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I want the death penalty reintroduced

March 16th, 2007

There was a time when a murderer would end his or her days at the end of a rope. This was a common law dating back centuries based on the principle that if you took a life you gave your own in recompense.

There were flaws of course - sometimes the innocent went to the gallows in place of the guilty.

What was missing when the death penalty was abolished was the technological advances of today - the forensic evidence and the conclusiveness of DNA.

Now we have judges whinging about how prisons will be filled with ‘geriatric lifers‘. Those are the the relatively few who actually remain in jail.

Tariffs
People who commit a murder in the UK today have what’s called a ‘minimum tariff‘, the minimum time they must remain incarcerated before being considered for parole. The defacto standard for murder is just ten years but some have walked free after just 15 months. Rarely is it raised except in the most extreme of cases.

Average time served for murder
Nowadays a person who commits a murder in the UK can expect to be free on average, in just six years. A significant proportion go on to commit further crimes and murders.

The phrase often bandied about is the criminal must be removed from society ‘in order to protect the public.’ Pardon me, but what happened to justice? Payment exacted to pay for the crime itself, not to protect the public from further outrages?

If the death penalty were reintroduced the public would automatically be protected. Not only that but these monsters would be wiped from the face of the earth which is nothing less than they deserve. To some that may be considered retribution. I see nothing wrong with terrible retribution for terrible crimes. To me that is payment exacted.

Consider this case - an extremely rare one where a ‘full life tariff’ has been applied - a father of a seven week old baby tortured and sexually assaulted the baby for the entire duration of her painfully short life, before finally murdering her, something he fantasized about. Why does this monster deserve to take another breath? He should be executed.

How about this infamous case? A man is undeniably convicted of murdering two little girls, Holly and Jessica, yet does not qualify for a ‘whole life term’ instead receiving a forty year tariff. He should be executed.

Or this case where a group of men kidnapped a 15-year-old boy, Kriss Donald, tortured him, stabbed him thirteen times before setting him on fire while he drew his final breaths - as if his final hours weren’t horrific enough. Their actions were deliberate, thought-out and barbaric. They should be executed.

I firmly believe these and the many cases like them deserve the ultimate punishment - death.

I grow ever more weary of hearing about the ‘rights of the accused’ - the murdered no longer have any rights - they weep from the grave while their relatives weep for them.

At no time did the murderer ever consider their right to live and so should it be when we impose justice.

Entry Filed under: Crime