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

[Argos]

Would you?

[PeachyWhoCannotType]

Oh and yes rationally I am totally anti death penalty. Awful thing.

[FrillyMilly]

I can't imagine how I would feel if someone raped and murder my child, regardless of if my child was a child or adult. I think I would probably want to scream at them, want to know why, beat them with my bare hands. I don't think I would want the death penalty for them. What I would want is them to do hard time. To go to prison for life and serve a punishment. Being killed is an easy way out.

[PeachyWhoCannotType]

I posted this link last time this came up

It's long ut invovles the death of more than one child so relevant

[Argos]

But in these cases does life actually mean life, I know in some cases it's a lot less

[Northernlurker]

I am against the death penalty. If somebody harmed my children of course I would want them dead, in pain, obliterated - but I don't believe I am capable of that when it came to it nor would I want the state to make me a murderer.

[Lizzylou]

Gawd, if someone hurt my children I would wish them all manner of harm. I would probably want to mete out that rough justice.

BUT how many parents/relatives of children/family members who are affected like this show enormous dignity and use their anger for good? I'm thinking Sarah Payne, Sophie Lancaster's Mother here. It seems like some sort of switch happens and people want to honour their child's/relative's memory instead of stooping to eye for an eye level.

It always amazes me in all honesty. I am very hotheaded and cannot imagine not wanting to harm beyond all measure someone who had harmed one of my family. I guess the numbness and emptiness leads people to fill that void with something positive and fitting for their loved one's memory.

[LadyBeagleEyes]

Do you know, my thoughts on this are maybe a bit irrational but IMO I really think with a life sentence they suffer more?
Harold Shipman and Fred West chose suicide rather than the rest of their life in prison.
The man who killed the children of Dunblane (I won't mention his name) preferred to kill himself, as have the majority of these mass killers.
Ian Brady is currently appealing for the right to die and going on hunger strikes.
And most paedophiles/murderers are regularly attacked in prison and most of them spend their life in solitary.
I am totally against the death penalty for many reasons, but when serious criminals prefer to die rather than spend the rest of their lives in prison, then life in prison is what they should get

[RhinoKey]

No I wouldnt.

As devastated and angry as I would be, I wouldnt want them to face the Death Penalty because I dont agree with it, no exceptions.

[LunarRose]

Yes, and I would happily swing the metaphorical axe myself

[OpinionatedMum]

But what would happen if your child were wrongly convicted of rape and murder...

[Lizzylou]

Exactly Opinionatedmum!
Exactly.

[Argos]

If I thought they would suffer more then a life behind bars in constant fear of being attacked/killed it would be.

[spookshowangellovesit]

state sanctioned murder is still murder. so no death penalty is wrong is any situation.

[izzywhizzyletsgetbusy]

I'm pro death penalty in the UK because a life sentence does not necessarily mean that murderers of children will spend the rest of their lives behind bars - many serve only a paltry length of time in jail before being released back into the community, where some kill again.

In the USA I am anti death penalty because sentences for the heinous crime of murder stipulate a set number of years to be served in prison without possibility of parole, and those years are commonly longer than the murderer's expected natural lifespan.

[TeddyBare]

What made you start imagining this situation? I hope you're ok op.

Any parent in that situation WNBU to feel that way. That's exactly why as a society we don't allow the victim to choose the punishment. The parent in this situation is the last person to be able to make a rational decision about what is best in the long term for society, so we don't give them that responsibility, instead we give them therapy and empathy and hope that it's never us.

What were you hoping this thread would achieve?

[LadyBeagleEyes]

There are people, serial killers who will never be released.
But they're the ones that who's crimes are so evil that they get into the papers.
Sentencing in the UK needs a total overhaul, but the death penalty must never come back.

[PeachyWhoCannotType]

Surely Izzy a better angle then would be to campaign for whole life sentences to become more common then?

[FabbyChic]

I'd definately want the death penalty.

[LaurieFairyCake]

No, only complete idiots or weirdo daily mail readers believe in capital punishment.

[minimisschief]

well life doesn't mean life anyway and they get let out early in most cases aswell

so yeah if someone did that to my children i would want their feeble little life ended in a heartbeat

[LaurieFairyCake]

What a lovely xpost with fabby there

[PeachyWhoCannotType]

What is the point of the DP?

Deterrent- ben proven otehrwise.

Punishment- nothing will bring your loved one back, will it? Would it really make it better to see someone else die, someone else lose their child? And what if the case was proven as a miscarriage of justice- then what? presumably if you campigned for the death penalty you are implicated in that? Read that article I linked to; recent enough miscarriage of justice.

[Argos]

I suppose it is to make them suffer in the sense they know they are going to die, and also so that they don't get released and re-offend.

Perhaps if the justice system was overhauled people would have more confidence in it.

[RhinoKey]

The DP is only really for people who believe that revenge=justice.

[thisisyesterday]

google gary gilmore (the book i mentioned earlier is about him)

he accepted his death sentence for first degree murder.
there were many appeals, but he WANTED to die rather than live in prison because despite DM articles telling you how great it all is, it really, really isn't

many people argued that if the person wanted to die then it wasn't relaly a punishment? and that it was just assisted suicide.