To think if someone raped & murdered my children I would want themto face the death sentence?

[Argos]

Would you?

[Pendeen]

Calling for the return of capital punishment for certain types of crime involving only certain categories of victim is illogical in the extreme.

As several on here have said - why is the life or safety of a child any more valuable than that of an adult? It is not.

It is obvious that the UK will never reintroduce the death penalty however if you were to take the law into your own hands and kill the perpetrator I'm sure there would be a great deal of sympathy from many people - including the police and justice system even if in practice the law would be against you.

[DamselWithADulcimer]

If someone did that to my children, I would kill them myself. But I would torture them first. And if I couldn't find the means to kill them, I'd find someone else who would. Then I would kill myself. How cheerful.

[Deflatedballoonbelly]

Wanky thread. Jesus kerrrr-iiist.

[MrsBethel]

If the courts were infallible, and if it were cost effective, the death penalty would be a no-brainer for certain crimes.

Sadly the courts are fallible. And the death penalty is ludicrously expensive to enforce. So civilsed states don't do it.

[SpanishPaella]

if someone raped and murdered any child, let alone mine, i would want them put to death

[limitedperiodonly]

Pagwatch I feel exactly the same way.

And OP why single out child murderers for the death penalty? Does that mean you think it's okay for adults to be murdered? Some adults but not others? Where do you stand on the issue of the kind of people you don't like very much who get murdered?

[WineAndPizza]

"Of course I would want to cut into little pieces anyone who harmed my children but I'm glad I live in a country where I can't."

Exactly.

Whether or not the convicted person is innocent, you are still having a part in killing someone else's child. How could you want that? I wonder if all the people who say (including me) 'I would want to kill them myself' actually think in detail what that would involve? Yes, I can imagine the fury I would feel and the total uncontrollable rage and lashing out and beating that I would want to do - but actually killing someone - that moment? It is so difficult to think about that I can barely imagine it. It's like in Macbeth (sorry to be an eejit) - once you have killed someone, you have stepped over a line. Does it matter if you kill 1 or 17 people, directly or indirectly? You've killed someone. I don't want to be involved in any way in ending another person's life no matter what horrendous things they have done.

[bumblingbovine]

The justice system is not called the "revenge" system. Relatives of victims are not the best people to decide on a "just" outcome.

We can argue for or against the death penalty and there are arguements on both side that I would consider valid, though I tend to the anti view myself.

The op's reason for the death penalty is not in my view one of the valid reason to be for the death penalty. In fact my view is that it is exactly the opposite. I may well want to kill or have killed anyone who raped and killed my child, that is why I would not be the best person to decide the perpertrators punishment. I might have a say and in some countries that is allowed but most certainly not the final one.

[azazello]

If my children were raped and murdered, I would certainly want the person who did it to be punished. However, the person who actually committed the offence is not necessarily the one who is executed for it. In that case, the state has just murdered another mother's child.

Lock them up for a very long time - yes. Execute - no.

[aldiwhore]

OP I don't think anyone is U for feeling that way, but for it to be endorsed by a civilised society is wholly wrong.

[Pagwatch]

hully -look at my 'i love this man' thread in chat and then tell me he is not you

[GreenMonkies]

I'd bypass the legal system and do it myself.

[MorrisZapp]

I'm against the DP on principle, but it wouldn't work in practice anyway, no matter how many people wanted it brought back.

I wonder if the hang 'em high lot have thought it through - surely in fact fewer crims would be convicted if we had the DP, if the jury thought they might be sending a person to their death.

The choices are guilty, and not guilty. If they think the crim is guilty but feel a shadow of any trace of possible doubt (which the defence's legal team would be sure to plant) then they would feel more comfortable saying not guilty just in case.

The victim's family will not be on the jury - the jury are dispassionate strangers.

[Hullygully]

And also the thread which has almost all "Nos" on it. Hope for the human race.

