Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3159.

Typed transcription by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath at 11 Waverly Place, New York City 3, NY

July 22, 1955

/Remarking on capital punishment, from an article in Newsweek, July 25, 1955, on the hanging of Ruth Ellis in England./

The only justification for society to inflict violence or restraint against any person is society’s own protection and that of its members.  If in default of any other way of protecting men and institutions against the perpetrators of violence or irresponsible people, if the ingenuity of men finds it utterly impossible to effect this protection with­out the taking of human life, not until then will there be any sound argument in favor of capital punishment. Society is organized to serve men, not to kill them, either as crimi­nals or as victims of war. Like any other organism, its only mission is to function, and its function is to advance the life of its members, not to destroy or diminish it. When society cannot otherwise function, perhaps then, but certainly not until then, will it be justified in des­troying human life.

(See, I approached that not from the standpoint of sentiment or sentimentality, but from the standpoint of the positive functioning of society, all other considerations being subordinate to that.)