Views on capital punishment
 

Hi, i have recently written an essay about bringing back capital punishment for school coursework and i was wondering whether the views i found on the internet portrayed the people or just media views. just looking for some general thoughts?????????????????

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Why not give us an idea of what you found on the internet then perhaps we can help.:)

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Because then he wont be able to compare our views with what he has read about elsewhere which is what I assume he is wanting to do

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Not having done the research I would like a synopsis of what he has found, then perhaps I can give a more pertinent answer.
:)

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Voted 'Maybe' 'cos for me it depends on how it would be applied - I would not want it for all murder convictions as I think was the case previously.

PS: Don't we still have CP available for treason?

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

No.

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Should be re-introduced, D.N.A. gives far more credence to guilt, people can write all the essays they like gaz, the gutless twerps will never bring it back. p.s. i fail to see which murders are lesser dave?

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I've said yes, but like cashy has said it will never happen, I honestly don't think it would pass a free vote in the commons, but with D.N.A. evidence the chances of a miscarriage of justice a very unlikely

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Voted yes.
Too many criminals get away with thier crimes which in some cases destroy the victims/victims family lives.
Also as we have such a "soft" system criminals are not scared of anything as they know they will prob get away with it. but agree with posts previous, nowt will get done about it.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

What i don't understand about the poll is the option "More Evidence Needed":confused: if D.N.A. aint bang to rights what else can be? would love the person who voted that option to explain.:rolleyes:

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Probably the killer posing for CCTV cameras while pulling the trigger cashy:rolleyes:

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There was a case of two teenagers who had a fist fight - one of them died. The other was convicted of murder and given an indeterminate sentence (under the age limit for 'life'). 30 years later he was still in prison due to his being unable to be released because he was so institutionalised. I don't think HE should have been executed & if he'd been older a life sentence would have let him out in 10 years.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Therein lies the rub, a fist fight should NOT result in a murder charge, never used too, was always "Manslaughter" if some poor sod croaks through one, as happened locally decades ago that was the charge, due to the fact i believe "Intent" was not there.;)

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Quite right cashy, from what I remember the death penalty was only for premeditated murder, or as the yanks say 1st degree murder. In my way of thinking if you go out to take another persons life your own should be forfeited, even now with no death penalty life should mean life, behind bars till the day you turn your toes up, end of story

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

:behead::death1:Pity we still don't have the option of capital punishment for treason, For in all honesty, that's one good reason why Tony Blaire should be arrested and tried for war crimes.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

There is another problem with the death penalty which has so far been missed and that is the Jury system. Just to take a sample of people from this forum - about two thirds of the contributors on here are level headed and sensible. One third, however are comprised of liberal do-gooders, crackpot conspiracy theorists, animal lovers and every other type of nutter you care to name.

Now, take this forum as a fair reflection of society; jury selection is based on the same. What would happen, say, if you were to get some child murderer or Islamic terror bomber up at Preston Crown Court, all evidence presented - including DNA - with the obvious verdict being guilty? The sentence is death by stringing up.

You can be dam sure that 8 or so of the jury will go for 'guilty', in the knowledge that the guilty party will hang. You can also be dam sure that 3 or 4 will go for 'not guilty' - not because they doubt his guilt - but because they believe the death penalty is somehow wrong. Result? Retrial. Retrial result? Retrial..and so on.

The only solution is to bring back hanging, trial by judges only.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

My vote is no! Life should mean life but our justice system is too flawed, even with DNA.
If only one person is wrongly executed then it can never be. People in America on death row are executed when politicians need votes. The last one that I know of was David Lee Palmer who spent 32 years on death row 15.6.2010. The next one is Troy Davis whose conviction is quesitonable by far. Death as we all know is irrevesible and sorry is not enough. Bread and water, shackled and chained by all means but death, Never.

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..see what I mean about the bleeding-heart liberals.

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Yep spot on T.:rolleyes:

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Ha Ha.... been called many things but never liberal am quite flattered. What if they are NOT GUILTY and your son, daughter, mother, father, are up on charges of murder? what about the woman jailed wrongly for killing her babies (can't just remember her name but since died) was exonerrated on wrong scientific evidence and released along with others.She would have been hanged years ago with an audience booing and jeering. What would we say Sorry..... we got the wrong person?

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that was before the advances wi D.N.A. which in many instances, is not even needed, wi those who are caught Bang to Rights, before that advance i would have voted No, but with millions-1 odds, its as good as ya can get.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I am sick and tired of reading of so-called innocent parties who have been hung after a guilty verdict. The cause celebre of the lot was Hanratty...numerous books were written about him, documentaries made and the law was changed to abolish hanging. Then guess what happened? DNA came along, his body was exumed and lo and behold! Guilty as charged.

There may well have been the occaisional innocent party referred to the gallows but one thing is for sure that while capital punishment existed in this country the murder and manslaughter rate was substancially less than what we have now, by a significant factor. Not only that - since it's replacement by penal servitude -the number of innocent people killed by prior murderers released after finishing sentance is now well into the hundreds. So get real and do the numbers - if you want to save innocent people, hang the guilty.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

That 'occasional innocent party' was indeed an innocent party! I rest my case!

