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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bring back capital punishment?

235 replies

LittleMaroonRidingHood · 01/10/2022 13:03

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.

OP posts:
PhillySub · 01/10/2022 14:26

Interesting subject. So if your baby/child is raped/abused you are happy for the offender just to be removed from the streets?

roarfeckingroarr · 01/10/2022 14:28

Never

Lonelycrab · 01/10/2022 14:31

No.

The people of this country don’t want it. But that, coupled with the fact America does it makes it quite likely the current govt will try and push for it.

AnneLovesGilbert · 01/10/2022 14:31

PhillySub · 01/10/2022 14:26

Interesting subject. So if your baby/child is raped/abused you are happy for the offender just to be removed from the streets?

I’d want to kill them myself.

That’s why grieving traumatised relatives don’t get to make laws or decide on punishments.

We decide what sort of society we want to live in. Murdering a murderer isn’t the mark of a civilised one.

ReeDeeHee · 01/10/2022 14:32

PhillySub · 01/10/2022 14:26

Interesting subject. So if your baby/child is raped/abused you are happy for the offender just to be removed from the streets?

I don't think "Happy" would be the right word.
Of course it's all hypothetical, nobody can know (and I really hope nobody ever finds out) how they would react in that situation. I'd want to kill them, of course, but in my logical, hypothetical mind right now I'd understand that I'd then also be in prison and away from my child who needs me to support them.

Mommabear20 · 01/10/2022 14:38

Absolutely not!
I do strongly believe we need to make prison less comfy for those incarcerated (tv privileges etc) and make them work to pay their debt to society, but killing them, is less of a punishment for them, but does cause upset and trauma for yet another family. So imagine, 1 person murders 2 people, and is sent to prison, you have 2 grieving families, you kill that murderer, you have 3. How is that an improvement?

anotherdayanotherpathlesstravelled · 01/10/2022 14:43

Absolutely support capital punishment for any crimes involving the rape and/or death of a child like all those child killers sentenced in the last year

In fact I'd quite happily press the button myself

Our prison system isn't enough of a deterrent and our sentencing laws are weak

Discovereads · 01/10/2022 14:45

Never.
Too many innocents end up executed when there is a death penalty. Our history is littered with them.

FurAndFeathers · 01/10/2022 14:46

TortugaRumCakeQueen · 01/10/2022 13:13

Yes, we should bring it back. We are spending Billions keeping people alive, that can never be reintroduced into society and who have committed unforgivable crimes. They don't pay tax, they don't contribute anything and they are deadly dangerous. Why are we keeping them alive? What for?

You know that trying to properly administer death penalty cases costs significantly more right?

No499 · 01/10/2022 14:46

I used to be pro-capital punishment until my DH was murdered. Whilst processing his death and navigating the court system I realized it's not black and white. It's taken a long time but I have chosen to forgive my DH killer. They now sit in prison on a life sentence.

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 01/10/2022 14:49

I would re-instate capital punishment if it was beyond doubt the person was guilty.

too many people take the life’s of others then themselves go on to live happy normal lives after a few years in jail.

FurAndFeathers · 01/10/2022 14:50

PhillySub · 01/10/2022 14:26

Interesting subject. So if your baby/child is raped/abused you are happy for the offender just to be removed from the streets?

So your premise is that the justice system is there to make victim’s families ‘happy’?

that isn’t what it’s there for, and I’m not entirely sure that being happy after such awful experiences as you describe is an achievable goal.

the justice system is there to safeguard the public and ensure correct application of the law.

it’s not a ‘revenge system’ or an ‘emotional support system’ or a ‘retribution system’

clarepetal · 01/10/2022 15:00

Two wrongs don't make a right. And what if the wrong person was convicted?

Discovereads · 01/10/2022 15:00

Ouchh · 01/10/2022 13:58

I think if an offender is 100% proven to have committed numerous horrific offences (i.e: rape, murder, torture, crimes involving children) and it isn't possible to rehabilitate them, then we should offer them the choice between execution and being banished to a prison colony. The prison colony would be a single-sex island and you'd work and live like you might anywhere else, just no internet or link to the outside world. Offenders would work, helping to make it a financially self-sustaining colony. That way they can live, and the only risk they'd pose is to each other, and they maybe wouldn't cost the taxpayer so much either

Oh yes, this worked put so well what with transporting criminals to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Fob off our problems on the unsuspecting populations of other countries. A penal colony is still colonialism….

Sparklesocks · 01/10/2022 15:02

No.
And you sometimes get cases where new evidence comes to light and someone is exonerated and released after being found guilty. As awful as it is that they’ve lost years of their life in a cell for a great injustice, it would be worse if they were put to death and the wrong could never be righted.

RubyJam · 01/10/2022 15:05

I’d support capital punishment, especially for the depraved disgusting child killers recently , that have tortured and starved children.
In this day and age with DNA testing I think guilty verdicts would be more accurate than ever.

I hate to read about these child killers getting short sentences, life is very rarely life in this country , thats the problem.

Discovereads · 01/10/2022 15:07

RubyJam · 01/10/2022 15:05

I’d support capital punishment, especially for the depraved disgusting child killers recently , that have tortured and starved children.
In this day and age with DNA testing I think guilty verdicts would be more accurate than ever.

I hate to read about these child killers getting short sentences, life is very rarely life in this country , thats the problem.

You realise that this would mean quite a few women being executed?

RosieRooster83 · 01/10/2022 15:07

I don't think it should be reinstated because no one has the right to take another persons life, no matter what they have done. They aren't really paying for their crime when they are dead.

AirFryerNinja · 01/10/2022 15:09

No, because that would put me on the same level as the murderer. Taking a life.
Personally I would lock them away in a small concrete cell with absolutely no access whatsoever to the outside world, including visits and letters.
Then they have the rest of their miserable lives to think about how they got there.
A bit like the max security prison in Colorado.

Blanketpolicy · 01/10/2022 15:10

No, I would not want someones job to be killing another person against their will, regardless of what they have done. The people who applied for that job would either have serious issues of their own to make them want to do that or they would be desperate, neither of which makes it an acceptable position for them to be in.

FriedasCarLoad · 01/10/2022 15:10

In principle I agree with the death penalty.

In practice I think that the risk of innocent people being killed and of it being applied unequally are too high, so I wouldn't vote for it.

AuntSalli · 01/10/2022 15:15

The problem with the current prison system is it quite a lot of people have a better life in that and they would outside Shannon Matthews mother Springs immediately to mind she was given skills that she is able to now take out into society very good living with she was just a complete waste of space. Now you could say present is done its job it’s rehabilitated her.
But when a life sentence doesn’t mean life and when 16-year-olds can spend 10 years in prison receiving better nutrition access to teams access to education discipline in forced on them. Ava Whites killer springs to mind. I would imagine at some point he’s proud parents will be sat at his graduation what about AVA‘s parents ?
There needs to be a balance.

SoupDragon · 01/10/2022 15:15

The people who applied for that job would either have serious issues of their own to make them want to do that or they would be desperate, neither of which makes it an acceptable position for them to be in.

That so an interesting point. What sort of mind do you need to have to want a job killing people?

balalake · 01/10/2022 15:15

I think sometimes there would be jury members who would refuse to convict someone, if they thought they were sending them to their death. Just as much as innocent people being hung because of the wish to convict someone.

SoupDragon · 01/10/2022 15:17

Are you planning to come back and comment on your own thread @LittleMaroonRidingHood ?