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AIBU?

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11
Internaut · 13/08/2025 00:11

OonaStubbs · 12/08/2025 19:39

Hire new staff?

What are you going to do when new staff don't come forward, or find that they too don't have the stomach for killing a load of potentially innocent people in cold blood?

Internaut · 13/08/2025 00:15

zerofeeling · 12/08/2025 21:44

Whole Life orders were introduced in 1983. Not after abolition, that's true, but then I didn't say they were - I said it was probably the expectation of the public that people who would previously have been executed would now be jailed for life-meaning-life.

I was around then and no, that wasn't the expectation, because it was made perfectly clear that life prisoners would be able to apply for parole. There was a recognition that even killers can be rehabilitated - indeed, that one-off killers were more likely to be rehabilitated than most - and/or that there may be extenuating circumstances.

OonaStubbs · 13/08/2025 00:54

Internaut · 13/08/2025 00:09

Why do you keep repeating the same knee-jerk inflammatory statements without addressing the very valid points which have been put to you throughout this thread?

Do you seriously want to be at risk of being summarily put to death just because someone has erroneously accused you of shoplifting a can of beans? Because that is what you are advocating for.

I am not advocating the death sentence for shoplifting!

OneAmusedShark · 13/08/2025 08:30

Internaut · 13/08/2025 00:15

I was around then and no, that wasn't the expectation, because it was made perfectly clear that life prisoners would be able to apply for parole. There was a recognition that even killers can be rehabilitated - indeed, that one-off killers were more likely to be rehabilitated than most - and/or that there may be extenuating circumstances.

When we had the death penalty in this country, most killers sentenced to death were in fact reprieved and their sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

The system only wanted to hang “the worst” cases and recognised, even then, that most people (especially people who had killed once only) were capable of reform and redemption. This last idea hasn’t changed.

The average time spent in prison before parole for someone who was reprieved was about 10 years.

When the death penalty was abolished, the trial judge would set recommendations as to how long a life sentenced person should serve before parole was considered, but the decision rested with the Home Secretary.

In the case of the Moors Murderers the trial judge said Brady should never get out and that Hindley should serve 25 years before parole.

Nowadays the minimum period to be served before parole can be considered is set by the trial judge, and in the worst cases life really does mean life.

The minimum periods are often a lot longer now than they were when we had the death penalty.

The relevance of all this to the death penalty debate is that support for the death penalty is actually lower in countries and states where “life without parole” is an option in the worst cases as the public can be sure that the worst killers will never get out.

YouWillFindMeInTheGarden · 13/08/2025 18:18

Internaut · 13/08/2025 00:11

What are you going to do when new staff don't come forward, or find that they too don't have the stomach for killing a load of potentially innocent people in cold blood?

That really made me laugh…..OONA is clueless

hire new staff indeed! How will they have experience of prisoners let alone prisoners facing a DP?

CurlewKate · 13/08/2025 18:25

Oona is a troll. Do not feed her.

Internaut · 13/08/2025 23:04

OonaStubbs · 13/08/2025 00:54

I am not advocating the death sentence for shoplifting!

You were advocating that all criminals be killed as the best way to stop recidivism. If that isn't what you meant to say, you need to learn to express yourself better.

TesChique · 13/08/2025 23:10

bluewanda · 24/07/2025 23:33

Ok. But in cases like this one it’s inarguably black and white.

In law there is no such thing.

Betterbeanon · 15/12/2025 09:42

bluewanda · 24/07/2025 23:40

Well, you’re a better person than I am. But why work with the perpetrators and not the victims?

Because believe it or not, our focus should be on the offender and his or her rehabilitation in order to reduce recidivism. Simply because that's where society benefits most.

Victims do not run the judicial system, nor should they ever, as they are not best placed to do so.

An example being, a mother loses her child to murder and wants the offender hung, drawn and quartered (a justifiable emotion), but another mother loses her child to murder yet is a spiritual person who believes in forgiveness and wants the offender to walk free (again, a justifiable emotion).

The law gets applied to all of us, and victims do not get to determine punishment, albeit impact statements are given some weight.

Betterbeanon · 15/12/2025 09:54

OonaStubbs · 12/08/2025 17:59

The law-abiding public deserve to be safe and not to have to pay through the nose to keep prisoners alive and docile/entertained in relative luxury in prison. People talk about rehabilitation and the recidivism rate. Well criminals put to death have a recidivism rate of 0.0%. Crime has increased exponentially since the death sentence was abolished in this country. It's time we had a referendum about the death sentence. If the public wants it, the public should get it, we do live in a democracy after all.

Sorry, but you are wrong on every level.

First off, the DP actually costs more to the taxpayer than keeping them incarcerated, again they exhaust their appeals.

Secondly, countless studies have proven the DP does not act as any form of deterrent. Taking the States as a classic example; States that have the DP implemented have no less crime stats than States without - in fact they're higher.

Thirdly, implementing capital punishment in the UK will never happen, as the UK is still signed up to the ECHR and the European Convention. And in any event, putting the DP out to referendum should never happen either, simply because a proportion of UK society lack capacity to see the bigger picture surrounding the task of putting an offender to death, in practise.

Internaut · 16/12/2025 09:35

When we had the death penalty in this country, most killers sentenced to death were in fact reprieved and their sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The system only wanted to hang “the worst” cases and recognised, even then, that most people (especially people who had killed once only) were capable of reform and redemption. This last idea hasn’t changed.

Not really true, though, is it, when you look at cases like Derek Bentley, Timothy Evans, and Ruth Ellis.

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