[Doug]

This is an emotive and complicated issue. I respect of using juries I’m not sure “Twelve Good Men” may be an ideal that past into our history many moons ago, I feel that a panel of Judges might be more appropriate for the passing of the death sentence and I feel that a period of abstention would be appropriate for cases where a sentence may be unsafe for whatever reason, however, where a conviction is secured beyond all reasonable doubt I have little objection to the sentence being conducted under medical conditions and an lethal injection being administered. Mistakes may be made if jurors remain private members of the public are where the media are allowed to run riot as they have in the past. I am all for the freedom of the press but where the life of an individual is being considered it should be done in the privacy and security of a court of law and not on the pages of the press. Public opinion will always be divided on this issue and it will remain the same when the public debate the innocents or guilt of a murderer, so the less the public have to do with due process the less likely it is that professional jurors will react emotively to public opinion rather than the public good.