National Reports
VIZZARD, WILLIAM R. Jr.
NATIONAL REPORTS By William R. Vizzard Jr. Chessman Case Shows Lost-ness' of American Moral Fiber SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Edmund G. Brown's last-minute 60-day delay of execution for...
...Not that we should disregard and discard out of hand such views, not at all...
...It may be cruel to suggest that Brown's pusillanimous abdication of clearly executive responsibility (for a definitive decision, one way or the other) in the 60-day reprieve, and his call upon the California legislature to decide this for him, indicate Brown's basic unfitness for the gubernatorial (or Presidential...
...on the contrary, it is a continuing act, spread in time, and necessarily includes other criminal actions, e.g., extortion, sex crimes, etc., even possibly murder...
...We may, for the sake of argument, grant that society might well decide las we have, long since) that the murderer's life should assuredly not be worth more than that of his victim...
...But it is unquestionably more cruel to exploit Chessman's plight for Brown's political aggrandizement...
...The usual argument against capital punishment includes both the reasonable element of post-execution evidence reopening the case, as well as the claim that the threat of capital punishment does not in fact deter crimes...
...lives on this planet with many other people, and it is desirable not to irritate them needlessly...
...These days few citizens of any society are really capable of effective self-help...
...Dandy publicity for a Presidential aspirant...
...But the important implication of the Chessman case has received little attention throughout the entire affair...
...With a very few exceptions, the consensus of human society upholds the right of the individual to defend himself against injury, even given certain conditions to the degree of killing his adversary...
...We may consider that the U.S...
...No smart gambler consistently bets against himself, and this is precisely the import of the anti-capital punishment argument...
...Not only adding fuel to the fires of the "pro-" and "anti-" Chessmanites, the action also opens Brown to attack (and defense) by political partisans...
...office...
...The fact that Brown seemed relieved to exonerate himself in his 60-day stay of execution by depending upon the suggestion from Foggy Bottom stands as a symbol of the moral apathy, the "lost-ness" of U.S...
...To be sure, the U.S...
...Ostensibly, the issue no longer is one of the convicts guilt—this seems to have been admitted even by the most rabid "pro" forces—nor...
...The views and attitudes of foreign neighbors are theirs, reflected against their social values and judgments...
...And this is but a small symptom of the sickness which faces us today in our world setting...
...Sidney Hook's rejoinder to Bertrand Russell's "surrender" proposals focuses the issue sharply: Is life worth living without liberty...
...The opposing view, labelled "retribution" or "vengeance" by the "anti's...
...Perhaps the most obvious implication of the Chessman case pertains to Governor Brown and his own political aspirations...
...It asks questions which we must answer if we are to find moral certainty, and a hope for survival...
...This is the true moral issue involved, and no mere matter of criminal punishment standards...
...In its microcosm, this applies directly to the Chessman case...
...in its macrocosm, to U.S...
...But should society gamble on the already known loser, gambling against the victims (society), with the dice loaded in favor of the criminal...
...The press has already pointed out ad nauseam that Chessman's crimes did not include murder...
...The counter-argument to this view is simple : There are other alternatives to capital punishment...
...is working for a Ph.D in political science at the University of California at Berkeley, if we wish to extrapolate from the "social cost" concept...
...I submit that both these arguments miss the point entirely...
...But, in the long run, will we find ourselves any less irritating if we remain indecisive, unable to make up our minds for ourselves —after taking into account, naturally, such advice from others as we find pertinent and useful...
...Only a fool will argue that the hostile display of a deadly weapon is not a "clear threat of death...
...society...
...Do we know what it is...
...Ah, but our criminal need not be incarcerated for life—perhaps he will "reform," and be paroled, or even pardoned...
...To turn to the capital punishment issue, aside from Chessman...
...The enemy has pushed upon us, in a categorical imperative as it were, the issue of sheer survival...
...Murder ( or illegal killing, at least) need not be always "planned"—it may be sudden, very concentrated in time...
...This holds whether the "passion" element, with all its intricacies of definition, enters or not...
...Chessman's crime was "only" kidnapping, with sex perversion added...
...Put in another way, the punishment is the cost of the delict, the "moral cost," WILLIAM R. VIZZARD JR...
...Among these conditions is the clear threat of death...
...Punishment for a criminal act may be viewed, much more functionally, as action designed to preclude repetition of the crime by the same person...
...One California legislator reportedly is considering possible impeachment proceedings against Brown...
...society...
...seems to rest on grounds that hearken back to Mosaic Law: an eye for an eye...
...But if the individual is authorized to kill in his own self-defense, should society acting "remotely" be restricted to less...
...Anti-Brown forces should find little difficulty in undercutting a man who has to trade on a criminal's notoriety...
...In Chessman's case, this "moral cost" aspect is especially pertinent...
...On this basis, we must conclude that it is unreasonable to claim that the more serious crime should entail the lesser punishment...
...But our views are ours...
...society...
...and from foreign lands are marshalled to support each stand: neither can "prove" the points alleged, for there is, after all, no way to count uncommitted crimes and link these to the nature of the punishment...
...The inescapable fact that we cannot, or will not, face this issue squarely portends evil for the moral fiber of U.S...
...One locally current jibe holds that Chessman's self-taught brilliant legal maneuvers prove clearly that the legal profession's "self-generated" "pomposity" and "humbug" are really not so very hard to penetrate...
...Chessman Case Shows Lost-ness' of American Moral Fiber SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Edmund G. Brown's last-minute 60-day delay of execution for Caryl Chessman raises again the issue of capital punishment in America...
...In civilized societies, the state monopolizes the legal use of violence, although "self-help" is not prevented...
...This, some maintain, should in itself except him from the death penalty...
...moral structure: Do we have one...
...His crimes were, after all, not acts against certain, pre-selected individuals, but "random" choices, thus unquestionably crimes against society as distinguished from premeditated crimes against a definite person...
...This is possible...
...is not so much in the position of contending for world leadership as it is for retaining a place in world society at all...
...Statistics from various states in the U.S...
...Life imprisonment, for one...
...Do we claim that the criminal is due considerations of humaneness that society denies to his victims...
...Do we understand it...
...But can we not make a strong case that, whatever one's view on capital punishment, kidnapping is a more heinous crime than murder...
...But kidnapping is not by its very nature concentrated...
...Let us not prattle about life imprisonment being "more humane" than execution—an equally strong fand equally inconclusive) case may be made on either side...
...We may, and throughout our history we have, accepted, adapted and internalized the suggestions and lessons we have learned from others...
...And indeed there are...
...after the seemingly interminable court appeals and legal maneuvers, is it one of due process...
...Chessman himself throws the gauntlet down on the grounds of the capital punishment issue...
...If we claim that society should under no circumstances snuff out the life of a criminal, whatever his crime, we in fact undermine the basic concept of equal protection of the laws—we afford the criminal protections which we do not afford his victims—and his victims are society, writ large...
...The basic issue cuts to the very core of U.S...
...Both sides in the Chessman case maintain that the issue carries implications far beyond the fate of one wretched convict...
...We should certainly respect them...
...Is life without liberty meaningful...
...Our apparent "lost-ness," our slipping away from being "sure" (in one way or the other) of "what to do about Chessman...
...But these have become ours, and the process is internal...
...True...
...Will not our foreign neighbors respect us for decisive (even if unpleasant) action, rather than for slovenly indecision...
...slices to the bone...
Vol. 43 • March 1960 • No. 12
