The risks of archaic thinking

In the early 1990s Ukraine was one of the world’s leaders in the number of executions by firing squad. During the first four years of our independence this punishment was meted out to 612 people. The abolition of capital punishment being a mandatory condition for joining the Council of Europe, Ukraine bowed to European pressure and imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 1997 and finally abolished it in 2001.

On February 22, 2011, the Ver-khovna Rada registered the bill “On Introducing Changes to the Criminal and Procedural Codices of Ukraine (Regarding the Introduction of Capital Punishment).” The bill was drawn up by Communist MPs Petro Symonenko, Ihor Aleksieiev, and Valerii Bevz. They claim that it is necessary to reintroduce capital punishment because of rising crime and the growing incarceration-related expenditures. Such statements are always made with references to public opinion. “As our MPs tour the country, they are constantly approached by vo-ters who ask why the murderers convicted for heinous crimes are released after a short time and very often commit murders again. The people are saying: it is time to put an end to this,” Communist MP Yevhen Tsarkov says.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Sociology’s experts maintain that there is quite a high degree of support for capital punishment by an incompetent majority in all societies. Yet the institute’s surveys show that the attitude toward the death penalty in Ukraine has changed in the past ten years. While in 2000 two thirds of the population believed that capital pu-nishment had been abolished too early, today this viewpoint is shared by only 50 percent. We asked Yevhen HOLOVAKHA, Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, to explain these trends and spell out his own arguments.

“It is no wonder that nobody else but the Communists would once again raise the question of capital punishment. Their chances in the next election are getting slimmer and slimmer. So it is just a populist slogan which is, nevertheless, grounded in considerable public support for the idea of reintroducing capital punishment to deter serious crime. What does this mean? It means that there is a high level of aggression and crime in our society. This, naturally, worries people, and, as most of them are laymen, they think that reintroducing the death penalty is the only way to reduce the threat to their lives. In reality — as experts in history, psychology, and law know very well — capital punishment is not a way to reduce the dangers to people’s lives, health, and property. Capital punishment is a historical vestige of ancient traditions. It is very difficult to find a culture that had no capital punishment, just a few exceptions. As for modern theory and practice of criminal punishment, the countries that have achieved high standards of li-ving and democracy are gradually rejecting capital punishment. Of course, there is the special case of the US, which deserves a long analysis. Incidentally, the death penalty is not applied in all US states, so this question is a matter of heated debate. The US has an altogether different system of jurisprudence and punishment, as well as an altogether different level of corruption and professionalism in law-enforcement and judicial bodies. The general European experience shows that abolishing capital punishment is indispensable for [integration with] Europe. And, as far as I know, Ukraine is aspiring to join the European community. This aspect of the problem must be taken into account. Should we reintroduce capital pu-nishment, we will be in fact unable to march towards Europe.

“In general, Ukraine has a rather strange system of punishment, which we inherited from the Soviet era. Very serious crimes, such as homicide, carry a 10-12-year sentence. We must study the experience of European countries and bring our law into line with European, not Soviet legislation.”

From the viewpoint of social psychology, is there anything special in the question of introducing or abo-lishing capital punishment in a country that suffered from the Soviet repressive machine?

“The point is that it is extremely problematic to reintroduce capital punishment in a country where it used to be a rule, not an exception, and affected millions of people who were either sentenced to death or exe-cuted without a trial. This is another argument against reintroducing the death penalty, for there is a danger that this experience may be repeated. The danger of settling scores on an ideological or pragmatic basis is much higher in Ukraine than in other countries, due to the Soviet period.

“The capital punishment issue is closely tied with the level of aggression. And civic aggression is directly linked with that of the state. If the state becomes crueler, so do the citizens. The state must be civil. And if it is necessary to make punishments harsher, this should be done – but not up to the death penalty. For example, a 30-year prison term will make it impossible to repeat a crime. In this country, not only are criminals sentenced to short terms for premeditated murder, they can also be freed ahead of schedule! Capital punishment seems to be a problem for the Communists rather than for the Ukrainian state. Our problem is to bring our law into line with present-day requirements.”

If this debate still comes up in society, in what way and tonality should it be conducted?

