Let me explain! The death penalty will only be applied to a person convicted of a major vicious crime, or of a pattern of lesser vicious crimes! Not a crime of passion or a one-time lapse. A ‘vicious crime’ is one that is knowingly and willfully perpetrated and which involves premeditated and unwarranted violence, sadism, cruelty to a child or helpless victim, anti-state or anti-ethnos-survival activity, or other aggravating factors. A first-time minor vicious offens. All’ll earn a prison sentence, together with retraining and education. A second offense will draw a longer term, plus intensive therapy, and a clear warning that this is the last chance! A third such crime will be punished with death. The sentence will be reviewed for accuracy and justice, but after that there will be no further delay or appeal.
Unfair? Barbaric?
Not at all! We must remove social units which malfunction and which damage other units around them. We must weed our garden, remove rotten apples from our barrel, destroy vicious dogs, and cull defective livestock. There is nothing inhumane about this. It is far more humane than returning offenders to prison to live out lives of hopelessness and degradation! The community… the ethnos… is our first responsibility; we must protect it from those who would destroy it. The ethnos owes nothing to anti-social individuals. No social contract exists unless both parties subscribe to it.
The sanctity of human lire?
In which society was human life ever really sacred? Lip-service is easy: how often we’ve heard ‘turn the other cheek’! Tell me which nation ever actually followed that precept! We will maximize opportunities for positive development. To those who give, we will return ten-fold. Only those who still cannot abide by our social contract after all remedies have been exhausted will be eliminated. This will be done with as much kindness and dignity as possible. But we will do it. We cannot afford to do otherwise.
Who are we to judge, you ask?
Who is anybody to judge anything? Who gives me the right to tell you not to park here, not to dump garbage in my driveway, not to steal my chickens? That’s the social contract. You give us the right to act by electing us. If you disagree, then elect somebody else! If you accept our contract, then we will judge, and we will carry out our program with as little hypocrisy and phoney piety as possible!
What about occasional miscarriages of justice: the poor man dragged off to die for a crime he did not commit?
Such instances are rare; they will be rarer still once we get our technology in place. Fewer innocent persons will be convicted, and no one will ever be executed without a clear record of violent anti-social activity or recidivism.
People in prison now? Professional criminals with long records?
They will finish their current sentences and then be released. They will also be told that the next time they commit a vicious offense they will be put to death, with no hesitation and no apology.
The insanity plea?
It will still be there for those who deserve it. We’re devising better tests and treatments for those who suffer from mental ailments. The insanity plea won’t be as easily available as before, however: we believe most people are rational enough to be responsible for their actions, whatever their childhood traumas or other psychological problems might be. We will be compassionate; that’s all I promise you.
No, sir, we do not intend to put traffic violators to death, no matter how many tickets they have! (Laughter) Permanent loss of one’s driver’s license will be more common, however, and deaths or injuries resulting from drunken or careless driving are indeed ‘vicious crimes.’ An automobile is a lethal weapon.
What else? You. in the front row, miss. Equality? Won t death sentences for serious offenders result in more Blacks and other minorities being executed than Whites?
The answer is yes. at least in the short run, while the minorities remain among us. We will allow no inequity, however; all citizens are equal before the bar of justice! Factors that cause Blacks or other minorities to commit more crimes than Whites are another matter: they will be remedied as quickly as possible. We believe that emigration to more ethnically homogeneous homelands is the best approach to this problem. Until our emigration program has been fully implemented we will also correct the environment, improve education, and provide opportunities for those minorities who remain among us temporarily. What we will not tolerate is a high crime rate… due to any cause! We are willing to weed our garden; if others among us are not willing to weed theirs, then we will do it for them.
A last question? You. the young man with the glasses in the third row? What about lawyers? Is your law degree still going to be worth something once our judicial system is revamped?
The answer is a qualified yes. We won’t go as far as Shakespeare: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’ (Laughter) There will be less Tor lawyers to do as our computer network takes over certain functions: fewer appeals, fewer retrials, fewer lengthy corporate cases, fewer hung juries, fewer judgments dependent upon wealth, luck, charisma, or other personal factors. Lawyers will be needed to prepare evidence and advise clients. They may make less money than they do now, and they’ll have to learn some new concepts of law. The muddle we have today cannot and will not be allowed to continue.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Friday, August 5, 2050
“Not happy?” Liese stood by the window that looked out over the jigsaw puzzle of Seattle’s city center. From the V.I.P. penthouse on the top floor of the hospital, Puget Sound was visible between the tall, grey buildings as a pool of silvery mercury spilled across a rumpled, green-baize horizon.
“Sure,” Lessing replied. “Happy as a man can be with a face full of cotton wadding.” He tried not to lisp. The wound in his cheek was nearly healed, but the stitches and plastic still felt awkward.
He shifted to take the weight off his left side. Last Wednesday the doctors had performed what they said would be the final operation on his shoulder, and it still hurt. In time, he’d regain the complete use of his arm, they told him: no prosthetics, no slings, not the black, leather-clad hand that Wrench had offered to have Eighty-Five design, the one replete with a dagger, a tear-gas projector, a stitch-gun, and probably a sixty-five-blade Swiss army knife! He was reminded of a mad scientist in some movie he had seen in his childhood, a man whose artificial arm had a will of its own.
Liese drifted over to the bed. She sat on his right side to let him rub her neck with his good hand. “Feels nice.”
“It better. I spent weeks strengthening these fingers when they thought I was going to lose the arm.”
“Green light soon.” She twisted around to kiss him. “Mmm. Back to work now.”