This is why we should bring back the death penalty

I don't support the death penalty but in this case I could make an exception...

Broke my heart reading that story. Poor wee mite .

Derek Bentley
Timothy Evans
Mahmood Hussein Mattan
All wrongly executed.

Sally Clark, wrongly convicted of murder.

An obvious typo. U is next to I on the keyboard.

Did that make you feel special? Good for you.

If you would like to do a little more reading OP I suggest you read The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Elena Kyriacou.

'Cases where it is truly cut and dried are few and far between.'

Yet they are usually the most heinous and deserve the death penalty.

What’s ‘automatism’?

Someone can be released from incarceration if later found to be not guilty.

It's not a hard concept to grasp.

When Fred West took his own life, sparing the state the cost of lifetime incarceration and saving the cost and trauma of a trial, the pitchfork wavers were outraged that he wasn't man enough to face his punishment.

Do you really think the best punishment for this man is release from living with himself, instead of facing a court and the inside of a prison?

One would hope so. Though some are more cut and dry than others. For example a blood spattered mad man walking own the street swinging a knife... multiple witnesses, CCTV, DNA, in some cases even admission, etc etc.

By getting the basics wrong…like their name….for a start..

@LakieLady forensics are better now and the burden of proof is no longer "he said she said"

Just in the last 50 years or so I could probably think of 20-odd off the top of my head: Guildford 4, Birmingham 6, Bridgewater 4, Maguire 7, Broadwater 3, Stefan Kiszko, M25 murderers (3), Judith Ward...

... over 20 already.

It is permanent if the person is locked up for their whole life. What else would you call that, other than permanent?

I think for the cases where there is zero doubt the person did it, like in this case, the DP is warranted.

Perhaps those who expect the state to feed, house, clothe, medical care etc the person for life should pay for it? Do a poll, those who are against the death penalty (for cases like this) should have to pay tax in order to fund the inmates care. It shouldn't be put on those who don't want to pay for that person for life.

In the states there's an organisation called The Innocence Project and they estimate up to 10% of inmates are innocent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project

I don't think there's any point discussing the death penalty when we're not actually applying the laws we already have.

Rape conviction rates are plummeting (see article) and murderers are being given laughably short sentences.

Petty criminals such as shop lifters often just walk free and while official crime rates are decreasing, I'd argue that's because people have stopped reporting crimes since they know the police won't do anything.

https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/the-decriminalisation-of-rape/#:~:text=Rape%20and%20sexual%20abuse%20have%20been%20effectively%20decriminalised.,were%20just%201%2C659%20rape%20prosecutions%20and%20702%20convictions.

Me too. If killing people is wrong, it's wrong for the state to do it imo.

And that's without even considering the many miscarriages of justice that have occurred over the years.

How many miscarriages have justice in total since reporting began? Do we think there have been?
Just trying to work out how many times we’ve potentially got it wrong
Saying in the last hundred years

I'm not convinced by arguments that say severe punishment doesn't act as a deterrent. Why is Singapore so safe and clean then?

I'm against the death penalty because of the risk of innocent people being wrongly executed. I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep of it was only actual rapists and murderers being given the death penalty.

Cases where it is truly cut and dried are few and far between.

What does cut and dried mean? What evidence is needed? Who decides?

There will be outcry over other horrendous crimes that come exceedingly close to cut and dried but for whatever reason aren’t quite there.

It will leave the families of victims whose murderers are found guilty but not ‘cut and dried guilty’ in a limbo.

It suggests criminals who are found guilty but not ‘cut and dried guilty’ are deserving of lesser punishment.

It suggests we aren’t really sure about whether those criminals should be locked up at all.

… Just a few reasons why this is a ridiculous idea and is not going to happen. Sentencing is not, and should not be about, the strength of a conviction. We cannot have a multi-tier justice system based on how sure we are.

Even something that appears cut and dried isn't necessarily, in criminal law terms. For instance, someone who clearly committed the act isn't proved to have the requisite intent, or they have a defence such as self defence, insanity, automatism etc

This gave me a good laugh.

There are multiple reasons why the death penalty is not an effective way to reduce crimes. If you don’t care about that and want this man in particular dead, then you are seeking revenge rather than punishment and that’s fucked up.

In that case, as everyone who is born dies eventually, does anything really matter. Why even bother to convict him? If he hadn't murdered his son, and just let him live out his natural life, the end result would be the same.

But surely all life imprisonments are but and dried…. That’s what the great British justice system states.

You cannot claim to be civilised if you think it's OK to kill people. You are simply descending to the level of murderers.

If you think being in prison is not a punishment, you should try it sometime. People seem to have the most unbelievably sanitised view of life in prison. Think about sharing your cell with a couple of thugs and an open toilet, locked up 23 hours a day or more at times, food cooked by criminals who've probably spat or urinated in it, communal showers, people shouting and screaming around you all night - to say nothing of the danger of violent assault if you upset the wrong person.

Does that change the fact there are cases where it is cut and dry? No.