“I can remember that a survey on this question was conducted in France about 10 years ago: most of those polled also supported the return of capital punishment. But public opinion is not always a decisive factor in decision-making. If decisions were made in Ukraine exclusively on the basis of public opinion, our powers that be would be the first to suffer, and very much so. So, naturally, it is experts who should begin the discussion. It seems to me that the idea of capital punishment is receiving lukewarm support from experts (psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, sociologists, and even politicians); few really support it. If we had some really influential civic organizations, which would insist that this is the only possible way to deal with crime in this country, we would be, naturally, obliged to heed their viewpoint. But have you ever heard at least one authoritative civic organization call for reintroducing capital punishment? I have not. We need not come back to what we have barely gotten rid of.”

Assisted by The Day’s regional reporters, we held a virtual roundtable on the question of reintroducing capital punishment in Ukraine. Here are the opinions of experts.

Oleksandr MUZYKA, Dean, Social Psychology Department, Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University; professor; Candidate of Sciences (Psychology):

“Suffice it for a newspaper to carry a run-of-the-mill report on an industrial injury, and all higher educational institutions will receive a directive to raise the subject ‘Occupational Health and Safety’ to the level of the Soviet-era ‘CPSU History,’ i.e., to make it part of final exams and graduation papers in all specialties… It seems to me Lunacharsky once said: If you want to raise an atheist, make Scripture a compulsory school subject. Maybe, it will be better to use the money spent on such ‘reactions’ to make good educational films and social advertising? But this will need an effort. And the rise of juvenile delinquency? I agree with those who put the blame on, among other things, an aggressive media environment, militaristic computer games, and easy access to porn. Why not spend the money earmarked for the repressive machine on making and spreading an alternative Ukrai-nian-language product, such as intellectual and educational Ukrainian-language computer games and teenager-oriented TV serials, which would set social behavior standards? Why not support children’s art centers? Why not support young people’s civic organizations?”

Myroslav MARYNOVYCH, Vice-Rector, Ukrainian Catholic University, human rights advocate founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, founder of Amnesty International Movement of Ukraine:

“The experience of the Soviet Union and Europe shows that reintroducing capital punishment did not immediately cause the situation with crime to improve, as it depended on other factors. On the contrary, the Soviet experience proved that when the number of rapes had risen and Soviet lawmakers introduced a death penalty for rape, this did not reduce the number of rapes but, instead, increased the number of murders because rapists began to kill their victims to cover their tracks. So I have an unambiguously negative attitude toward the reintroduction of capital punishment.”

Oleh MYTSYK, lawyer, Lviv:

“As a Christian, I am categorically against reintroducing capital punishment — God grants us life and only God can reclaim it. Taking into account the number of heinous crimes, I, as a citizen, could perhaps let myself think that a harsher punishment should be meted out to criminals. But, as a lawyer, I will say firmly that this must not be done. Why? Firstly, because of the total corruption in the law-enforcement bodies. Secondly, because judgers are unwilling to acquit defendants. Statistics say that acquittals account for a paltry 0.02 percent. As policemen resort to tortures and violence on a mass scale, innocent people very often plead guilty. Now just fancy a person who was forced to confess to a murder… I must also emphasize the extremely poor legal culture of the populace. Our people do not know how to defend themselves from the very first minute, and they do not feel the need of having a defense attorney when they deal with law-enforcement bodies.”

Oleksii HORETSKY, human rights activist, graduate of the higher international human rights course at the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, Rivne:

“Capital punishment runs counter to the development of social relations in a democracy. As Ukraine abolished it and signed international documents to this effect, reintroducing capital punishment today would be not only an unserious but also an unlawful step. It is rather difficult in legal terms to reintroduce this pu-nishment. As some international documents were signed, the draft laws that contradict them will be invalid. As for the social side of the matter, the world is showing a tendency towards the humanization of society — while earlier in some states two thirds of the respondents supported reintroducing capital punishment, now less than a half of them are in favor of doing so. Many countries are abolishing this kind of punishment. The death penalty is unable to change the crime situation. This is the most primitive approach of the authorities to the resolution of the problem. In reality, life imprisonment is a very harsh punishment. The state should, on the contrary, care about raising prison standards, as civilized countries do.”

