Hir, on 14 March 2012 - 11:15 AM, said:
The vast majority of people are for the death penalty, which is why we never have a referendum about it. When ever a polling company is commissioned to do a random survey on this subject then the results are pretty consistent, 70% of the British public would vote for the return of the death penalty.
Polls like that are pretty useless. I refer you to the "Yes Minister" scene where Sir Humphrey demonstrates how to get diametrically opposing results by leading the respondent down a logical path.
There was - famously - a royal commission into the death penalty in the 1950s. What is less know is *why* there was. The home office had noticed that juries were starting to get reluctant to vote guilty, if there was a chance the convicted would be hanged. The royal commission led to a reduction in capital offences, but people were starting to feel uneasy about executions. Eventually the government allowed Silverman a private members bill, out of a fear that one day an obviously guilty murdered would go free, because a jury refused to convict. It's a rare case of public sentiment actually changing something.
You get the rent-a-rabble, with their "it's DNA innit ?" justification for capital punishment, but as always, it's the people who challenge the status quo are the newsworthy ones.
Certainly, for my part, if I were to serve on a jury, in a case where there was a possibility the convicted would be executed, then I would simply vote not guilty - regardless of the evidence. It would only take 3 people like that in the jury pool, and they would get off. The system used in (some states) the US, where *juries* can decide the verdict would not appease me.
I am morally opposed to the death penalty. But even if I weren't, the fact it can never be applied evenly (we will always have reprieves) should mean it has no place in the criminal justice system. Just look at how it has been used as a political tool WITHIN LIVING MEMORY. I urge anyone who supports capital punishment to look at the cases of Bentley (who was hanged to "send a message"), Ellis (ditto), and Evans (whose hanging allowed Christie to commit more murders). Then look at all the miscarriages of justice SINCE the death penalty was abolished. I posted the
storya while back of Stefan Kiszko, and at least one poster said it moved them to tears. Who here, has enough faith in our criminal justice system, to allow it the power of the ultimate sanction ?
I'm not squeamish. I have no problem, if the police need to shoot a suspect who poses a real and present danger to society. But I can't begin to describe my abhorrence at the idea of coldly, calculatingly, putting a person to death. It's barbaric, and it brutalises society.
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant..."
John Stuart Mill
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