Would you want capital punishment back?

[Mynameisnew]

There are people who do such vile things in this country and are jailed for a decade or two. Perhaps released for good behaviour a bit earlier.

Afaik CP was stopped amongst other reasons because there were a number of errors made and innocent people being convicted.

But these days with DNA proof or cases where it is on cctv /phone messages or has been admitted (thinking of Emma Tustin)

Would it not make a good deterrent? Even if one person is saved from being murdered...

I appreciate that in the USA people still commit murder, but they also have guns there which means a higher incidence of spur of the moment violence.

But a sustained campaign of abuse - would such an abuser as Tustin have been put off if CP was an option, even if very rarely used?

It's easy for me to say that I would be deterred, but I'm not a psychopathic and sadistic person so the issue is, it's hard to say if people like that would be put off such a crime. Perhaps it doesn't even enter their heads that it's wrong.

Also, it doesn't get applied equally. Have a think about which people will be more likely to be sentenced to death for the same offence...

I would rather see a complete overhaul of the justice and prison systems. Reintroducing the death sentence would be a sticking plaster that does nothing but appeal to people's base instincts.

I think a lot of people end up in prison serving very short sentences who don't need to be there. I'm thinking about people such as all the women who are in prison for crimes like theft and fraud which they have often committed to support the drug habit of a male partner. A lot of these kinds of crimes would be prevented if we had a fairer society. The women who end up in prison are overwhelmingly from extremely vulnerable backgrounds. I would support other means of preventing these kinds of crimes. I don't believe prison is the solution. If we could free up space and resources in prisons by reducing low level crime in other ways, then we would be able to properly manage serious offenders.

There are certain crimes that should always, in my opinion, attract a whole of life tariff. Any murder with a sexual motive. Child murder. I would like to also say rape and child rape, but I think that punishing these offences to the full extent of the law actually encourages offenders to murder their victims in order to remove the key witness (I.e. I've already crossed the threshold for the maximum sentence possible - there's nothing further to lose by killing this person and reducing my chances of being caught). This one troubles me though as I don't think a rapist can ever be safely released. Nor do I think a paedophile can ever be rehabilitated.

I'd also like to see concurrent sentences scrapped. If you have committed several crimes then you should be serving each sentence that is handed down. Having sentences run concurrently just means that only the longest sentence is actually served and the other crimes go unpunished.

We also need to invest heavily in rehabilitation of prisoners who are not serving whole life tariffs. If we intend to release somebody at some point in the future then we need to have significantly reduced the likelihood that they will reoffend. At the moment prisons are not fit for purpose. We are just turning people back out onto the streets who have achieved nothing during their incarceration other than to become better acquainted with and submerged in a criminal lifestyle.

No. Capital punishment has no place in a civilised society. It doesn’t act as a deterrent. Capital trials are expensive and lengthy. Miscarriages of justice still occur, even with scientific advances in evidence. It’s just a fucking awful idea all round.

I think some of it depends on how you do it, where I am at the moment - and no I don't get the vote here - if someone is sentenced to death then it is carried out within a month. The death penalty is given by the supreme court after they have reviewed the case from the high court where the high court judge has recommended that penalty. There is no jury system here such as in the UK, there is a panel of 5 judges who decide guilty/innocent and the sentence.

As a system in that you do not have a long appeals process and the penalty is given only in clear cut cases - ie the murderer is caught on CCTV doing it and then later with the knife/blood on hands etc. Also drug dealers/smugglers here can be sentenced to death too.

No. Never.

It is not a deterrent. It's state sanctioned murder. It's uncivilized. It's morally reprehensible. Any error is too grave a mistake to make.

Would those calling for it to come back be happy to be the ones 'pulling the trigger'? What does that say about you? And how keen you are to kill?

Life in prison should mean just that in some cases. Some people are too dangerous to have wandering around free. Killing them is not the answer.

Absolutely not. It's not an adequate deterrent, it costs the justice and penal system vast amounts of money and its not something civilized countries do.

No. People who want it are full of bloodlust (see the recent Arthur case) and that’s not a good foundation for such an important law.

Still, the way things have gone in this country nothing would surprise me.

@Seafog

I don't support capital punishment because it can't be undone. I would love to see flogging brought back though.

This makes no sense. Flogging can't be undone any more than the death penalty.

No. To quote Jessica Jones:

“There are worse things than death. Once you’re worm food, it’s over. Painless. Quiet. Whilst the rest of us are stuck digging holes, picking up the pieces. Remembering.”

What I would like to see is proper punishment. No concurrent sentences. More whole life tariffs. 23 hours a day stuck in a cell with nothing but the bare basics.

Tempting but no.

I would like to see a more punishing sentence than just incarceration. Hard labour for example.

No.
The way I look at it, capital punishment has no place in a civilised society.
If, god forbid, I found myself in the position where a member of my family had been murdered, I’d want to know that the perpetrator was spending the rest of their life in prison, spending every day fearing for their safety. Prisons aren’t safe places. And when it comes to high profile cases - Emma Tustin for example - that particular brand of scum have a lot to be fearful about.
Capital punishment removes all the suffering those people deserve to feel in the blink of an eye. I’d rather see their punishment dragged out.

No

If you concentrate on the idea that it's a Punishment rather than a deterrent (which we all know it's not) I can see the appeal to some people.

I completely understand the sentiment behind the desire to bring back the death penalty, especially after hearing the harrowing details of the killing of Arthur.

But instead of responding by baying for someone’s blood, why don’t people put their energies into raising funds for children’s charities, lobbying the government for better support for struggling parents, role modelling compassionate behaviour to our own children?

Where is the logic in responding to a case of unimaginable cruelty by calling for a cruel and barbarous punishment for the perpetrator?

No. I don’t want to live in a society where state sponsored murder is accepted. Countries with high death penalty rates are not safer or more just.

In addition the justice system is flawed, it is filled with fallible humans with all the foibles and biases that we all have. One wrongful execution would undermine the integrity of the whole system for me.

Absolutely not. State killing is completely barbaric.

No. Killing people is wrong.

Priti Patel supported capital punishment and that’s enough for me to not 😂

In all seriousness; it is not a deterrent. Any countries with capital punishment should make that obvious and I’m always rolling my eyes at people that ask.

Personally I think awful crimes are a failure of our society to protect the vulnerable. Too much focus on the perpetrators after the event and not enough on providing safeguarding measures to stop this happening in the first place.

You’ll always get crime and even more crime when you have a shitty unequal society. How does more killing via the state help?

No.

Aside from the never ending fact that too many black men are arrested and imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit, there are miscarriages of justice in other areas too.

Would Sally Challon be alive now if we had capital punishment?

Absolutely not.

There is evidence to suggest that certain criminal actions are made significantly worse where a country has capital punishment; especially child abuse and rape cases.

The perpetrators either go further than they otherwise would trying to cover up evidence because they know if they get caught they'll be put to death or they fall into the 'might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb' thought process.

So 100% no. I actually think capital punishment would lead to more children and women being murdered.

It's the sign of a backwards country (and backwards thinking) to want capital punishment. I can't believe so many people have voted yanbu.

Google the list of countries that still have it and consider whether they are the places we want to emulate.

No. I think a society needs to be better than its worst members.

It's a terrible idea, and not just because mistakes are made - it costs millions per individual on death row because of the huge legal burden and appeals. Much cheaper to let scumbags rot in prison.

No, for the simple reason that even one innocent person executed is too many. Look at how it works in the US - a deeply racist system where if you're black, you're likely to have poorer legal representation and be punished more harshly for the same crime than if you're white. Let's not be naive and think it would be any different here.

Also anyone thinking this would be a good idea should look up the case of Stefan Kiszko.

The thing about capital punishment is that it makes the state a ''murderer''.