Crosswords0 min ago
Should we bring back hanging?
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No best answer has yet been selected by eggman. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ....and just how many innocent people would you have the state kill, in order to ensure that the correct criminal was eventually punished?
Past history worldwide has shown repeatedly that you can NEVER have a foolproof justice system. People WILL on occasion be wrongly convicted, and if you have a death penalty, innocent people WILL die.
Unless you have the ability to resurrect corpses, the state should never have the power to kill. Better to be freed on appeal after time in prison than dead, with nobody bothering to verify your innocence as there is no point.
Finex, thank you as ever for your observations, but with respect you seem to have misinterpreted some of my earlier comments. I am not proposing that we should execute criminals and cross our fingers in the hope that their convictions were safe; as you imply, there have been gross miscarriages of justice in this regard, such as the notorious case of Derek Bentley in 1953. I am, however, suggesting that maybe there should be made available the option for criminals themselves to decide whether it is better to rot in gaol for the rest of their lives or simply end it all and have done with it. Not an especially liberal view, granted, but a surprisingly popular one amongst certain murderers and rapists currently serving the alternative of life imprisonment.
Best wishes,
eggman