Capital Punishment and the Hanged Man

"Lucky bit her lip. Until now, she hadn't given a thought to things from Steve's perspective. For her this was an inconvenience - for Steve it could mean death." ( p.222)

An eye for an eye , a tooth for a tooth:the basic tenet of justice which would seem fair because you should be prepared to pay for your crime.

But in reality, this extreme form of justice has several people shouting themselves hoarse in defense of the perpetrator. Sometimes the excuse is that the murderer was unaware of what he was doing as in the case of several crimes committed by persons of unsound mind; sometimes the excuse is that the life was taken in a fit of passion hence the person was temporarily insane; sometimes the evidence is just circumstantial and there is no positive proof that the murder was indeed the murderer. So very often the murder gets off with just a life imprisonment.

Is this real justice?

On the other hand, a person is killed under Capital Punishment can never be brought back if it is later proved that he was wrongly indicted and sentenced.

Finally, after killing the perpetrator of the crime, can the murdered or killed person be brought back to life?

The Twelfth trump card in the Tarot is the Hanged Man :a person hanging upside-down by one foot, often suspended from a wooden beam (as in a cross or gallows) or a tree. While this card has several meanings it essentially asks one simple question: Is the man or the world upside-down?

This hanged man seems free and liberated, almost at peace with himself. So in the end, a man receiving corporal punishment would essentially be freed of the guilt and remorse that he would have to live with the rest of his life.