Volodymyr PODHORNOV, sociologist, president of the Ukrainian foundation Public Thought, Lviv:

“Once the crisis started, the level of crime gradually began to rise in Lviv oblast, and this became one of the top ten problems in the region. Naturally, corruption, price rises, and unemployment are on top of the list, with crime coming seventh or eighth, but there is an upward trend. Now about capital punishment. We began to study this topic when the moratorium was declared. Clearly, there is no unanimity in this question: the public is approximately divided 50 to 50. (When we live better, we are kinder.) As 80 percent of Lviv oblast residents cherish European values, the number of those who support ca-pital punishment is smaller than that of those who favor the moratorium. But we also put other questions in our surveys, such as whether people trust the law-enforcement bodies and courts, whether innocents could be imprisoned or sentenced to death. The respondents want investigations to be fair and punishment to be meted out to real criminals. At present, innocents account for 30 percent of those languishing in prisons. Does this mean they can also be executed? As our polls show, Lviv oblast does not agree to this. My personal opinion is: why should we disturb society with this question?”

Serhii PASICHNYK, lawyer at the Defend Your Rights project in Cherkasy oblast:

“In the current situation, reintroducing capital punishment will cause more disadvantages than advantages. Naturally, there should be some kind of ultimate punishment which would make people think twice. But, frankly speaking, with due account of our law and justice situation, there always is a risk that capital punishment will be first of all applied to those who have nothing to do with this article of the criminal code. Of course, there are some crimes that carry a harsher pu-nishment in most civilized countries. For example, crueler punishment should be applied for crimes against women and children (emasculation of pedophiles, etc.). Although the US adheres to democratic standards, some of its states have not abolished the death penalty. So this is open to debate, but I will emphasize that now, when law-enforcers may apprehend and, moreover, convict people on trumped-up charges, there is always a risk that capital punishment will be misused, as in the countries that still retain it.

“You can trace the results of different attitudes to capital punishment by the history of a number of countries where it is applied. For example, China metes out showpiece capital punishment to those convicted of corruption and other criminals, which has a certain disciplinary effect on the populace. On the other hand, there is Somalia and Iran, where the death penalty is in fact used for the suppression of dissent, gender pressure, etc.”

Volodymyr FESKOV, representative of the VESTED Carpathian Human Rights Agency, Uzhhorod:

“What matters for me is the number of tragedies that occurred in the life of the people I deal with, the causes and consequences of these problems. I often meet people who were hurt and received no tangible support from state-appointed defense attorneys. Moreover, the latter have shut their doors to them and are doing their best for those cases to be dismissed, often resorting to hair-raising methods.

“Local Internet publications are crawling with headlines on crimes. Many of the latter are the result of hopelessness and a loss of control over the situation. This means nothing is being done to prevent crimes, although bureaucrats and law-enforcers claim to the contrary in their upbeat reports. The atrocious crimes, which keep the whole city on tenterhooks, are not being solved. The names of the monsters are often well known, but have they answered for their actions?

“I more than once saw to it that troublemakers were taken to police stations, but policemen would shake hands with them and allow them to threaten me. Last month Monda, an Uzhhorod policeman, decided to intimidate me with detention on a trumped-up charge — perhaps to wrest money from me. When I asked the officer to produce his ID, he gripped at my throat before my friends’ eyes. Of course, I will not forgive him this, but how many people are prepared to defend themselves?”

Oleksandr BUKALOV, chairman, Donetsk Memorial civic human rights organization:

“First of all, we have seen no explosion of crime since this Soviet-era atavism was at last abolished. There have always been fluctuations in the number of serious crimes in the Donetsk region, but I would rather put this down to imperfect statistics (or, in simpler terms, the doctoring of statistics by top-brass officials).

“An individual who has neither money nor ‘pull’ in the governing bodies may pay with his own life for a crime he has not committed. It will be a good idea to recall here that a brazen serial killer ran amok in Mari-upol for several years in a row. All the city’s operatives were mobilized to catch him. When the monster was finally tracked down and caught, it turned out that an innocent man had already been convicted for those heinous crimes. If capital punishment had been in force at the time, it would have been impossible to correct the judicial mistake.

