Capital Punishment - Time to reconsider?

[PM-Junkie]

Opinion poll after opinion poll shows that the majority of people want capital punishment back for things like child killing - yet the politicians always vote against it whenever it comes up in parliament.

So much for them representing the views of their constituents eh?

[bogeyman]

Try asking these people. (You may need the services of a good medium to contact some of them.)

To be fair Nick, I did point out the miscarriages of justice in my original post.

However, there comes a point where we cannot give the most blatant murderer the benefit of the doubt - simply because there is very little doubt.

[Cliphead]

A very emotive subject and something I've given a lot of thought to.

I have a lawyer friend in California who represents death row inmates on a pro bono basis, one conversation with him was enough for me to decide that capital punishment is abhorent.

[bogeyman]

Oh and just on the news, some evil scumbag was just sentenced to 11 years for brutally killing his neighbour with a Samurai sword because of a dispute caused by a kid's being football kicked over his fence.

Come again?

[Cyberman]

A very emotive subject and something I've given a lot of thought to.

I have a lawyer friend in California who represents death row inmates on a pro bono basis, one conversation with him was enough for me to decide that capital punishment is abhorent.

I think cold-blooded murder is also abhorrent !!

[Paddy]

If capital punishment is brought back than it should not rely on “beyond reasonable doubt” but instead should be “beyond all doubt” . |Executing a few innocent people is fine until it’s your turn to be executed. Then there are differences between pre-meditated murder and murder in self defence. And then there is the matter of making martyrs.

[bogeyman]

If capital punishment is brought back than it should not rely on “beyond reasonable doubt” but instead should be “beyond all doubt” . |Executing a few innocent people is fine until it’s your turn to be executed. Then there are differences between pre-meditated murder and murder in self defence. And then there is the matter of making martyrs.

Agreed. A judicial decision to execute should be made "beyond all doubt".

However, in these days, when we have individuals who practically advertise and brag about their murders, and use them to gain acceptance and status within their peer group, then I think we're operating with a different set or rules.

We, as a society, can either crack-down and break these thugs now, or live with the exponentially worse consequences in the future.

[Addanc]

Try asking these people. (You may need the services of a good medium to contact some of them.)

UK murder statistics 03/2007-03/2008 784, probably very high for last thirty years. I am confident that most of these murdered people were innocent of any crime; how many innocent people need to die each year to balance potential miscarriages of justice that probably will not amount to more than a handful (tops) each year? 1000? 2000? 10000?

[bogeyman]

UK murder statistics 03/2007-03/2008 784, probably very high for last thirty years. I am confident that most of these murdered people were innocent of any crime; how many innocent people need to die each year to balance potential miscarriages of justice that probably will not amount to more than a handful (tops) each year? 1000? 2000? 10000?

Very good point Addanc. Well though out.

[Ardesco]

I voted for the closest option to my views, which is if they have been proved beyond doubt to have premeditated the murder then string them up.

We shouldn't do it for anybody and everybody because we don't want miscarriages of justice. Its a sticky subject, but I have to agree that the worse it gets the more support I can see for it in the future.....