Capital Punishment / Execution

I dont believe the death sentence is a deterrent at all, the murder rate in the US proves that.

Many countries have the death sentence ( maybe most) and there are evil people who deserve to die. It is no concern of ours what other countries do, the US has been mentioned, also China is another, many other developing countries as well.

However the prospect of the U.K. returning to the death penalty is non existent, unless that is a foolish government holds a referendum on the death sentence.

I am debating in my own mind about federal executions in U.S.A. I have never liked the thought of the electric chair and also the executions done using pentobarbital sound barbaric.
How barbaric it seems for people to die in the electric chair and people even used to watch it.
We used to use hanging in the U.K. so supposedly other countries seen us as barbaric also.

Rosecarmel' you posed the question and it seems most posters do not believe in it. What is your view?

I don't support the death penalty, and never have.

I think it brutalises everyone involved, from prison staff to the people making the implements of execution. Imagine going to work knowing that you are going to make gas to kill someone, or rope to hang them, or to measure someone up for a gallows or electric chair - it's horrible, and gives far too much power to the state.

There is also the risk of getting it wrong, as discussed.

I don't think that any threat of punishment would stop the likes of Brady and Hindley. They are insane/evil/ill depending on your point of view, and no deterrent would work.

I’ve only just found this thread, and I came straight to the end to add a comment. I loathe the very idea of state sanctioned murder, meaning the death penalty. I cannot even begin to describe my abhorrence of this. It’s wrong, just wrong.
For the worse of murderers I feel they should never be released as they remain a danger to society. Too many are released who go on to kill again. But for the state to take another person’s life, who do they think they are? God?

If it’s not a deterrent, which I don’t believe it is, then what are we left with as a reason for capital punishment? Revenge?

No murder is right and state murder is no different
All murder is WRONG ......two wrongs don’t make a right ever

Yes rosecarmel what’s your view

I'm very much in favour of capital punishment. I bet the majority on here, who are anti the death penalty, are those who are pro abortion. It seems it's okay for murderers or terrorists to live, but not inconvenient babies.

I disagree with the death penalty. It's probably the case that there are some people who are so dangerous that they should never be allowed to re-join society.

However, I see these people as either mentally ill or emotionally damaged to such an extent that they are, in effect, psychopathic. I do not believe that they should be given hard labour or live in terrible conditions - just that they be held in a safe and secure place - and perhaps be given something useful to do within that environment.

I'm in agreement with the death penalty, but I agree that hanging is barbaric. However, I don't agree that the taxpayers should have to pay thousands to keep the vile evil human beings alive. Perhaps a lethal injection would be quicker and less barbaric? Morphine perhaps? People like Fred West for instance, although as an earlier Gran said, he hanged himself anyway.

The majority of death row inmates live in fear- They don't want to die- Which to me means that they had no idea what they were doing when they committed murder-

And I don't think the individuals who execute death row inmates know what they're doing either-

I think the "closest" anyone can come to "instinctively" knowing what they are doing when they take a life is when they've killed someone in order to save their own-

It's obvious to me that the majority of people who kill haven't a clue about what they did or will do-

So I don't support the death penalty- At all-

In response to a particularly nasty killing public opinion could well vote for a return to the death penalty in a referendum. Wether or not you support it it would be a really bad move, because of the uncertainty of a innocent person executed.

I sincerely hope we never have a referendum on the death penalty in the UK. I suspect I know what the outcome would be and I don’t want it.

We have this debate regularly in my Current Affairs group.
I don't believe the majority of people would vote for the return of the death penalty, although it is confidently stated by certain members that all Conservative voters would.

Someone said, it doesn't act as a deterrent; I think it did; not to the hardened criminals, the unbalanced, the psychopaths, but I do think it can deter those who like to indulge in grievous bodily harm; stops them going just that bit too far. Since the death penalty has been repealed, I feel, (no statistics to prove it) that there has been an increase in 'casual' killing: the man beating his wife, (I believe one woman a week is murdered by her partner); the fight in the pub car park, the murder of an abused child so she can't tell, the killing during a robbery, the huge increase in knife crime. The perpetrators plead mitigating circumstances, and frequently receive light sentences. Their victims lose their lives.
I would never vote for the return of capital punishment, but I do think there should be much harsher sentencing for some of the above crimes.

A psychopath may well fear being hung or injected, that is only because he cannot control the action. When he was a killer he was in control of events, his real fear is not being in control.

easybee it is 2 women per week.