“Finally, let us note that ‘the bullet in the head’ is in fact not a deserved punishment (for justice must always leave the wrongdoer a hope for repentance and atonement) but a short shrift to an ‘unsuitable’ member of society. I will say again that it is a Soviet-era vestige. We will find the current debate on this topic absurd in 10 to 15 years.”

Vasyl SUKHOV, coordinator at Public Activists of the Dnieper civic organization, member of the communal council at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Administration:

“Taking into account the situation in our justice system and the way law-enforcement bodies work, it is just inadmissible to reintroduce capital punishment in Ukraine. We should not forget that, before Chykatylo, Onoprienko, or Tkach were spotted and caught, their crimes had been ascribed to innocent people and some of them were even executed. No matter how serious a crime may be, a long or life prison term is an adequate punishment. Any murderer or rapist remains alone in prison and can reconsider a thousand times what he has done. Imprisonment does not deprive a person of his life, which, therefore, always leaves a chance to correct the judicial error. This is why almost all the European countries have abolished capital punishment. Moreover, they have a jury trial which deals with the gravest crimes. Ukraine does not have this kind of trial and, by all accounts, it will not appear soon. So it is very easy to frame a criminal case and convict an innocent person. What is more, if capital punishment is restored, no killers will be needed to settle scores — this role can be played by corrupt prosecutors and judges who will ‘ensure’ a death sentence for a certain bribe. As for the crime situation in the country and in the region, it is undoubtedly worsening — not so much because criminals are holding sway as because the law-enforcement bodies are degrading. They do not perform their functions and often put the innocent behind bars. They do so to ‘improve’ their records and thus secure pay rises or bonuses. It is no secret that many criminal cases, especially in economic crimes, are opened and closed for money. On the whole, bribery blossoms in the law-enforcement bodies. I know this not by hearsay, for I was a member of the human rights civic council at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Internal Affairs Directorate. The regional police command recently disbanded this council — perhaps because it used to raise sensitive questions. On the other hand, my colleagues and I are trying to continue human rights activity at a civic council established at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Administration.”

Arsen OSMANOV, lawyer at the Press Freedom Monitoring Committee in the Crimea, human rights advocate:

“Lawyers and sociologists always note that there is a close relationship between crime and the economic condition of society. When life worsens, a part of society, which has found itself on the margins of the economic process, always tries to survive by way of abuses, economic crimes, or even plain thefts and robberies. No wonder, in this situation the public is so desperate that it endorses the idea of restoring death penalty as ultimate punishment. But common sense and competence of law-enforcers says that this must not be allowed to happen.

“First, the practice of Europe’s leading countries shows that a successful society can cope with all problems without capital punishment because this is essentially a plain, albeit legitimate, murder, which nobody authorized us, ordinary people, or the state to commit.

“Second, capital punishment is not a society’s manifestation of humaneness to itself, and no successful self-development of society or reinforcement of its moral foundations is possible in this case. As time goes by, societies are supposed to improve, while, as history shows, capital pu-nishment leads to the degradation of man as a social creature.

“Third, capital punishment is not effective. Although it has been used for centuries, this has failed to produce a result or reduce the level of crime in many countries.

“Fourth, replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment as ultimate punishment is more cost-effective because this will cut the penitentiary system’s expenses for maintaining the mechanisms of carrying out a death sentence, which are far more expensive than the upkeep of living prisoners.”

Dementii BILY, chairman of the Kherson oblast organization of the Committee of Ukrainian Voters, member of the Ukrainian Human Rights Helsinki League:

“We must give people a chance to repent and atone for their sins. This is what Christian morality teaches us. Naturally, the socioeconomic situation in Kherson oblast is deteriorating, as it is all over Ukraine. People are getting poorer. Unemployment, lack of money and prospects, is boosting alcoholism and, in the long run, crime. Educational work alone will not do. First of all, the state must improve the economy. I am convinced that the creation of new jobs and economic development will drastically reduce the number of crimes. Young people will be able to evince interests not only in pubs and ill-reputed night clubs but also in a healthy lifestyle, as well as to raise their cultural and edu-cational level. Their very existence will compel them to do so.”