[SOC] Death penalty

[David Ackrill]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian C. Purdie"
> Rob Matherly wrote:
>
> > I for one cannot stand living in a state that doesn't have the death
> > penalty.  If you kill, you should be executed.  Plain and simple as
that.
>
> And subsequently found innocent?
>
> The last man hanged in Australia has subsequently been found to be
innocent and
> at the time the State Premier of Victoria knew it.
>
> In Australia, the only crime which still retains the death penalty is
"treason"

Another example.  Someone, in the UK, was released after spending 17 years
in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Yorkshire police have re-opened the case, but much of the evidence was
destroyed.  They are now appealing for anyone who may have information about
who might have actually committed the murder to come forward.

Unfortunately, the person who was wrongly convicted, and spent 17 years in
jail, died shortly after his release.

>From reports I read, many executions become a type of political bravado,
where someone who wants to appear to be tough on crime uses the death of
someone else as a way of getting votes!  There almost seems to be a race to
kill them before the appeal can be heard.

Given that murders are committed with or without a death penalty, there
doesn't always seem to be a correlation between the number of murders
committed and their being capital punishment on the statute books.  Either
the murderer thinks they will get away with it anyway, or the crime is
committed without thinking of the consequences.

de Dave (G0DJA)