Alternative Punishments in Melville's Billy Budd

Noted Herman Melville-scholar H. Bruce Franklin makes a convincing case for positioning Melville's novella Billy Budd as an artistic statement against capital punishment. It is likely that Melville was indeed against capital punishment. It is also evident that Captain Vere makes a morally questionable decision in his determination to hang Billy, but not one that oversteps his authority. Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (2000 edition) states that a person who offers any violence against a superior "shall be punished [...] by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct [...]" (IV-18). It would have been reasonable for Vere to turn Billy over to Vere's superiors and remove himself from the role of sole authority to key witness in the case. Nevertheless, Vere does act within his rights; any disobedience to a superior officer, let alone a physical threat, is potentially punishable by death, especially during war (true today as well as two hundred years ago).