So Guido Fawkes is launching a campaign to reinstate the death penalty and my heart sinks that little bit lower.
I like to think that most people in this country are level-headed and open-minded, I say I like to think that but of course whether that is true or not I have no idea. He links to a poll that says that 50% of people would be happy to see people hang for murder. I just had a shiver run down my spine. I know many of you reading this will think that I’m just a bleeding heart liberal but the general belief is that around one quarter of all convictions are dodgy.
I used to work with a former prison officer and he told me that he knew a good proportion of those inside were innocent but he didn’t give a toss. Someone can have a life after they are released from prison if they were innocent but if you kill them then you can never take that back. Innocent people go down all the time and sadly that will always happen. So how can we as a society ever justify killing an innocent person?
Also if we were to kill those who were given the death penalty then aren’t we as bad and barbaric as those who commit these crimes? Someone administering a lethal injection or putting someone in a noose and then opening a trap door is an cold-blooded as the person they are committing to death – the only difference is the state would be okaying it but when can you ever justify a murder? A state mandated murder would be ok and a different kettle of fish to a real life murder. Nah not for me…
You can never reverse a death penalty and even if you only kill a few innocent people then that is a few too many. It is better to set a guilty person free than to find an innocent person guilty. That is something I have always believed in and always will. It is fundamental to my core beliefs and something I had in the forefront of my mind when I first did jury duty and when the stakes are that high then it is putting even more pressure on a jury to reach a verdict knowing they are debating a persons right to live and not just the matter of guilt or innocence.
If the death penalty was reinstated then torture I suspect wouldn’t be far behind. I’m not sure what world the majority of people would like to live in but a world without tirture and the death penalty sounds pretty good to me.
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Read the details of the heinous acts carried out by Carl Whant, then sit down and try and convince 51 out of a 100 people he does not deserve the Death penalty. your bleeding heart does not allow justice of the proper degree for this monster.
[…] A quick blogpost to give props to Louise Mensch MP who has shown how to deal with the media head-on. Miss Mensch was on the Select Committee who questioned the Murdoch’s last week and within a few days she was e-mailed to say that an investigative reporter was digging into her past and had found some things that might well make good tabloid material. Instead of getting an injunction or denying the allegations she just answered them. You can read her thoughts over here. […]