Such a one has
nothing, and can acquire nothing, but he has the will to live; and
this is only possible by others supporting him. But as the state
should not do this gratuitously, he must for this purpose yield his
powers to the state to be used in penal labour; and thus he falls
for a time, or it may be for life, into a condition of slavery. But
whoever has committed murder, must die. There is, in this case, no
juridical substitute or surrogate, that can be given or taken for
the satisfaction of justice. There is no likeness or proportion
between life, however painful, and death; and therefore there is no
equality between the crime of murder and the retaliation of it but
what is judicially accomplished by the execution of the criminal.
His death, however, must be kept free from all maltreatment that would
make the humanity suffering in his person loathsome or abominable.
Even if a civil society resolved to dissolve itself with the consent
of all its members- as might be supposed in the case of a people
inhabiting an island resolving to separate and scatter themselves
throughout the whole world- the last murderer lying in the prison
ought to be executed before the resolution was carried out. This ought
to be done in order that every one may realize the desert of his
deeds, and that blood-guiltiness may not remain upon the people; for
otherwise they might all be regarded as participators in the murder as
a public violation of justice.
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