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Sara Petrosyan

No decision on the death penalty will be a ratification of the people's will

The institutions established in advanced countries have been doing research on the issue of the death penalty for decades, in order to comprehend what the impact of this extreme punishment on crime prevention is and whether this type of punishment is justified. And ultimately the conclusion is the same - for all nations the decision on this issue is made in an emotional dimension, and it does not prevent or reduce criminal offences.

Turkey, which is known for the cruelty of the punishments it imposes, was forced to meet the requirements ofEurope, and on August 2, 2002 voted in favor of the abolition of the death penalty. At present,Armeniais the only country of the region that has not resolved this issue. For more than a year now, the National Assembly of Armenia has not been able to find an answer to the question of whether to refuse to meet the requirement of the Council of Europe, i.e. in practice to keep the death penalty, or to abolish it, notwithstanding that the Council of Europe remains resolute in its demands.

The main reasonArmeniahas not ratified or postponed ratification of the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights is the lack of success of the attempts to get an exception for the perpetrators of the terrorist act of October 27, 1999. Thus,Armeniacontinues to remain one of those unique countries that have not implemented the death penalty for 11 years now, but have in practice kept the institution of the death penalty. Almost no other member-states of the Council of Europe that voted to abolish or to keep the death penalty have been guided by one example of a criminal offense or by such a precedent as who exactly was killed as a result of a crime, especially if we take into consideration that similar acts have taken place in the Parliaments of Switzerland and India, in the City Council of Paris, etc.

Armenians are not known for cruelty (peculiar to many oriental nations) or for rigid national traditions. However, long before the events of October 27th, for the last seven years, the society has periodically initiated public debate over this issue but has never addressed the death penalty as a phenomenon. No professional explanation has been given, and the situation inArmeniaand the temperament of Armenians from national, religious, legal, social-cultural, historical-political and other standpoints have been taken as points of departure. Criminal statistics in our country register that an apparent reduction in the number of crimes has occurred. According to information from the Office of the Prosecutor General, since 1996, the number of murders has decreased by almost ten cases every year. During the first half of 2002, compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of serious crimes decreased-- among them the number of premeditated murders - by 11.4 per cent. During 2001, 88 premeditated murders were registered, against 91 cases in 2000. The number of attempted murders has also decreased.

However, this indicator is not considered to be grounds for rejecting the death penalty. There are countries that, years after they abolished the death penalty, again address the issue. The matter is a continuing subject even in places that rejected this extreme type of punishment decades ago. For example, in the State ofNew York(USA) the death penalty was reintroduced after years of absence, even though at that time the number of crimes had decreased significantly.Franceabolished death penalty in 1981, but a few years ago a leading magazine readdressed the issue and presented views proposing the reintroduction of the death penalty in cases when extraordinary cruelty is manifested toward the elderly and children.

Research by legal experts shows that inArmenia, historically, the death penalty was implemented in extreme cases. Doctor of Jurisprudence Gagik Ghazinyan says in his book "Historical and Contemporary Problems of Criminal Justice inArmenia" that in the 5th Century inArmenia, mob law was permitted in some criminal cases. For example, somebody caught in a lewd act would be killed.

The ecclesiastical justice system that operated in the 4th-9th Centuries consisted of courts of three instances; in legal proceedings it was guided by the norms of customary law and implemented several types of punishment: death penalty, banishment, imprisonment, corporal punishment, fines, etc. For some crimes, mob law still existed, as individual people would punish dishonor themselves. By the 10th century, vendetta was forbidden.

"Judging from written sources, the choice of our people was humane", Hranush Kharatyan, a social anthropologist, said in our conversation about the death penalty. She explained that from the earliest times our church and secular authorities developed norms preventing vendetta. When premeditated murder was committed in order to restore justice, economic or administrative penalties were imposed - cows or land were to be given in exchange, which would have prevented vendetta. "Thus in the norms of Canon law in The Book of Justice and other written sources, a thousand ways to avoid this extreme punishment were proposed. Judging from these norms, we may say that our legal institutions always tried to influence popular institutions not to run to extremes. But all the same, people still did".

According to Kharatian, the institution of vendetta operated in the entire Caucasus and partly also in theNear East, some manifestations of which can be seen even today when a life for a life is demanded. She says the death penalty is another institution that demands a life for a life. "If we consider that we have had legal institutions since the 5th Century and we have developed mechanisms to put a stop to it, yet cases of vendetta occurred until the end of the 19th Century and in the 1950s. If justice didn't satisfy the victim's side, people took revenge themselves. This suggests that in general, the sense of dissatisfaction leads to steps to restore justice". Kharatyan noted that in the majority of cases inArmenia, they used legal institutions and customary norms to deal with family feuds, economic damage, and other disputes, but not as much for murder.

The Armenian Church has thus far abstained from expressing its opinion about the death penalty, as the ecumenical council has not yet discussed the issue; however some clergymen express their point of view. The supervisor of the Vazgen Theological Seminary in Sevan, Father Bagrat Galstanyan, informed us that the Christian attitude toward the death penalty is negative and rejects it; therefore today the Christian world welcomes the steps undertaken by many states to abolish the death penalty. "At the same time the highest punishment - death - is a sensitive issue: it is recognized by the Old Testament and there is no instruction on its direct change in the New Testament or in our church tradition."

However, as the priest noted, the Church has felt an obligation to ask the state authorities to have mercy upon the condemned. "Christianity takes a kindly attitude toward those in prison-- in the sense that they are embarking on the right path-- which has deep roots. The Lord compares serving the imprisoned with serving him: "I was in prison and you came to visit me".

The people I talked to say that the main reason to the avoid death penalty is the possibility of a court mistake. "Clearly, the death penalty rules out the necessary reeducation and makes it impossible to correct a wrong decision", says Father Bagrat. He noted that a human being's tendency to sin gives birth to crimes that wreck the order established by law. "At the same time, sin, according to Orthodox values, is a broader concept than the secular perception of the crime. 'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander' (Matthew 15:19). It is necessary to acknowledge that economic and social conditions, and lawlessness can also cause crimes", he added.

Hranoush Kharatyan cites as an example a well-known German saying that it is better to let a thousand criminals go unpunished than to condemn an innocent person to death. "Based on the assumption that the court itself is an imperfect body and verdicts very often may be subjective, because of what someone wants, or a lack of evidence, based on our judicial reality, this is very dangerous. Nevertheless, I think that the institution of the death penalty continues to remain a restraining factor. If there is no capital punishment, the likelihood of the manifestation of aggression will be much higher. There are some types of crime for which there is no other solution".

"If there is a lack of sacred values within the nation or society, no punishment can prevent the force of evil", Father Bagrat is convinced. He says the best way to eliminate criminal offences is to teach the importance of a life of honesty and dignity. However, a crime committed and lawfully condemned also presumes a just punishment, though with the understanding that it should be directed at the education of a person as well as the protection of society from the criminal and the crime. According to this understanding, the Church is called upon to care for the criminal's soul, and in that sense doesn't perceive punishment as a means of revenge but as a way of internal correction and improvement. However cruelty towards criminals and the trampling of human dignity are absolutely deplorable, and will never help to bring those people to the right path, but will plunge them further into sin. In this sense, one must ensure them protection and justice as well.

Do those who commit murder repent their actions? Do we succeed in bringing them to the right path? Father Karapet, the priest of St. Sarkis, has been visiting prisoners for ten years now. "When I wanted to set foot in a jail for the first time, I was told, if you can bring one in a thousand to the right path, it's a victory". He says he met people imprisoned for the first time who were sorry for what they had done: "I am sorry that because of me a man is gone, but he wasn't a man.

"I have visited many people on death row, at their request. They tell me everything, everything they did, and they always say there is no God, it's not true, it's all a lie. ' I'm getting ready to die, and I'm terrified- what should I say?' This factor didn't work during their lifetime, but the moment of death has come, and they are terrified of this passage," adds Father Karapet. 
Let us add only that during the first half of 2002, there was one instance of a death sentence. In a verdict of the court of first instance of the Shirak marz, H. Hovhanessian was sentenced to death for killing his 15-year-old son with multiple blows of an ax, because the boy had lost three lottery tickets. Previously, Hovhanessian had been sentenced for killing his wife, according to Article 99 of the Criminal Code.

All things considered, what is the attitude of our people toward the death penalty? "As a Christian, I wouldn't want the death penalty to exist, because God gave us life, and God has the right to take it. One of the Ten Commandments tells us not to kill. As a person, I would say that the death penalty should not be abolished. Unfortunately, there are many in the world who are mentally ill, for whom killing seems to be a pleasure, a spiritual satisfaction. So the horror of being condemned to death will restrain, if not thousands, at least a hundred, or ten. Moreover, it must be made stricter, it should be implemented in the presence of the public," says Father Karapet.

Hranoush Kharatian is convinced that if we conduct quantitative research among different groups, those who would say no to the death penalty will not be people with humanistic attitudes, but in particular, the criminal element, because they will have more of a sense of alarm regarding the death penalty. She believes that any decision by the National Assembly, be it yes or no, will not be a ratification of the attitude or behavior of the people. "At this moment, people are for the death penalty, which is dictated by the life of the last ten years. The tough attitude of our people today is directly conditioned by the realities of today or the recent past. A way of thinking has evolved among the people: 'Should all those crimes committed go unpunished?' This is not a reflection on the death penalty in general, but all people, while uttering their yes or no, know concretely who they are condemning to death, even personally" Kharatian insists.

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