯。假如是我的話，我會毫不猶豫地選擇去死而不愿去坐牢。倘若這種選擇權被廢除的話，終有一天會有人以人的尊嚴的名義來要求享有這種特權。要我相信廢除派目前的觀點，除非等到他們自己能有機會在囚室里呆上一年出獄之后。
The detached observer may want to interrupt here and say that the argument has now passed from reasoning to emotional preference. Whereas the objector to capital punishment feels that death is the greatest of evils, I feel that imprisonment is worse than death. A moment's thought will show that feeling is the appropriate arbiter . All reasoning about what is right, civilized and moral rests upon sentiment, like mathematics. Only, in trying to persuade others, it is important to single out the fundamental feeling, the prime intuition, and from it to reason justly. In my view, to profess respect for human life and be willing to see it spent in a penitentiary is to entertain liberal feelings frivolously. To oppose the death penalty because, unlike a prison term, it is irrevocable is to argue fallaciously.
持公正態度的旁人可能會在這兒打斷我的話，指出我的論點已由說理變成感情用事了。反對死刑的人認為死是最大的罪孽，而我則覺得坐牢比死更可怕。只要稍稍動點腦筋想一想，我們就會意識到，感情正是最合適的仲裁者。一切關于對與錯、文明與野蠻、是與非的說理、推論都是以感情為基礎的，就像數學一樣。不過，在試圖說服別人時，重要的是應該揀選出最本質的感情，最重要的直覺，由此進行公平合理的推論。依我看來，一個人既主張尊重人的生命又愿意容許人的生命被消耗在牢獄中，那簡直是在輕率地玩弄自由主義感情。如果反對死刑是因為它有異于一般的監禁，是不可挽回的，這純屬一種荒唐的推理。
