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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think we should bring back the Death Penalty for proven very serious offenders

293 replies

ILiveAtTheBeach · 10/11/2015 21:12

They have raped and murdered. Yet, they have no money worries, a roof over their head, 3 square meals a day, Sky TV, PS4, arranged activities....why are we so bloody soft? We have an over crowding problem in jails. Why can't we give these monsters a lethal injection and be done with it? Sometimes they are released back into society under a false identity (to protect them). What about our protection? They could move in next door. Who would be up for getting rid?

OP posts:
BIWI · 10/11/2015 21:48

Cooking lessons, financial lessons

So, the prisoners were being prepared for life outside of prison? Is there a problem with that? Surely we should be aiming to rehabilitate people who have been imprisoned - even if it's for tens of years? If they're not equipped for life outside of prison, then isn't that another problem?

SoftDriftedSnow · 10/11/2015 21:48

I have seen you posting. You are pretty literal and un-nuanced in your views. Do you modify them often?

Surely the death penalty thing is done at school?

pointythings · 10/11/2015 21:49

NO. Never. Apart from the fact that it is barbaric and would make us as bad as the people convicted, there is always the possibility that the justice system could get it wrong. Could you live with even one person being executed when they were in fact not guilty? Could you?

anothernumberone · 10/11/2015 21:49

I think there are purpetrators of crime where I wish the death penalty was still an option, Josef Fritzel for example. However these are the far reaches of criminality and the law is not really suited to dealing with extremes so on balance I prefer things to stay the way they are.

ghostyslovesheep · 10/11/2015 21:49

I think we've become immune to what it means to take someone's liberty away. It's a fucking big deal. Don't need the death penalty

absolutely

PansyGiraffe · 10/11/2015 21:49

"While many prisoners still suffer Victorian conditions, inmates at the privately-run HMP Addiewell in West Lothian enjoyed facilities including a Microsoft computer room, a library and a gym hall and fitness suite."

MICROSOFT computers eh? And a LIBRARY? And encouragement to exercise, since we don't want to encourage them to climb things or go on long cross-country runs?

ImperialBlether · 10/11/2015 21:50

It could be any of our children that end up in prison. It's not only those that are 'other' to us.

HamaTime · 10/11/2015 21:50

Malmaison Oxford is where the outside scenes of Bad Girls was filmed.

Not killing people isn't about not having 'the balls' to do it Confused

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 10/11/2015 21:52

Op hasn't addressed any of the points made.

TendonQueen · 10/11/2015 21:52

No, I don't think the death penalty is right under any circumstances. But I would support harder prison conditions and sentencing for a relatively small number of really serious crimes. Terrorism claiming many lives, serial child abusers, that sort of thing. I can also understand, though I don't agree with, the viewpoint that prisoners get too many perks compared to ordinary law abiding folk who have to do without food, heating etc. It's easy to forget when the Daily Mail is telling you all this that when the TV gets switched off, prisoners will be back behind bars with no freedom and and that that implies.

yorkshapudding · 10/11/2015 21:54

When I worked in Adult Mental Health Services (Psychiatric Intensive Care to be specific), without a doubt, the most profoundly unwell people I ever looked after were people who had been transfered to us from prison. They were so deeply traumatised by what they experienced inside, they were completely broken and detatched from reality. It irritates the hell out of me when people bang on about how prison is "easy" because the inmates have access to a television and a games console. Yeah, I'm sure that makes up for all the brutal assaults and rape that go on inside. You only have to look at the rates of suicide attempts and self harm in prisons to see that it's not actually a walk in the park.

MorrisZapp · 10/11/2015 21:55

I always laugh at Internet punters who think CP should be brought back for those we're absolutely sure are totally guilty.

As opposed to a wee bit guilty?

Let's have three verdicts in court:

Guilty
Like, totally guilty
Not guilty

How this is meant to work in practice I'll never guess.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 10/11/2015 21:55

No, dreadful

Oysterbabe · 10/11/2015 21:55

I don't consider being able to watch sky and play games to be living in luxury.