[lljkk]

I don't think I would care if they faced the death penalty or not.
My main concern would be that they were caught & couldn't do anything so awful again.
I suppose... by wanting the death penalty, not just emotionally wanting it but lobbying for it, it would make me feel like I had been reduced to a primitive level, too. I would not the legacy of my children's lives to result in me losing much of my humanity. That would be a sacrilege to their memory.

[kelly2000]

I do not agree with the death penalty. I also do not see the punishment in it. Once they are dead, thats it. i would prefer them to be stuck in a miserable prison for the rest of their days.

[Pagwatch]

No one has any idea what they would do in that situation. Saying "I would do x " always makes me question that persons empathy.

Because people accused of bad things rarely get attacked or killed by relatives of the victim. Is that because victims families don't care or lack initiative? Or is it because the experience is so profound that their reactions are more complicated than we imagine.

The reality of enduring that experience is so beyond my comprehension that I won't pretend to know. To say how you would feel as if it is predictable or capeable of understanding seems very odd to me.

[Ephiny]

I think I definitely would want them to die. Wouldn't mean I was right though, and I probably wouldn't be in a very rational emotional state, or in any position to be making sensible contributions to law or policy on the subject.

Rationally, I think the death penalty is unnecessary, and the possibility of a miscarriage of justice makes it very difficult to justify.

[lisad123]

No I wouldn't but because I don't believe anyone has right to take a life, even if it's their "job"

[gordyslovesheep]

No I would not - I am opposed to capital punishment

interested in why raping and killing a child is worse than raping and killing a woman ...or a man?

[thisisyesterday]

it's actually cheaper to keep someone in prison for 40 years than to kill them.

but y'know

[OhMyGolly]

If I'm honest I have no clue how I would feel in that situation. Also surely a life in Jail would be a greater punishment than a swift and painless death. If someone offered me a choice of 30 years in a small room, slowly going out of my nut, then dying from natural causes and a painless instant death, I would pick the latter.

I also have a very strong guilt complex, even if I managed to rip my child's murderer limb from limb, or pressed whatever button killed them in a capital punishment scenario. I reckon I would feel guilty, killing the perpetrator doesn't solve anything, let alone take the pain away.

[theoldtrout01876]

Ive got no problem with it.kill the fckers,do society a favor,get em out the gene pool

Ive got no problem with the death sentence for some crimes,they just sit on deathrow suckin up our tax dollars too long in my opinion

[Morloth]

If someone raped and murdered my children I would use every resource I had to have them tortured as brutally and as long as possible before having them killed.

I would then ensure that the world knew what I had done and why by having the noisiest trial I possibly could.

[babytantrums]

I used to think that this was a cut and dried subject for me - no I do not agree with the death penalty.

While I have no experience of anyone related to me being murdered, when I was much younger, someone broke into my flat and raped my sister (who was staying with me for the night) and me. He was caught and spent a paltry 7 years in prison. I will NEVER get over the complete and utter fear that he was going to murder her in front of me - never mind the fact that she was lying on the bed beside me while that animal abused her.

When he was caught, I remember being very angry with my father who said he 'wanted 5 mins in a room with him'. I just thought it was ridiculous as nothing was ever going to wipe the experience. I wish to God that I could ask him what the bloody hell made him do it (it was a first offence) Did it give him the high that he needed? Did he realise or care that he ruined 2 young girls' lives and affected their families forever?

I went to the hearing (he was pleading guilty, so no trial, which meant fewer years in prison) and he was asked if he wanted to say anything and he said, in a monotone - no expression - that he wanted to apologise to his victims. No, he wanted a shorter sentence..

I digress... I still don't agree with the death penalty. However, I now have a DD and if what happened to me and my sister happened to her (or God forbid, worse), I'm just not sure. I never knew it was possible to feel more protective of someone than I did of my sister (who is younger) that night. What I do know is that I would like them to suffer - but that isn't necessarily the death penalty. There was also incontrovertible evidence against my attacker - I could absolutely never agree to someone dying unless there was no doubt - remember 'The Life of David Gale'?