If you believe that DNA is proof of guilt, dream on they said that about fingerprints. DNA will only be good until the next scientific developement, even the man who discovered it said it could only be 1% of a conviction.

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It is still on the Military books for acts of desertion, while in an operational environment or under orders to deploy on ops, although it is never likely to be used in these "modern enlightened times" as shown by the handling of Joseph Glenton august 2009.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

There's been many a time when I've read reports on some murders that I would have gladly carried out the death penalty in person!..but if the death penalty is a deterrent then I don't think it works, if it is a punishment then maybe, but personally speaking if I committed murder I would rather be topped than spend life in prison.
The not so recent use of DNA evidence is not always a factor... DNA profiling was around when Barry George was convicted of killing Jill Dando without any DNA or any other real evidence, and the bloke was not guilty... miscarriages of justice will still happen.. and to my mind anyone receiving the death penalty for something they have not done is as dreadful as the original crime.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Sorry about any confusion with the poll. Were I put more evidence needed it is meant in a way that the police would have to have clear and obvious evidence that a person had commuted the crime....it's good to hear your views and opinions on the matter

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DNA didn't do it in the trial of O. J. Simpson .... and the video evidence didn't do it in the Rodney King case. Which leads one to think that if you are rich and famous enough, or a member of the LAPD, you can get away with just about anything. So, those who do go to the chair or whatever will be those who are without money or influence.

I've already expressed my views on this subject in other threads, so, I'll just vote.

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If bleeding heart liberals, an empty generalization if ever I heard one, are those who believe that innocent people should not suffer life imprisonment or the death penalty, count me in. David Milgaard spent 23 years in Kingston Pen for a murder he didn't commit ... Guy Paul Morin, 8 years for the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl, a crime he didn't commit .... one can go on. And have any of the hang 'em high crew thought about the other consequences of convicting the wrong person: for starters, while they are cheering the death of the one convicted, the real killer is still on the loose, ready to kill again.

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Tend to agree ... esp. on the deterrent bit. If the death penalty were a deterrent, then shouldn't the murder rate in the US be real low, instead of through the roof:confused: When the leading cause of death among young black males in the US is homicide, then some serious questions need to be addressed. And those questions have nothing to do with the death penalty. Maybe we should be asking why the guys who fill the jails, in all western countries, and the electric chairs in the US all seem to be mostly poor?

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And in "these modern times" the only soldiers to be shot dead is for cowardice. in the first war. no one has ever got the death penalty for killing children in Vietnam.. the only one to get the death penalty in Iraq was Saddam.. no DNA involved and not needed....if or when a nation or government take the step to introduce the death penalty .. they exclude themselves from the modern world.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Did you forget you were just voting? :rolleyes::p:D

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Yeah:D But the question of capital punishment is high on my "this really bugs me list". I just can't see why, in a civilised socity (we can leave the yanks out of this, they are, esp. in the south and parts of the midwest, an Old Testement society;)), one can sanction the death penalty. In the UK and Canada, we are free. Our freedoms, and freedom in general, was dearly bought, as many on AccyWeb remember. The ultimate punishment in our societies should be the revocation of membership in a free society, in other words, incarceration.

I don't think that many, or any, on AccyWeb would like to return to the days when a loving relationship between people of the same sex was illegal, and when an abortion was not a safe medical procedure, but dicing with death. So why should we return to the days when we killed people in order to demonstrate that killing people is wrong:confused:

And now, I will shut up:)

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Phew thank god for that:D

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

capital punishment should never be reinstated.

But it amazes me that some Christians are against capital punishment. If it wasn't for capital punishment we wouldn't have Easter (bill hicks quote) hehe

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

If it can be proven unequivocally that the person is guilty of a murder or a criminal offence so violent or inhuman, the Death sentence should be administered & sooner rather than later. No appeals, sitting around in cells interminably, the sentence should be effected & executed within 2 weeks. (My personal opinion)

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Troy Davis : Finality over Fairness

just thought I would put this one in if anyone wants to read it

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I got a book from Accy Library once that had statistics that proved that capital punishment didn't affect crime rate statistics in this country.

To be honest I think it all comes down to the way the system is viewed, particularly with respect to the police. When I was in China I barely saw any police but there was no street crime to be seen and everything was very orderly. The threat of what was NOT seen was more terrifying to people. The prisons are in secluded places and people are so keen on upholding certain standards that society self-disciplines itself and everyone in it. The system is harsh when it needs to be, but for the most part the people are controlling the way the system works at the bottom end. That was my observation of the system anyway. Obviously there is a lot of unseen corruption but generally that is the case anywhere anyway.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

don't know who voted for it first cashy but i did vote for that too, i know they didn't have d.n.a profiling when capital punishment was last used but would it be possible for something to go wrong with evidence? someone getting it mixed up etc...if they came up with something to go alongside d.n.a to make it foolproof then yes i think they should bring it back

thats just my opinion on it though

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

wow, How about we just send them to room101

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DNA evidence can be planted in the same way that drugs can be planted, to ensure a conviction. If it's possible, it happens. I used to have complete confidence in our police force, but they are not superhuman, and are corruptable.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Maybe the poll option means more evidence needed to prove the effectiveness of its use.

Obviously it has 100% success in the offender, but all punishment is about deterrence to others as well as just dealing with the individual who originally committed the crime.

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thats quite possible Michelle....but i still stick to what i said, i wanted to study criminology when i left school but things went bad for me after an unfortunate event when i was 15, i love reading about criminal profiling and getting in the minds of criminals, it fascinates me

ok that was off thread a little but i do think something else is needed if they where to bring it back

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

If by that you mean string 'em up ? bring it on.

Yes my approach may seem draconian, but it sure as hell saves a lot of cost & upset in the long term. If it happened to you & yours would you be so willing to let them get away with it ?

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

ok set how many lives are lost by reoffending murderers when released, against how many mistakes are likely these days, i know which side i'm on, :rolleyes: unless life means life, n we all know our ken wants less in prisons, top em simple as.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I don't agree with the death penalty....

But hypocritically i think criminals like pedophiles and mass murderers should have their brains dissected to study to find out what defect in the brain causes their behavior.

you seen/read 1984? I find it quite a scary novel. What they do to peoples minds in room 101 is probably worse than death :D

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

[quote=Restless;832941]I don't agree with the death penalty....

But hypocritically i think criminals like pedophiles and mass murderers should have their brains dissected to study to find out what defect in the brain causes their behavior. [/quo

As to your statement about dissection, when exactly would you do this ? When they are dead ? So how would their death come about ? Are you going to wait 40-50 years to get your answers ? Or are you suggesting vivisection ? If that is the case then I would deem that far more barbaric than a straight forward hanging.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

hmm good question. Perhaps for the vivisection. Though if it is proven that its a brain defect, they are somewhat victims too, oh what a headache. Pun intended :D

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Quite agree - I voted yes simply because I beleive in "An eye for an eye etc".
Prisoners have more amenities than a lot of our Senior Citizens can afford, so let us get rid of them, hanging, firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair - any quick deprivation of life as long as the evidence is irrefutable.
What would be the opinion of the "do-gooders" if it was a member of their family or a close friend that had been murdered or raped

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

What would be the opinion of if the shoe was on the other foot and it was one of your family due to be executed?

If it was one of my family, I cannot begin to imagine how that might feel

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

Well we often have cases that turn out the wife/mother or some other relative not only suspected but turned a blind eye to this kind of thing, I would hope that no matter what the punishment was going to be, You, I or any other would be brave enough to stop such horror being caused, to innocent beings no matter how much heartache we may suffer ourselves.

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If it can be proven unequivocally that the person is guilty of a murder or a criminal offence so violent or inhuman, the Death sentence should be administered

That is why I quantified my statement with the above comment in a previous post.

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Yes.. sentenced to life for murder should mean life.
Why was the death penalty abolished in the first place?.. it's not because all of a sudden Britian was full of "do gooding liberals"..it's because some people were sent to the gallows that should not have been..I don't agree that any referendum would be a walk over for the pro vote.

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^ because it's wrong to kill another human being. Simple as that... not to mention countless innocents being hanged...

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Far as i'm concerned Humans do not carry out inhuman acts. simple as.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

:d

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I think your answer lies here :-

In conclusion, it might be said that actual or perceived mal-administration of the reprieve system by the Home Office, a changing attitude in society and a concerted campaign by the media and liberal pressure groups were the principal reasons for the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. It is interesting to note that there was never a referendum held to give the public a democratic say on the matter!

This is the last chapter in an article pertaining to your question. For the full article look at :- abolish

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

So the man that pulls the trap door is not human?
Surely murder is murder whichever side of the law it is commited on.

I was once a witness in a trial in the High Court in London.I told nothing but the truth and the jury didn't believe a word I said!!!! If that had been a murder case I dread to think of the outcome. An earlier post said we should get rid of juries and I agree with that. The whole system needs reviewing.:(

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

exactly......too many do gooders,,,,,,when hanging was in force,,you read about murders in (TRUE DETECTIVE),,,and American such like magazines,,,,now nodody bats an eye.... lifes cheap..

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

He is a Human being, an Executioner, gainfully & Lawfully employed by the State to carry out their rulings. The fact that that ruling is execution, may not sit well with you & others but it is something the State deemed necessary at certain points in its history.

Execution -To put to death, especially by carrying out a lawful sentence.

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

My qualification was Marksman with a number of weapons. Or do it as the Thais do - a machine gun in fixed position and a number of people think they have pulled the trigger. Providing the salary is adequate, I may well be at the front of the long list of vbolunteers.

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Never stand in front of a group of armed men with itchy fingers.

;)

Re: Views on capital punishment
 

I can't do anything on my own without you following :p:D

Thats 3 stalkers I have now :rolleyes: