Metropol

wells wrote:In my view (not that anyone cares) not all civilsed countries can be wrong and I cant think of one civilsed country with the Death Penalty (athough im probably wrong).

Of course thats not to say I think we should judge our own standards on other countries.

Oscar wrote:Mistakes do happen, yes. However, deaths caused by NHS errors are - Dr Shipman aside - the result of either unavoidable accidents or plain negligence.

Both of these causes are unsatisfactory, but neither is a meditated attempt by the state to take someone's life (wrongly) as an act of justice.

I don't see how you can call the death penalty a "meditated attempt by the state to take someone's life".

At the end of the day, the final decision in every case was with the jury, not the state.

I'm afraid you're off on the old chestnuts of "take all the cars off the road because the drivers might kill someone", or "ban all guns because a human finger might pull a trigger".

I think I might just have said this about something else, recently, but you need to deal with the cause of things, not just attack the effect.

I too am a strong believer in dishing out harsher punishments for criminals. We're too damned soft in this country nowadays,
and I believe in most cases, the punishment should fit the crime. For example, whenever I hear of some cowardly bastard
that beats up an elderly person for no good reason, I think the scumbag deserves a punishment beating in return.

Convicted paedophiles should also recieve much harsher prison sentences. Those that download child porn from the internet
should receive a minimum of 15 years in jail, with no chance of parole. On release, they must be constantly monitored, with
whatever method possible, and also receive a lifetime ban from using any device that can access the internet.

Chil molesters, on the other hand, should get life. And I beleive life really should mean life. Spending the remainder of their
worthless lives rotting in a prison cell, with absolutely no chance of release. Meanwhile, anyone that has murdered a child,
should get the death penalty. Same with any other person that commits a motiveless murder. There is NO excuse.

Maybe some of those the received capital punishment in the past may well have since been pardoned, due to the original
evidence not being good enough by today's standards to merit the death penalty. But, let's be realistic. The way crimes
can be investigated nowadays, and with the use of things such as DNA evidence, there can be very little margin of error
(if any) when it comes to finding out exactly who has committed a murder. Like fingerprints, DNA is unique to everyone.
And while it may be possible to have surgery to alter or remove your fingerprints, it's impossible to change your DNA.

I agree with Nick on this one. We really need to re-instate the death penalty as soon as we possibly can in this country.
Anyone that says otherwise must be a bleeding heart liberal wussie. If you oppose it, just imagine how you'd feel if a
close friend, or member of your family was murdered in cold blood. You'd certainly change your mind then.

DJGM wrote: just imagine how you'd feel if a close friend, or member of your family was murdered in cold blood. You'd certainly change your mind then.

What if a close freind or family members commited the murder? Would you change your mind then?

Nick Harvey wrote:Can't agree with either of you, I'm afraid. I'm with Sir John.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life.

It was good enough till the fifties and was a damn fine deterrant. It should still be in place to this day.

i'm not against the death penality at all; i take issue with the fact that stevens has singled out killing a police officer as a crime worthy of death, and therefore suggesting that the life of a police officer is worth more than a civilian.

DJGM wrote:I too am a strong believer in dishing out harsher punishments for criminals. We're too damned soft in this country nowadays,
and I believe in most cases, the punishment should fit the crime. For example, whenever I hear of some cowardly bastard
that beats up an elderly person for no good reason, I think the scumbag deserves a punishment beating in return.

Convicted paedophiles should also recieve much harsher prison sentences. Those that download child porn from the internet
should receive a minimum of 15 years in jail, with no chance of parole. On release, they must be constantly monitored, with
whatever method possible, and also receive a lifetime ban from using any device that can access the internet.

Chil molesters, on the other hand, should get life. And I beleive life really should mean life. Spending the remainder of their
worthless lives rotting in a prison cell, with absolutely no chance of release. Meanwhile, anyone that has murdered a child,
should get the death penalty. Same with any other person that commits a motiveless murder. There is NO excuse.

Maybe some of those the received capital punishment in the past may well have since been pardoned, due to the original
evidence not being good enough by today's standards to merit the death penalty. But, let's be realistic. The way crimes
can be investigated nowadays, and with the use of things such as DNA evidence, there can be very little margin of error
(if any) when it comes to finding out exactly who has committed a murder. Like fingerprints, DNA is unique to everyone.
And while it may be possible to have surgery to alter or remove your fingerprints, it's impossible to change your DNA.

I agree with Nick on this one. We really need to re-instate the death penalty as soon as we possibly can in this country.
Anyone that says otherwise must be a bleeding heart liberal wussie. If you oppose it, just imagine how you'd feel if a
close friend, or member of your family was murdered in cold blood. You'd certainly change your mind then.

Whilst I agree with some of your points like harsher penalties for paedos etc, I don't feel that reinstating the death penalty would be a good idea. For some criminals, death is too good an option for them - it's a reasonably quick exit and they'll be allowed to take whatever secrets they have about the crime with them to the grave. Hypothesis time here. If, say a person murdered your child and buried their body somewhere obscure and kept it secret, wouldn't you want to at least have some hope of knowing where they had hidden it? Killing the offender takes away that chance - they go to the grave together with any hope of finding your deceased child's remains.

Keeping them incarcerated with little hope of release IMO is better because it'll make them suffer (OK I would probably give them the bare essentials; none of these luxury prisons); they'll be kept out of reach of the public and also they will be still alive, with the sentence hanging over their head, and crime which they did. Sometimes they'll find remorse, others will stay in denial and refuse to admit what they've done. Some will drop hints and others will confess with all the details.

Plus, it's barbaric in this day and age to beat them, hang them and shoot them- yes, they may have commited a serious crime, but does taking their life make it any better? Aren't you simply stooping down to their level? Also, let's say if this little scumbag came down my street and put out all of my car windows and slashed my tyres? What would doing that in return to their car achieve? Sure, it would be a bit of cathartic release for me, but I would rather they be made to pay for the damage and get slapped with a large fine and placed under supervision.

Nick Harvey wrote:I think you have to go with the flow and accept the odd error, here and there.

So, you'd 'go with the flow and accept the odd error, here and there' if you, or one of your loved ones, were the erroneously convicted and sentenced to death, would you?

Boughton wrote:

Nick Harvey wrote:I think you have to go with the flow and accept the odd error, here and there.

So, you'd 'go with the flow and accept the odd error, here and there' if you, or one of your loved ones, were the erroneously convicted and sentenced to death, would you?

well if you were one of the mistakes I doubt anyone would be bothered

If we did adopt the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" method I can't help but feel the whole world would be blind and toothless.