Capital Punishment

[corydoras]

An ice axe in someones head makes me even sicker!!

 

For far to long the victim has been written off as a by product of crime instead of being reckonised as the central issue.

 

This life should mean life is a joke, three meals a day, no hard labour, tv and exercise, lets be honest it is a bloody paradise lost situation, hell they don't even have to wait two weeks for a doctors appointment, it is just one huge sick joke and it is time to bring it to an end.

I am sorry my friend but there would be far too many innocent people hung in this country.

 

Angela Cannings, Trupti Patel and Sally Clarke would all probably have swung if we had capital punishment and all three were found to be innocent after they were convicted.

 

Anyway no matter how much we wanted or did'nt want capital punishment brought back, we won't get it. Parliament is not even allowed to discuss the matter these days.

 

BTW here is a list of countries that still have capital punishment. Not I club I want to join:

 

Afghanistan

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belize

Botswana

Burundi

Cameroon

Chad

China (People's Republic)

Comoros

Congo (Democratic Republic)

Cuba

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Gabon

Ghana

Guatemala

Guinea

Guyana

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Korea, North

Korea, South

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Malawi

Malaysia

Mongolia

Nigeria

Oman

Pakistan

Palestinian Authority

Philippines

Qatar

Rwanda

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Somalia

Sudan

Swaziland

Syria

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

United States

Uzbekistan

Vietnam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Edited November 22, 2005 by corydoras

[Sportsman]

Thanks for your informed comment Alan, I too was getting a bit tired of prison being described as "the lap of luxury"

As for judicial hanging, I am obviously against it so that makes me a cardigan! a concept that I, and a few that know me would find amusing.

Unlike probably every contributor here, I have actually witnessed a hanging, actually more than one. In Libya in the 80s. I was out in Tripoli and was rounded up with several hundred others into Green Square to witness the execution of 7 students who had been found guilty of demonstrating against Colonel Quaddafi. We were not given the choice. I would suggest that most people could not comprehend the cold blooded awfulness of a ritual execution. Death itself does not particularly phase me, I have seen many individuals die in traumatic circumstances over the years (it was my job) but the ritualistic deliberate taking of a life, for any reason, I find abhorrent, and I don't expect the Stae to do something on my behalf that I would not be prepared to do myself.

 

I have no objection to prisons being uncomfortable, I suspect they probably are, I have no objection to life meaning life.

I do not believe that the death penalty is any sort of deterrent, and do not agree that America makes a bad example. remember, the comparison was not between the UK and the States it was between different states of the USA and so was completely legitimate, and the fact is that states with capital punishment have a higher murder rate per capita than states without. Like it or not that is a fact.

I wonder how many on here would really be prepared to conduct an execution (without talking with their gonads!) Try reading Albert Pierrpoints biography first. Interestingly, he didn't belive that capital punishment was a deterrent either!

[Alan Fawcett]

we did flog this one to death

 

EH i thought we were talking about hanging ....now flogging thats a different thing altogether

[jeepster]

must admit to not having read all this thread, something in the very first post meant i didn't have to. the idea that as america has the death penalty, that so should we, and i quote 'lets see the murder etc satistics drop sharply' so toria, are we to assume that there are no murders in america? that gun crime isn't out of control, that large parts of major cities are no go zones? imagine what the place would be like without the death penalty, actually prbably a lot more civilised

[Lid]

yes i do with todays massive advances in DNA testing/gathering, cctv, criminal psychologists and all the other stuff that can prove without doubt a persons guilt then yes the death penalty should be brought back in but only for specific crimes.

Just as many, if not more, mistakes will be made using these and yet to come ultra modern methods.

 

Would any of the 'antis' wish to live next door to Mr Huntley with a young family in 20 odd years time?

That wouldn't happen if life meant life as several of us have put forward.

Edited November 22, 2005 by Lid

[Alan Stubbs]

I quite agree with your sentiment Alan however I believe that recent DNA evidence proved that Hanratty was guilty. Also Albert Pierpoint did not carry out public hangings, at least not in the UK where I believe the last public hanging was in the mid 19th century.

Sorry to be a pedantic prig.