Original poster
ILiveAtTheBeach · 10/11/2015 21:56

morecrack OP has a life outside Mumsnet and is having time with DD and will look over comments beyond last page when DD goes to bed - FFS!

OP posts:
ShadowsCollideIsSurroundedByAd · 10/11/2015 21:57

'So, if your daughter was raped and murdered, you wouldn't want the guy to be killed off? You'd be happy if he had a cushy life inside? And got his life back in about 8 years? Maybe it's me, I would be enraged.'

Maybe it's me? Yes, OP, you are the only person who would give a shit if their loved one was murdered. Everyone else would be totally happy with the fucker who did it serving a cushy sentence. Or perhaps, almost everyone would feel as angry and vengeful as you, but some of us accept that the loved ones of murder victims aren't the ones who should decide on punishments. For the very reason that we'd be blinded by a need for vengeance and want to impose some serious suffering upon the individual who harmed our mother / brother / daughter.

I'm afraid I really can't understand the mindset that murder is so horrendous, I'm going to murder you for doing it.

Also, as Anna said, would you be happy to be the executioner? To look a person in the eye as you end their life? I couldn't do that. If you would do it, well, I find that disturbing. If you wouldn't, why on earth would you expect someone else to do it for you?

Griphook · 10/11/2015 21:58

Sky TV, PS4, arranged activities....why are we so bloody soft?* it's not necessarily a case of being soft though, they are given access to these items to keep them busy, by entertaining prisoners so to speak you have less trouble so you can have fewer prison guards.
If prison are sat doing nothing all day then the potential for problems increase.

kungfupannda · 10/11/2015 21:59

Two words.

Sally Clark.

SoftDriftedSnow · 10/11/2015 22:00

I do, however, think that locking people up and throwing away the key is not an option. They should be doing stuff that is productive, for their sake and for that of the wider society.

I'm not sure we quite have a grip on this whole punishment and rehabilitation thing, as a society. I think that those of us with empathy and conscience don't quite know what to do with those with neither that break the law.

SurferJet · 10/11/2015 22:01

They were so deeply traumatised by what they experienced inside, they were completely broken and detatched from reality
So are many rape victims & the families of loved ones who have been murdered.

My sympathies will always be with the victims of crime.

HermioneWeasley · 10/11/2015 22:02

OP, I have some sympathy. Controversially on MN, I don't believe in the sanctity of life. I think some crimes are so horrendous I would have no problem with the death penalty.

But the reality is that it is rarely possible to prove 100% that someone is guilty, and the way the justice system is set up, (certainly in the U.S.) it costs more for someone to go through all the appeals etc than to keep them for life in prison.

But I do believe that some crimes should receive life imprisonment with no release, and some sentences are laughable in this country. I've never visited a prison so I can't comment on the conditions.

ghostyslovesheep · 10/11/2015 22:04

yes most people are raped by people they know - often family members - think how much it will effect people if they know reporting the crime could result in the death of their kids father or their dad?

People who make silly statements about rape just don't have a clue of the complexity of the emotions involved

I would have hated my rapist to be killed because I have the fucking courage to tell someone

DontHaveAUsername · 10/11/2015 22:04

I was watching the thread wondering how long it would be before the debunked "the death penalty is murder" claim came up. It's like saying prison is state sanctioned kidnap. The difference between illegitimate murder and a state lawfully sentencing an offender to death as restitution should be clear.

SaucyJack · 10/11/2015 22:05

Nah, YABU.

Much as I love to wave a pitchfork meself and froth that paedofiddlers should hang, I don't honestly believe that capital punishment has any place in a modern society.

I don't believe that everyone should get the chance to rehabilitate either though. I do strongly believe that some crimes cross the line and that there is no way back into civilised society.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 10/11/2015 22:05

No

I do not want our government to murder people to gain some sort of justice

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