Bring back capital punishment?

[LittleMaroonRidingHood]

This thread was prompted by the news item about a possible discovery of the remains of a victim of the 'Moors Murderers'.

Should Capital Punishment be re-instated for murder ?

YABU - The value of the offender's life should not be negated by the offender's crime.
YANBU - When someone sets out with intent to deprive someone of their life, then they automatically forfeit the right to get any older.

I don’t support the death penalty. It has no place in a civilised society.

This isn’t because I give a single fuck about child rapists and murderers. It’s not because I think they deserve better or can be rehabilitated. It’s for a multitude of reasons such as:

No state should have the power to end a human life in this context.

Wrongful convictions happen.

In some cases it endangers victims (I.e. punishing rape with execution incentivises rapists to kill their victims in order to eliminate the key witness, since they have already crossed the capital punishment threshold).

It sends the message to citizens that life is cheap.

I would rather see a radical overhaul of the justice system. There are thousands of people in prison who don’t belong there. Almost all non-violent criminals could be dealt with by alternative means. This would free up resources to actually meaningfully attempt to rehabilitate those who can be rehabilitated and to hand down whole-of-life tariffs to all of those who deserve them, which should be absolutely every child killer, and probably most murderers. I’d welcome whole life tariffs for child rapists if it could be proven that this did not increase the murder rate.

It’s always really unsettling in these discussions to see the relish with which a few individuals talk about how much they would enjoy torturing certain criminals.

I think there’s a difference between not caring very much how those criminals get treated once they’re in prison and actively wanting to torture them yourself. If you’re capable of torturing someone, there is something wrong with you, no matter what your motives are, or how despicable your victim is.

No to the death penalty for all the reasons already discussed. Completely archaic and pointless.

This.

It's bad enough that some people spend years in prison after being wrongfully convicted, but at least they get released and some financial compensation. Imagine if the Birmingham 6 etc had been executed?

And killing people is just wrong, unless it's in self-defence, so the state shouldn't be doing it.

There was a man who ruined my family and made our lives hell for years. As a child, I used to fantasise about how I would torture him, if I could. So while emotionally, I feel like some people certaintly deserve all the pain and suffering, and I genuinely do think I could really hurt some people and enjoy seeing their pain, I think it's a good thing we don't allow it. Prison doesn't punish strongly enough though. I don't think the goal should be rehabilitation for many people.

Me neither but sadly they are allowed to claim compensation if they get attacked.
Incase anyone dosent know Ian Huntley claimed money for this.

It's crazy, what does he expect when he did what he did, that people are going to be falling over him wanting to be his friend.
Waste of oxygen.

No. Think of all the wrongful convictions.
www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/2009/mar/18/miscarriages-justice-history

I don’t support the death penalty. It has no place in a civilised society.

This expresses my view exactly. YABU.

I entirely disagree with the death penalty, as it is cruel an irreversible, however public humiliation for fly tippers and shop lifters, certainly.

Maybe bring back the stocks, though obviously no throwing of rotten fruit. Also bring back penal treadmill in prisons for violent offenders.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_treadmill

Victims could pop up to the prison and watch whilst their mobile phones are being charged by "prisoner power".

If all that happened to you in the stocks was being hit with tomatoes, you were very lucky indeed.