A Prompt: What is the definition of humanity, and how does it function in justice?

Truman Capote's classic In Cold Blood is a fictional novel based on the mass shooting of a family in Holcomb Kansas in 1959. The main protagonists of the novel are the two accused murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. What's intriguing in this book is the inhuman representation of the two men. Specifically, when Dewey, a police officer, examines the crime scene he says,

'How many animals can you find in this picture? In a way that's what I am trying to do. Find the hidden animals.' In another instance, the younger brother of Mr. Clutter, the murdered father, tells the newsmen, 'I just want to get a good look at them (Smith and Hickock). I just want to see what kind of animals they are'. These are just two examples that illustrate how the two murderers were predominately perceived by their community. Explicitly, they are presented as creatures that exist outside of the human spectrum* they are not humans, they are animals. In a similar manner, R. Louis Stevenson's gothic novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written in the 19th century, interrogates the boundaries of humanity. To explain, the main characters Jekyll and Hyde exist in the same body but each of them is extremely different from the other. Dr. Jekyll is the good mannered doctor, while Mr. Hyde is a monstrous murdered. In this book, the matter of humanity is again brought up by ethics. Equally to Smith and Hickock, Hyde is represent as inhuman primarily because he is evil. For example, when the lawyer talks about Hyde he declares, 'God bless me that man seems hardly human!' Moreover, when Jekyll talks about Hyde he says, 'That child of hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred'. All these characterizations reflect a society's ideas about criminality and humanity.

To close, a murderer is often perceived as someone that transgresses the human boundaries. Therefore, what does this stigmatization has to say about our understanding of humanity? Indeed, what does it mean to be human? The negation of criminals' humanity, presses the definition of humanity. Since, it seems that humanity is parallel to ethics, then how does this idea relate to matters of justice? Hickock and Perry were both hanged, but what's problematic is that their guilt was not 100% proved. Even today there are theories regarding the involvement of a third party in the murders. Also, even in the books both Perry and Richard admit that the latter didn't kill any of the family members. Of course, these could all be frauds or speculations, but then again what if they are not?

Ultimately, how does our understanding of humanity affect justice and punishment?

*Painting by Benjamin Carbonne

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