The Yorkshire Ripper question?

[PassingStranger]

Just read that it cost the taxpayer 11 billion to keep him alive including his funeral?
Do you still feel the same way about him being hung for his murders?

is it acceptable to the taxpayer to pay that much, when there are so many other things that the money could have been spent on, or dosent the money matter?

Exactly. See Fred West who took the cowards way out instead of facing his lifetime punishment. Wonder what the hanging crowd think?

We dont even have whole life terms for murder anymore. Its gone too far the other way and we seem to hear of murders every week now.

Can I ask how it was misogynistic?

It was misogynistic because it was thought that the victims were 'only' prostitutes.

People often overlook how different the death penalty was here compared to how it is applied in America. People didn't linger on death row for years here, the policy was "three clear Sundays" i.e. three Sundays had to pass between the sentence being passed and it being carried out.

Would that be likely to apply in practice, though, if we still had the death penalty today? There are appalling delays in the courts system now, and many people fight for years to get convictions overturned. I can only imagine that there would be even more procedural delay when a life was at stake.

I know that in America people on all sides weaponise procedure (if they have the money) so that delays are baked in. But here the general decrepitude of criminal justice would likely have a similar effect.

There was no way it could ever have possibly been £11bn... even if you misread the number, surely you would mentally sense-check it, think "Hang on, that's impossible", and go back for another look?

It always astonishes me how badly informed some people are, and how confident they are in their incorrect 'facts'.

And to answer the OP - no, this is not a justification for the death penalty. Miscarriages of justice still happen, and death is too final. Also, I don't want to be part of a society that supports state-sanctioned murder.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/13/it-was-toxic-how-sexism-threw-police-off-the-trail-of-the-yorkshire-ripper

This is a brilliant summary.

Exactly. They were a bunch of incompetent and misogynistic fools. Easily sidetracked. In fact, as far as I remember it was by chance that they actually apprehended Sutcliffe at all. Wasn't it by two officers who were out on the streets on a totally different job at the time?

Also, £11 billion. 🤣🤣🤣 That's utterly bollocks. £11 million is about right and yes, totally worth the money to not have the death penalty.

The death penalty turned the state into a murderer. There were miscarriages of justice about which nothing could be done once sentencing had been carried out - you can't bring someone back from the dead, but you can release them from prison and pay them compensation.

I'm not saying that there was any miscarriage of justice in Sutcliffe's case, there wasn't. Life imprisonment was what he deserved, and what he got.

Ever since he was jailed the tabloid press loved to publish stories about his allegedly comfortable existence, colour tellies, etc. Weird that this barrel is still being scraped years after his death.

Agreed. And I speak as someone who lives in the area and spent years under the shadow of his activities. The death penalty has no place in a civilised country.

Yes, the police didn't start to take it seriously until an "innocent" (as described by the police, meaning that she wasn't a prostitute) woman was killed.

A zillion squillion. I read it on the internet so it must be true.

If the justice system was perfect. Then, I don't think I would be completely against the death penalty. We're talking child murderers and rapists here.

I believe a person is paying for their crimes, and the heartache caused to the families of the victims. I would be interested to see the viewpoint of a family member who had lost someone to a 1st degree crime. As, I believe their input should be considered first and foremost.

Of course, prehaps then, the argument isn't objective and too fueled by emotion.

It's an interesting debate.

But if someone, godforbid, did something to my children, I would kill them myself.

FGS, stop going on. stop trying to appear superior. I read it as 11 billion so not my mistake.
If I post on AIBU hundreds of times, and I only make one mistake thats not bad going then. Instead of homing in one mistake, think of all the times I didnt make a mistake.🙄😋

And apparently their lives weren’t worth anything. It was a disgrace.

We do have occasional whole life tarrifs for some crimes. The reality is that we don’t have the capacity to keep all murderers in prison for their entire lives and the prisoner will be on a lifetime risk of recall if they offend or cause concern of reoffending after their release on licence.

Many murderers will not pose a risk to the public after a long prison term and some can be rehabilitated safely. Not all.

They decided that all the women were "only prostitutes." Some were, some weren't. All lives are worth something, but apparently not theirs.

They also took no account of people's different circumstances or anything.

Unfortunately the decent policeman - Andy Laptew - who tried to draw attention to Sutcliffe and the shortcomings of the investigation and was silenced at every turn - died from cancer a couple of years ago.

pension is for every person over the pension age. Even rich people if they have paid enough NI Contributions.

Question is, do you think a super rich person (think Alan Sugar) is more worthy of getting a pension than a serial killer?

Bearing in mind that theres probably some loophole that people in prison get NI Credits so as not to impact their ability to amass contributions.

(I've no idea if Alan Sugar has paid NI, my point was is a rich person worthy of it vs a killer)

I think the fact their is such violence in society. Pedophilia, rapes and murders. This shows that society is far from civilised. As much as we like to think of ourselves that way

Getting my pension was quite easy. Much easier than getting a bus pass. Don't suppose Sutcluffe tried that.

( I was a student in W Yorks during the time he was killing. I was terrified. I'm still totally against the death penalty)

Oh good. You accept that people make mistakes. You must therefore accept that if the death penalty is brought back, that innocent people will be murdered by the state. But that's OK, just focus on the times they didn't make a mistake!

Who tragically died very soon after his release.

@taxguru why should Rwanda or anywhere else be subjected to 'our monsters' their citizen's lives are no less meaningful than ours.