The death penalty. Yes or no?

[Hardy]

Fine, but if we hang them all (but not before torturing them first, just to make a few people feel better), then for the ones subsequently found to be innocent, the jury, judge, prosecuting counsel and charging officers should be hanged (and feckit, tortured as well). That's only fair, isn't it?

[Rossfan]

Bring it back for all crimes, big or small. Then there'd be no need for people to live in fear anymore...

For fcuk sake where did they get you from ? 

Then again if you're system was confined to Mayo ........hmmmm 

[pintsofguinness]

Bring it back for all crimes, big or small. Then there'd be no need for people to live in fear anymore...

The death penalty is not an effective deterrant so you'd have the normal fears as well as the fears of being accused of something in the wrong.

The death penalty should not be used for the simple reason that innocents will die.

[Armamike]

Always been against it myself for a few reasons. I can never understand how a 'Christian' soul like Gregory Campbell would want to see another human murdered.  How does that work exactly?  Why stoop to the level of the murderer? The evidence in states like Texas shows that it's not an effective deterent. Was always struck too by the UK's chief executioner Albert Pierrepoint's conclusion that it didn't make a difference to preventing murder. If we're talking punishment, better imo to give murderers longer jail sentences and let them reflect on their deeds during a lifetime behind bars. 

[Niall Quinn]

I like the Alexander Solzhenitsyn quote:
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

[longrunsthefox]

The death penalty could have led to many innocents dying over the years of troubles, the Birmingham 6 for example.  Its a hard one to square with yourself though as I would be all for paedos, child killers and the like getting the extreme punishment, but how do you determine which crimes, where do you draw the line?  Think we have the right system in the West tbh.

Likes of Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton etc should never see the light of day, on the flipside they should also not be afforded the 'privileges' they seem to get inside, but thats another debate.

Didn't Thomas Hamilton give himself the death penalty?... "The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed by the attacker, Thomas Watt Hamilton, before he committed suicide. It remains the deadliest single targeted mass murder of children in the history of the United Kingdom."
Must be Trevor Hamilton from Sion Mills you are thinking of... he killed the woman coming home from Mass a few years ago.

[Doogie Browser]

The death penalty could have led to many innocents dying over the years of troubles, the Birmingham 6 for example.  Its a hard one to square with yourself though as I would be all for paedos, child killers and the like getting the extreme punishment, but how do you determine which crimes, where do you draw the line?  Think we have the right system in the West tbh.

Likes of Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton etc should never see the light of day, on the flipside they should also not be afforded the 'privileges' they seem to get inside, but thats another debate.

Didn't Thomas Hamilton give himself the death penalty?... "The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed by the attacker, Thomas Watt Hamilton, before he committed suicide. It remains the deadliest single targeted mass murder of children in the history of the United Kingdom."
Must be Trevor Hamilton from Sion Mills you are thinking of... he killed the woman coming home from Mass a few years ago.

Thats who I meant, the weasily wee cnut.

[J70]

No objection whatsoever myself to the death penalty for the most horrific crimes, but given the numerous cases of miscarriages of justice over the years, I just do not see how anyone could support it.

There was a very interesting and disturbing article in the New Yorker recently about Cameron Todd Willingham, a man who, it appears, was probably wrongfully convicted and executed for the murder of his children by arson in Texas. Its long, but well worth reading. If too long, wikipedia has a summary of his case.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham

[Never beat the deeler]

No objection whatsoever myself to the death penalty for the most horrific crimes, but given the numerous cases of miscarriages of justice over the years, I just do not see how anyone could support it.

There was a very interesting and disturbing article in the New Yorker recently about Cameron Todd Willingham, a man who, it appears, was probably wrongfully convicted and executed for the murder of his children by arson in Texas. Its long, but well worth reading. If too long, wikipedia has a summary of his case.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham

Wow. That is seriously chilling stuff. A well written article - I started reading it with scepticism, expecting the writer to blur the facts of the case and muddy the waters, but it seems to have been blown out of the water.

On the thread, as someone has said earlier, the death penalty doesnt work as a deterrent. I believe that the use of it is barbaric, and it has no place in a modern, civilised society

[Doogie Browser]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8352735.stm
The yanks show how its done

[Puckoon]

Strange timing for that executing Doogie, considering its veterans day over here today.

[EC Unique]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8352735.stm
The yanks show how its done

I remember his crimes...

Good enough for him.

[ziggysego]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8352735.stm
The yanks show how its done

As terrible as his crimes were, two wrongs don't make a right.

[Doogie Browser]

Strange timing for that executing Doogie, considering its veterans day over here today.

Didn't know that tbh, yeah it does look a bit 'insensitive' (for want of a better word) given his line of defence then.

[Declan]

An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind