If the death penalty was brought back, someone innocent would inevitably be killed at some point
Right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) is pushing a Number 10 e-petition to reinstate the death penalty. His campaign has already gained widespread support, from Murdoch newspaper The Sun to Tory MP Philip Davies (from ‘let the disabled be exploited at below the minimum wage’ and ‘can’t we bring back blacking up’ fame). Mr Davies said:
“It’s something where once again the public are a long way ahead of the politicians. I’d go further and restore it for all murderers.”
However, a quick google search and look through the ‘Innocent‘ database finds that murder charges are fairly regularly overturned in the British Courts. People whose original conviction for murder that have been quashed include:
Andrew Adams who was convicted of murdering science teacher Jack Royal in 1990. Members of the jury later come forward to say they had considered evidence not put before the court, the police had been in contact with witnesses during the trial, and that verdicts of not guilty were returned on others involved in the case, inconsistent with Adams’ guilty verdict
Soldier Andrew Evans, who was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Judith Roberts on the basis of a dream he experienced
Sean Hodgson, who was convicted of the murder of bar worker Theresa de Simone in 1979, and served 27 years despite David Lace confessing to the murder in 1983
Josephine Smith, whose conviction of murder for her husband was changed to manslaughter, after it was established he had repeatedly beat her and subject her to sexual abuse. Smith had originally pleaded guilty to manslaughter
Tony Martin, whose conviction of murder was reduced to manslaughter for shooting burglars who entered his home, which he had done in a ‘blind panic’
And there are dozens more. It seems odd that a libertarian such as Staines thinks that the state is incompetent to do almost anything other than decide who to kill. Under Davies’s policy, all these people would have now been killed by the state in cold blood.
Under Staines’s plan (cop-killers and child murderers would be liable for the death penalty), Andrew Evans would now have been killed.
So what price a life? Is it right that some innocent people are killed so that others receive thier comeuppance? If, as MP Priti Patel believes, deterence did work (which would imply murderers rationally weigh out risks and benefits to actions, and that a life sentence is seen as a fair risk), how many is it OK to kill to ensure that murderers are put off?
All this ‘ends justifies the means’ thinking and trading of lives feels bizarrely stalinist for conservatives and libertarians. If the death penalty is brought back, it is only a matter of time until someone is innocent is killed – an odd outcome to a campaign based on abhorrence of murder.
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85 Responses to “Five good reasons why the death penalty should not be reinstated”
MustBeRead
From @LeftFootFwd Five good reasons why the death penalty should NOT be restored http://t.co/MYfZdPQ
Tom White
There’s no good evidence that the death penalty deters, or more widely that having stiffer sentences reduces the crime rate. If you compare England and the US (which have toughish regimes) with Canada and Scotland (which don’t), the curve in rising and falling crime looks pretty similar. Reducing the number of police officers isn’t, however, a very good idea…
It’s morally obscene to have the death penalty on utilitarian grounds. Judging any person’s future so absolutely is supremely arrogant. And it’s not going to happen anyway unless we leave the EU.
I’d say these are all pretty good reasons to treat this proposal as wrong, and indeed as offensive. Davies and Patel are both absolute fools anyway. And Staines is a pompous muck raking parasite.
Pete Riches
RT @leftfootfwd: Five good reasons why the death penalty should not be reinstated http://t.co/XtCCBZ2 #deathpenalty #statemurder #facism
Morgan Dalton
. @dlknowles @TimMontgomerie Five (rather conservative) reasons oppose the death penalty on @leftfootfwd: http://t.co/szcVGZU
Nigel Baldwin
I’m very surprised that Angela Cannings wasn’t mentioned. Convicted in 2002 of the ‘murder’ of two of her four children who’d died from sudden infant death syndrome, because an ‘expert’ opined that ‘more than 2 cot deaths must be murder’. If we’d had hanging, then by the time evidence emerged two years later, that cot deaths had been endemic on the Irish side of Angela’s family, it would have been too late. At least life imprisonment ‘fails safe’.