Barry George

[BillySugger]

In light of the not guilty verdict on Barry George http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7536815.stm how can anyone still believe we should have the death penalty ?

[Whickerman]

this group:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
has worked to examine many cases in the US of people convicted of murder, many on death row awaiting their execution.

In the 16 years since they began their work, they have helped free some of these people by proving that they simply couldn't have done it.

They have saved the lives of not 10 innocents, not 20, not 100, but 218. That's 218 people who could have been put to death for crime they didnt commit - and 218 cases where the real killers were free to potentially kill again.

That's in one country alone, and they only manage to check a handful of the cases that land on their desks.

[BillySugger]

Wow ! Went out & forgot about posting that . Quinlad & sp1814 where is this 'evidence' of which you speak ? R1geezer 'how many murders where there in 1960? how many in 2007? ' ?
There is no evidence that capital punishment is a deterrent , innocent people have been hung before .



"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind "

[ludwig]

Jake - 'Ohh Can I play Crap logic too?'

You never usually ask permission - what's different about this thread? ;-)

[kev1]

Tetjam, thank you for being, if not intelligent, at least not all that clown like

[jno]

it was basically cases like this that led to the abolition of capital punishment. Innocent people were being executed.

[ELVIS68]

Don`t forget Winston Silcott, the murderer who was wrongly accused of killing PC Keith Blakelock

[sara3]

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind " fantastic line, well said!

if we had the death penalty I really can't imagine some raging loon with a knife thinking, "oh, hang on.. there's a capitol punishment issue here... "

[jno]

good list, Steve. It makes the point that human justice is fallible while human death is irreversible. That's why capital punishment was abolished.

[Barmaid]

I for one prefer to live in a society where 10 guilty men live rather than one innocent man die.

[topogigo]

That is ok, barmaid, if the 10 guilty ones don't go out and kill your parents.

[Barmaid]

Topogigo, I take your point. But that is something I value. Having been the victim of a serious crime (something that would attract that the death sentence), I can still say hand on heart, that I still would not advocate it.