Should Britain re-introduce the death penalty for certain crimes ?

The Instructor

No because once all off the above have been to jail for a mimimun of 1 month or served at most half their life sentence they are completly rehabilitated and therefore completly valued members of this proud multicultural society:) How would you like to spend 10 years of you life in a jail with excellent facilities, no slopping out, playstations, music etc for the silly little crime of murder?

I hope you can tell i'm being sarcastic old chap. I agree totally with you. I think we could do one better and allow the families to decide their fate and carry it out if they wish.

Northern Lad

If not the death sentence then Life Imprisonment.
And Life should mean LIFE! I`m not too sure about the last one though.

Caffeine Fiend

I've been against the death penalty since Derek Bentley and the whole "Let 'em have it Chris" affair. Black and white rules dont apply to the complexity of the real world and "justice" is a relative term.

I can understand your sentiment, but no I dont agree I'm afraid.

CLIVE H

No return of death sentence in UK - no noose if good news. Far too many innocent men and women got hanged in my youth, including Tomothy Evans and yes, Ruth Ellis, who would not be hanged today but given a short 3 or four year sentence.

Not only were people hanged in my childhood and youth, they were also flogged. None of this made any difference. The people remaind as violent and agressive as ever. Nothing has changed except the date.

Britain in fact is far less violent than it was say 100 year ago.

The British have a culture which is best described as either 'mob rule' or 'warlike'. The police know how to deal with the problem[s] of youth violence on the streets and are doing it.

People just need to take a week off the news to appreciate just how peaceful UK actually is. There are no gangs roaming the streets where I live. In fact most streets in UK are very much like mine, quiet most of the time.

You only have to look at the history of the Brits to appreciate just how violent and warlike we are. There are some 200 battle fields in England alone - what were we doing to each other? Apart of killing?

People know that if you shove a bunch of Germanic tribes on an island somewhere, sooner or later they will form a war committee. What have we got here in UK? About 85% of the population are classified as Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman, the next big 'mob' are the Celts and in amongst all of these 'disperate tribes' are the Vikings. We're talking warlike.

In a few weeks from now, we'll all be able to let off a few dangerous fireworks, often in the street, and celebrate the death of one Guy Fawlkes - a traitor, a murder and terrorist.

So, what's new?

When I was born in 1941, the city where I live, London, was being bombed to bits by the Nazi Luftwaffe. I do not think that London is anything like as violent today.

During the war years, us kids did not see our dads, they wee all off fighting in the war. We were completely out of control.
I never saw my dad until about 1946 - blimey, who's this strange man mummy?

Later at school, there were large gangs with catapaults, air rifles and slings. Dangerous or what?

Van der Elst

Hi Phat Baz, Unfortunately when we joined the EU we signed away our right to the death penalty, together with corporal punishment. We would have to leave the EU to re-introduce it and, "Uncle Gordy" won't even let us have a referendum on the new version of the Treaty let alone leave the EU - None of the "Big 3" parties will.

focus

I would not like to see the UK go back to the death penalty. But I do believe that life should mean just that and they never come out again.

clint_slicker

Not until the criminal Justice system improves. The USA still has the death penalty and even with it's technology people are killed then at a later date found to be Innocent.

Until they have a 100% way to prove that the person who was sentance commeted the crime then it shouldn't be brought back.

mel

interesting debate. to introduce again - an act of parliament is needed. debated in commons too. tts tough for the Q? will be asked why was it taken off? it was a mistake of the police to send an innocent man to a judicial death. this case will surface again and parliament is most unlikely to vote for reintroduction.
u hv to hv a credible / non-corrupt investigators tt will ensure tt no abuse / misuse of power and privilege. will not lead blindly.
indeeed these offences deserve the noose!
better to let 10 guilty men go free than to hang one innocent man! total miscarriage of justice

Robin H

No absolutely not. It is not a deterent and would do little or nothing to prevent crime. People are still legally children at 16 years of age. What kind of a barbaric society would we be if we allowed such a thing to be done on our behalf?

Unfortunately people have always killed other people. In many ways we are just more aware of it now with 24 hour news coverage we have available to us.

We've come a long way in some respects socially recently, though we still have a long way to go. The death penalty would solve nothing and would just satisfy the need for revenge. Such a practice belongs in the past.

wifey

Anybody can do something in temper and not mean to do it and they have to live with it for the rest of their live but the others yes I do agree if they are 100% sure i do belive an eye for an eye if someone killed a member of my family I would want to see the same happen to them

steven e

agree.with dna today we can profile the guilty party.

oh deary me

Absolutley agree.
With D.N.A and the advances that have been made in catching criminals i think that there is little doubt that the law gets it wrong these days.
Britain has NO deterent, that is why kids are shooting each other on the streets.

ignotum

killing is not the answer

politicsguy

It can't. Protocol 6 of The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits it except in time of war or national emergency.

Without-style

In my mind, if you don't respect somebody elses "human rights" you don't have the right to expect your own respected.

