29 February 2008

The Death Penalty.

The reason I am against the death penalty is not just because it doesn't act as a deterrent, not just because innocent people will be put to death, but because I actually think putting someone in jail for the rest of their life is a bigger punishment for those who commit the worst crimes.

Why else would...
Harold Shipman, Fred West and others have committed suicide, why else have Ian Huntley and Peter Sutcliffe attempted suicide? For these worst people, death was seen as the easy option.

Let's deny them this satisfaction and feel better that we as a society do not have to stoop to their level of killing for gratification.

4 comments:

  1. I am against the death penalty not because I think that life imprisonment is a 'worse' punishment than death. For some people it might be, for others, it might not. I am opposed to it because it is not a deterrent and because mistakes cannot be undone. For anyone who supports the death penalty I have only two words to say: Stefan Kisco, who was fitted up for the murder of Leslie Moulseed. If someone is prepared to kill innocents like him then they are on the same moral level as the murderers that they want to kill.

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  2. Neil this is approximately the second time ever I have agreed with you. It seems pretty simple to me - if we as a society have a law against premeditated killing then how could we regard as morally acceptable when the state does it, but not individuals?
    Who is Harold Shipton? Did you mean Shipman?

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  3. Urko: Glad we agree on something! I meant to put 'shipman', duly corrected, thanks.

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  4. I missed this one. Completely agreed. The best way to prevent violent crime is a "three strikes and you're out" policy.

    Most murderers start of with petty crime, then work their way up through bullying, mugging, ABH, GBH until they lose all sense of right and wrong and kill somebody to impress their friends.

    From the point of view of the murder victim, it would be better to be still alive and for some sad little fucker to be in prison than to be dead and for the sad little fucker to be hanged.

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