Davidhs ; I have mentioned on this thread that in the past when the death penalty was still used in the U.K several mistakes were made. In regard of that happening that is an awful thing.
When there is no doubt at all about someones guilt such as Myra Hindley and Ian Brady I would say they were evil disgusting people and when they were found to be culpable
of their heinous crimes they should have been punished to the extreme and prison was too good for them.

Rosecarmel : in your post you say "It's obvious to me that the majority of people who kill haven't a clue about what they did or will do"
I strongly disagree with you and say that those evil two knew exactly what they were doing and even planned it.
A few posters have even mentioned Fred West saying at least he hung himself in prison.
I hasten to mention his evil wife Rose West who played a big part in the crimes even resorting to killing one of her own daughters horrific to say the least.

If you look at the stats; 69% of murder victims are male . The most dangerous age is babies under 1 year of age , after that age 16-24. Males are more likely to be killed by a stranger and overwhelmingly the murderer was male ( about 91%). Statistically knife crime is on the increase but as the stats don't go back far enough it's difficult to say what it was like in the 19th century. It could be that some things haven't really changed.

So it has happened I see.
A curios relic of barbarity in a country which prides itself on supporting human rights and freedom.
US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee has been put to death, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the first executions of federal inmates in 17 years
Several executions were initially delayed when a judge ruled on Monday that there were still unresolved legal challenges
The condemned prisoners had argued that lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishments"

BBC News website

3nanny6

Davidhs ; I have mentioned on this thread that in the past when the death penalty was still used in the U.K several mistakes were made. In regard of that happening that is an awful thing.
When there is no doubt at all about someones guilt such as Myra Hindley and Ian Brady I would say they were evil disgusting people and when they were found to be culpable
of their heinous crimes they should have been punished to the extreme and prison was too good for them.

Rosecarmel : in your post you say "It's obvious to me that the majority of people who kill haven't a clue about what they did or will do"
I strongly disagree with you and say that those evil two knew exactly what they were doing and even planned it.
A few posters have even mentioned Fred West saying at least he hung himself in prison.
I hasten to mention his evil wife Rose West who played a big part in the crimes even resorting to killing one of her own daughters horrific to say the least.

My point is that any person who kills people intentionally doesn't know what it's like to be killed until they are waiting for their own end on death row- They live in fear of being killed until they themselves are killed-

Davidhs

A psychopath may well fear being hung or injected, that is only because he cannot control the action. When he was a killer he was in control of events, his real fear is not being in control.

Of course control enters into it- But psychopaths fear death too- They aren't immune-

When people are executed, the cause of death is entered as lethal injection- The manner of death is entered as homicide-

It's all so barbaric ..

It is totally barbaric RoseCarmel I don’t know how anyone with an ounce of humanity can support it
I wonder if those supporting the death penalty could actually do it themselves, kill I mean and if the answer is no then what right do they have to expect someone else to do it for them

This individual may have faced his death with the most calm, but those closest to him physically recognized his tension- Perhaps he was calmer because he understood his end would be as intentional and deliberate as the act he carried out, both being homicide- But the finality caused him tension, even for someone as "steely" as he was-

www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/06/11/mcveigh.witnesses/

A couple of posters have stated that many released murderers go on to kill again. I would like some stats. on that please.

Life does mean life, even when the person is let out of incarcartion, they have very many restrictions on their loves, no permitted to get a passport, any new job and attempt to move home has to be reported and permission given/not given. A lifer, outside the prison is ' On Licence', and that can be withdrawn at any time.

As has been said, a society should be judges on how they treat the most disadvantaged, and that includes prisoners. No prison should be be privatised . There is a fallacy as to the 'luxuries' that prisoners have - many are kept locked in their small cells for the majority of the time.

Do think there should be some way of getting long term prisoners doing paid work. Some of this would be used to pay towards their keep, some to go into a victim fund, and some to be kept for them to give them some sort of start whenever they get released.

I was a child when Bentley was hanged for a murder, at the time of which, he was actually in custody - a revenge hanging because a policeman had died, My father, when stopped and asked to sign a petition, explained it to me and I have been opposed totally to any form of capital punishment , under any circumstances since that time.

I certainly believe in a lasting deterrent such as a lethal injection.

How would any of you feel in Marie McCourt's shoes ? Ian Simms who was convicted and jailed for her daughter's murder didn't even say where he'd put her body, no remorse and he's now released and free again. Why should this ever be allowed ?