Cheers

Scapa

 

Here is a link to the Hanratty story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1977508.stm

 

I fully take your point, Scapa. I used the Pierpoint scenario as I recall my father (he was working for the prison service in Maidstone after he retired from the RAF) having a profound conversation with Pierpoint which changed Dad from a 'hang 'em and flog 'em' type into an 'anything but capital punishment' minded person thereafter. Indeed, shortly after, he left the prion service and spent his working life in local government.

 

OK... Pierpoint was the last licenced hangman in Great Britain - he took his income from the public purse, Q.E.D he was a public servant.

 

For years people campaigned to have Hanratty's conviction overturned - OK so there may not have been doubt in the sentencing juries over the years, but there sure as hell was in the public mind. For that reason alone, capital punishment isn't the (American) way to go.

[jeepster]

Unlike probably every contributor here, I have actually witnessed a hanging, actually more than one. In Libya in the 80s. I was out in Tripoli and was rounded up with several hundred others into Green Square to witness the execution of 7 students who had been found guilty of demonstrating against Colonel Quaddafi. We were not given the choice. I would suggest that most people could not comprehend the cold blooded awfulness of a ritual execution. Death itself does not particularly phase me, I have seen many individuals die in traumatic circumstances over the years (it was my job) but the ritualistic deliberate taking of a life, for any reason, I find abhorrent, and I don't expect the Stae to do something on my behalf that I would not be prepared to do myself.

 

i've never witnessed a hanging but i have witnessed an execution by lethal injection. a man in texas, charged with the murders of his family, he was aged around 30, but had a mental age of around 10, when we interviewed him on death row (not a place you'd want to spend much time) he was totally unaware of what was in store for him, even though the execution was only days away, when asked what he wanted for his last meal, he said 'hamburgers, and i want em the day after, and the day after that too' we watched him go to his death, as guests of the prison service (who didn't know we were making a documentary about how more people were executed in texas under george w bushes governership than at any other time, this was in the weeks leading up to his election as president) we weren't allowed to film it, but they were surprised when we said we didn't want to spectate, in texas ringside seats for a show like that are like gold dust!

[peterpikefisher]

an old quote by whom i don't know " he who lives by the gun should die by the gun "

the people who shot and killed the wpc should die for what they did ,

life in prison these days is not life . bring back the death sentence, give the guilty a choice of hanging , firing squad , gas chamber, or arsenic poisoning. this is my personal view on the matter . many people will differ in there opinions.

think would you want the death penalty for the person that kills one of your loved ones.

[SandTiger]

think would you want the death penalty for the person that kills one of your loved ones.

 

Hang on, apparently we are not allowed to personalise the debate

 

But anyway, there are actually quite alot of murder victim's family members whom forgive the murders and would not wish to see another killing committed in the name of their loved one - This link is not the best example that I can find at short notice as it gives no insight in to the mind of the father but there are many better example - The article is tucked away at the bottom:

 

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/source/XXVI...mages/page1.pdf

[Sportsman]

Would any of the ‘antis’ wish to live next door to Mr Huntley with a young family in 20 odd years time?

Would they have Brady to tea?

Would they let Mrs West baby sit?

Would they have invited Mr Shipman to their grandmothers 80th birthday party?

 

This type of murderer, despite all of the comments about murderers getting out in a few years, will never be released whilst they live.

Murderers who are sentenced to "life" serve a life sentence. Some may be released early on licence but they are still under sentence and can be sent back to prison at any time.

 

Thankfully we will not see a return to flogging, birching, torture, the stocks, lopping off limbs, hanging drawing or quartering or deportation to the colonies, although with Tony B liar in charge who knows?

 

Unfortunately Police Officers have, since their inception centuries ago, been killed in the line of duty and black men have been mistreated and murdered because of the colour of their skin for centuries, regardless of the fact that for most of that time we had, and exercised with great entheusiasm, the death penalty.

 

I devoutly hope that the killers in these, and all other murders, are caught and suffer the penalties laid down by law.

 

ST the chilling thing is that this news item was of so little interest it was tucked away at the bottom of the page. It sort of suggests that execution is commonplace in Saudi, which of course it is

Edited November 22, 2005 by Sportsman