Metropol

from sky.com/news

The former head of the Metropolitan Police has called for the death penalty to be brought back for police killers following the murder of rookie officer Sharon Beshenivsky.

Despite always having opposed capital punishment, Lord John Stevens has said the killer of Pc Beshenivsky should lose his life as a punishment.

Writing in the News of the World, the former Scotland Yard Commissioner says: "All my life I've been against the death penalty.

"But after the cold-blooded murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky, I've changed my mind.

"I genuinely never thought I'd say this, but I am now convinced that the monster who executed this young woman in cold blood should, in turn, be killed as punishment for his crime."

He goes on: "For the first time in my life, despite 40 years at the sharp end of policing, I finally see no alternative.

"Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death."

He adds that if the death penalty is not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right, and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser".

Lord Stevens headed the Metropolitan Police from 2000 until January this year, when he was succeeded by Sir Ian Blair.

lord stevens is clearly stupid: it's comments like these which has lead to the contempt and death of a police officer we have today: why is the life of a policeman worth more than the life of a civilian? surely if we're going to talk about bringing the death penality back it should apply to everyone who is found guilty of murder and not those who happen to kill a copper?

I agree.

Lord Stevens is an emotional old tossbag who's talking out of his overpaid mellow-dramatic arse.

I personally am vehmently against capital punishment in all forms. Whether a convicted murderer is going to fry to death until his heart explodes in the electric chair or whether it's through a slightly more humane lethal injection, I believe that two wrongs do not make a right.

Most murders are carried out by complete schizophrenics or deranged individuals who should have help with their illness, and not be murdered themselves for their crimes. It's wrong.

Take Ian Huntley for example. In America he would have fried in the electric chair for murdering those two girls, but in Britain where some degree of civility still exists, he's instead sent to prison and is receiving help. He is a danger to society, but he has something wrong in his head, and he probably cannot help that.

No one suddenly wakes up one day and decides "ooh, I'm going to murder someone". The vast majority of all murders are carried out by people who have mental problems, unknown or otherwise.

I personally believe that more time and effort should be invested in helping people with mental illnesses.

Whether a murder is pre-meditated or done out of a split-second reaction (such as the murder in Bradford), I really do not believe that a second person should lose their life for their crime. Living with the guilt is a far worse punishment. In death you can escape all hurt, pain, anger and guilt - which is an easy way out.

Again, Lord Stevens is living in a fantasy world along with his criminal associates if he believes that the death penalty should be re-introduced.

I'm proud to live in a country which no longer supports such outragous barbarism.

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.

And you call yourself a "christian", Nick?

Jamez wrote:And you call yourself a "christian", Nick?

Do I?

Where on earth have you read that?

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

I don't think the fifties can teach us much when it comes to capital punishment. Derek Bentley was hung in 1953 for murdering a police officer. He was pardoned folliowing a lengthy campaign in the late 1990s.

I suspect the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six wouldn't agree with you either.

Nick Harvey wrote:

Jamez wrote:And you call yourself a "christian", Nick?

Do I?

Where on earth have you read that?

Maybe it's this link on your website

Neither did I ever say that "the Oscar ten" weren't errors.

Having been born in Guildford and worked for many years in Birmingham, I think you have to go with the flow and accept the odd error, here and there.

I think you'll find the NHS erroneously kills FAR more people every year than the legal system ever did.

Jamez wrote:Maybe it's this link on your website

A bit of selective quoting there, methinks.

Just in case anyone's unclear, I'm not a member of the Buffs, either.

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).

Nick Harvey wrote:I think you'll find the NHS erroneously kills FAR more people every year than the legal system ever did.

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.