Crisp: Another good reason to abolish capital punishment

This is what we’re seeing in Ukraine: A democratic country is being attacked by a brutal dictator who is completely unrestrained by scruples over atrocities against civilians.

The war is testing Ukraine’s capacity to absorb the heartbreaking brutality of modern warfare. Old people, children, even pregnant women, are being indiscriminately targeted by Russian rockets and artillery.

If one follows the war in Ukraine closely, everything begins to reflect through its lens.

Here’s an example: On March 12, Saudi Arabia staged a mass execution. The details are sketchy, but it’s very likely that the 81 victims were beheaded, possibly in a public event. Victims are beheaded with a sword — if they’re lucky — or with a knife. It’s a brutal, grisly, painful process.

Critics of this mass decapitation argue that many of its 81 victims were executed for political offenses rather than for violent crimes. Allegedly some were tortured and tried in secret. A disproportionate number were Shiites, suggesting a sectarian bias among the Sunni executioners. Due process was undoubtedly in short supply.

But despite these judicial failures, it’s the image of the grisly decapitation of 81 human beings that should stun us.

This is the sort of violence that reminds us that our culture, whatever its flaws, is better than the autocracies of Saudi Arabia, Russia or China. Since World War II, the United States has been the champion of a liberal world order (with a small “l”) that aspires to civilized values: democracy, individual rights, free elections, equality before the law, inclusion, tolerance, maybe even compassion.

The war in Ukraine and the mass execution in Saudi Arabia remind us of how fragile these values are.

So why are we still executing people in our country? Considerable evidence indicates that capital punishment has no deterrent effect, we’ve never figured out how to apply it without regard to race or economic class and undoubtedly we sometimes execute innocent people.

But in a larger framework, it should concern us that we are the last country in the West that carries out state-sanctioned killings, traveling in the dubious company of autocracies such as Saudi Arabia. Certainly, we don’t commit such savageries as beheadings, but several states still use the electric chair and four states permit execution by firing squad. In some states, hanging is still legal.

The war in Ukraine represents a clash between savagery and a superior liberal world order. The United States is on the right side of this conflict, and it’s a distinction between two world views that is worth fighting for.

But democracy and its values require constant recommitment and renewal. We could begin by refusing to allow the state to put people to death on our behalf.

John M. Crisp is an Op-Ed columnist for Tribune News Service.