egrading to those who have to do it..." and "...useless, [as it] does not deter others from the same crime."(81). In his first argument, Mencken sets out to compare the work of the hangman to that of a soldier or garbage man. All are distasteful jobs, but are necessary in our society. In many ways they all keep our streets safe and clean.Secondly, Mencken attempts to attack that stance that capital punishment is a deterrent to crime. His point, if any, falls short here, but opens the door for him to discuss his own theory of the Aristotelian term katharsis. He describes it as "...a salubrious discharge of emotions, a healthy letting off of steam."(82) In other words, revenge. His explanation for the need of revenge reiterates the age old "But if injury ensues you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth..."(Exodus 21:23). People, more so victims, want to see the criminal suffer as they have suffered. By giving these examples, he makes his point well, but his vocabulary sends the reader in search of a dictionary. Ellison 5On the point of suffering, Mencken agrees that the criminal should suffer, but also points out that only certain murderers should suffer the death penalty. Here I do not agree. The willful taking of a human life for reasons other than self-defense or defense of home and country, is in no way justifiable whether it be one life or ten lives. Mencken refers to "ordinary homicides"(83), but gives no example of one. What makes a homicide "ordinary"? Is the woman who poisons her husband for his insurance money any different from the man who shoots a cashier and two bystanders while he is robbing the local gas station? Both have taken a life for their own gain. Both are "openly defiant of all civilized order"(83). Both should suffer the ultimate penalty as did serial killers before them such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Bundy spent a good ten years on death row before finally being executed in Sparky, Florid...
