Abstract:
Penologist their most compelling arguments against the death penalty were based in Locke’s theory of tabula rasa: if the human
personality was simply an amalgam of the experiences projected on an individual over the course of development, it followed logically
that criminal rehabilitation was inherently possible through penal reform. The death penalty as an (ineffective) deterrent would be wholly
unnecessary once total rehabilitation was realized. The criminal was, by the reasoning of the rationalists, a "locus of individual pain and
rights," a reflection of society and an opportunity for improvement. This suggestion flew in the face of the traditional view of the criminal
as a permanent threat to the wellbeing of society a mindset that necessitated the hasty dispatch of said threat. The rationalists contributed
more to the progression of ideas than the development of legislative penal reform. This research paper is arguing traditional overview
and argument related to death penalty and its base on the literature review analysis.
