DOCUMENT H
"[Despite] the productive enlightenment of this age....very few persons have studied and fought against the cruelty of
punishments and the irregularities of criminal procedures...
Is the death penalty really useful and necessary for the security and good order of society? Are torture and torments
just, and do they attain the end for which laws are instituted?
No man can be called guilty before a judge has sentenced him, nor can society deprive him of public protection before it
has been decided that he has in fact violated the conditions under which such protection was accorded him. What right
is it, then, if not simply that of might, which empowers a judge to inflict punishment on a citizen wihle doubt still
remains as to his guilt or innocence?
The sensitive innocent man will then confess himself guilty when he believes that, by so doing, he can put an end to his
torment...
Caesare Beccaria, "On Crime and Punishments." Marvin Perry, et al, Eds. Sources of the Western Tradition, 3rd Ed., Vol.
II: From the Renaissance to the Present. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1995.

8. What problems in the legal system is Beccaria addressing? In what ways were these ideas radical?