Come what may.

To follow on from that, I donâ€™t believe my answer swings either way, it is clearly not definitive, though I imagine the negative thumbs have certainly interpreted it that way, or simply in the ideology of â€œViolence begets violenceâ€ which isnâ€™t necessarily the direction intended.

There are so many variables that in reality it isnâ€™t a conceivable idea in a modern-day civilised society, the accuracy of evidence is always a question that will hang.

Those who have committed murder, and in my mind, violate the victims humans right, and dissolve the concern of their own rights, that doesnâ€™t equate to their own life being taken, I think often that is an easy way out, with many of these murderers that are in prison happily biding their time to commit suicide because the punishment of memory is â€˜hardâ€™ on them mentally.

If someone I loved had been murdered, I wouldnâ€™t want them to be killed, I wouldnâ€™t want an easy way out for them, Iâ€™m not of the my mind to believe that they will suffer in the afterlife. Iâ€™d rely on human nature taking its course, and at some point over the rest of their lives (of which they should be in prison for) guilt, isolation, hopelessness will set in and they will have to endure more than a quick death can offer.

I just believe their â€œhuman rightsâ€ shouldnâ€™t be an issue in terms of the severity of the life sentence, and the comforts they have whilst in prison.

chocotabbie

Oh without a doubt as long as they are 100% sure that the crime was comitted by the person. I would feel more comfortable if we had the death penalty and i mean real death penalty, not living it up on death row for 20 years!

bert

Not for certain crimes, but for all killings !

elvis_liveonstage

Your half right, but you should broaden your scope of crimes punishable by death. you should include the following.
Murder (an eye for an eye)
Rapist
Wife/Husband batterers
Carrying a firearm/knife/bomb
Dealing or distributing drugs
Grooming children (paedophile)
Child neglect
Animal cruelty
Driving while disqualified.
Violence towards police/ambulance/fire crew/hospital staff/prison officers.

This would help keep down the prison population.
It seems that in society that you can get away anything if you are a drug addict.

While we are at it lets sentence them as well.

Carousel

There have been too many miscarriages of justice in recent years to have a return to capital punishment. Death is quick but a lifetime in prison without parole is harder to stomach.
As for the question whether one of my close relatives was murdered. I can't answer that until I'm in that position and god forbid none of us are put in that position. If it happened and I wanted someone hung for that crime, then found out years later they were innocent all the time, then I'd feel guilty for wanting an innocent person dead. That would just compound my grief.

Gem*

I agree with them all apart from the last one.
I feel it really is what this country needs and if not that definitely tougher prison sentences.

Susan S

Take a look at the experience of the US with the death penalty.

Risks of executing innocent people-
124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and isnâ€™t a guarantee we wonâ€™t execute innocent people.

The death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder. No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. To be a deterrent a punishment must be sure and swift. The death penalty is neither. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in states that donâ€™t.

We have a good alternative. Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. It is sure and swift and rarely appealed. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty.

Death penalty costs. The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process. When the death penalty is a possible sentence, extra costs start mounting up before trial, continue through the uniquely complicated trial in death penalty cases (actually 2 separate stages, mandated by the Supreme Court), and appeals.

The death penalty doesn't apply to people with money. Its not reserved for the â€œworst of the worst,â€ but for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed?

The death penalty doesn't necessarily help families of murder victims. Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

Problems with speeding up the process. Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. If the process is speeded up we are sure to execute an innocent person.

Moonstone

I agree but not with the last one. We can all do things that were not planned but happen in a temper and wish we could turn the clock back. So often one partner can goad the other beyond endurance then they snap and hit out in temper but really it was the other ones fault.

Pebble da rebble

Totally agree with you x

Andrew

Absolutely 100%. The most serious crimes should be punishable by death. Child rapists and killers should be thrown to the lions.

fundamentalist1981

Yes. The death penalty is right.

Big L 266

We should reintroduce the death penalty for many crimes committed by criminals.There would be no exceptions.There is no justification whatsoever for the killing of a human being by another human being. However,I can't agree with your last one.Sometimes things are done in anger for which the death penalty would not be invoked at all.

Paedophiles would be top of my list. They all need hanging!

Alan L.

mike b

i think you should

englishbrit

100% YES

jacko4you

The death penalty should have been reintroduced years ago, today human rights protect the perpertrator, of such unthinkable acts.The Death Penalty should not be looked at as a deterent but a punishment, remember the sicko Sutcliffe, i think he was the first murderer to gain through his lawyers the terminoligy, Deminished Responibility, Different countries around our world have death penalties, in different forms, Lethal Injection, Decapitation, hanging. In my opinion Lethal Injection is being to to kind to the murderer, hanging is and allways will be the only way that murderers should be put down. This united Kingdom of ours is far to soft in the head when it comes to , laying down the law. We should take a leaf out of the wonderful city of Singapore, and there laws, regarding murder,Rape, etc.

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