Written: Sunday 29 April 2012 at 17:44pm
Posted: Sunday 29 April 2012 at 6:50pm
I read this article by Werner Herzog
and I would like to explain that I strongly disagree with what he said about
capital punishment. But first, let’s read what he was interviewed:
Werner Herzog: Capital punishment can never be justified
Director Werner Herzog tells Metro what he learned from making Into The Abyss, a documentary looking at the impact of a triple murder on all those involved.
- 19th April, 2012
Why did
you choose a real-life triple murder for your documentary Into The Abyss?
In other
murder cases, a burglary going awry or maybe a bank robbery where somebody gets
shot, that’s within the boundaries of my comprehension. But in this case it was
so nihilistic, which really is kind of disquieting.
Was your
main intention to humanise the crime and its fallout?
That was
part of it; you get to see the victims’ families but you also get to see all
sorts of people – including those connected to the perpetrators – as
protagonists in the film.
What is
your stance on capital punishment?
I do not
think that any state, no matter what the circumstances are, should ever be
allowed to kill anyone off.
But do
prisons work?
That’s a
huge question, one I can’t really answer. The US has an excessive amount of
people in prison and a lot of things are wrong. In prison generally you have a
huge over-representation of people coming from poverty and a racial distortion
of things.
Did you
look at capital punishment in other countries?
Since I
live in America, I was interested in some sort of American Gothic but we have
to be aware that many of the most populous nations have capital punishment.
There are some encouraging signs: Russia, for instance, abolished it last year.
But there are no signs that it’s going to disappear.
Into The
Abyss is out now in cinemas and on DVD and Blu-ray on April 30.
I
would like to respond to one of Werner Herzog’s comment.
Quote: “I do not
think that any state, no matter what the circumstances are, should ever be
allowed to kill anyone off.”
Rebuttal: If the state cannot execute a guilty criminal, then the state should
abolish the armed forces and police cannot carry firearms anymore. Werner
Herzog, here are two quotes for you:
First, a quote from French Philosopher, In J.J. Rousseau's
The Social Contract written in 1762, he says the following: “Again, every rogue who
criminously attacks social rights becomes, by his wrong, a rebel and a traitor
to his fatherland. By contravening its laws, he ceases to be one of its
citizens: he even wages war against it. In such circumstances, the State and he
cannot both be saved: one or the other must perish. In killing the criminal, we
destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs
that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the
State.”
Second, a quote from
19th century American theologian, Alexander Campbell: “Wars are either defensive or aggressive. But, in either
point of view they are originated and conducted on the assumption that man has
a right, for just cause, to take away the life of a man. For it needs no
argument to convince anyone, however obtuse, that man cannot rightfully kill a
thousand or a million of persons, if he cannot lawfully kill one! I wonder not,
then, that peace-men are generally, if not universally, in favor of the total
abolition of capital punishment.”
Werner
Herzog, I do hope you understand that the state has the right and duty to
protect its citizens from dangerous and violent people.
