NOTE: I will post a debate on a topic of this blog
every fortnight. It will be twice in a month. In memory of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, I post this debate from BBC:
Head to head: Death penalty [Last Updated: Tuesday,
22 November 2005, 02:24 GMT]
The
shooting in Bradford of trainee policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky has prompted
renewed calls for the return of the death penalty for those who kill police
officers.
But should we bring back hanging? Leading figures
from both side of the debate discuss the issue:
CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP REPRIEVE
How can the death of a police officer suddenly be
the reason to have the death penalty when killing two little children in Soham
wasn't?
First let's be clear I have tremendous sympathy for
the victims and the fact one's opposed to the death penalty does not mean one
is in favour of innocent people being killed.
There are two things about the death penalty. The
first is that I've witnessed six people being executed in the electric chair
and by lethal injection and in one of those six they managed to execute an
innocent person.
They executed Edward E Johnson, in Mississippi in
1987. He was innocent and I was representing him and I failed him.
So until you convince me that human beings are
infallible, you're not going to get me to agree to the death penalty.
The other thing about the death penalty is that it
achieves absolutely nothing.
“It (the death penalty) does nothing for the victims. We drag them through appeals and stays and it ruins their lives”Clive Stafford Smith
Whenever
you witness it it's always at night because we are really uncomfortable about
the whole process.
When you come out of the execution chamber and look
up at the stars and ask yourself, 'Is the world suddenly a better place because
that person has been executed?' the answer is 'No'.
It does nothing for the victims either. We drag
them through appeals and appeals and stays and it just ruins their lives.
The death penalty achieves nothing except to
degrade us all.
There are many arguments but to take the bottom
line, which is really important for me, we should ask whether we should be in
the business of revenge.
And when you put it bluntly, should we encourage
our citizens to be vengeful or compassionate? We all know the answer but it's
somehow still possible for people to argue for the death penalty.
I always think of Lorilei Guillory, the mother of a
six-year-old child who was killed by one of my clients, Ricky Langley, who was
given lots of false promises by the prosecution that she would feel better if
he was executed.
But she finally realised it was awful and ended up
testifying for us that she didn't want him to die. She is someone I admire and
respect immensely.
In the US it costs two-and-a-half times as much to
execute someone as it does to keep them in prison for ever.
Some people argue they should speed the process up
to make it cheaper but they make so many mistakes that if this happened they
would simply end up executing more innocent people.
MICHAEL WINNER, POLICE MEMORIAL TRUST CHAIRMAN
I extend it to more than people who kill police
officers. The laws in this country are stacked against the good people and in
favour of the bad people.
I mean, what is the point of keeping people alive
at great expense in prison when they're murderers and villains and of
incredible evil.
There's no question if the nation voted on this
there would be an overwhelming vote for the death penalty and the nation is
right.
We're far too nice to those who are attacking us
and murdering us and raping us, far too kind. They get a minimal sentence and
they're out in half an hour anyway and there's no deterrent, so I'm definitely
for the death penalty and for the police having guns so they can protect
themselves.
If those two girls had gone in with guns, and
they'd been trained of course to use the guns, we don't know what would have
happened. It may be the villain got shot and killed, in which case I would say
'hooray'.
In every battle against evil, sadly, very sadly,
some innocent people do die. Otherwise we wouldn't have fought WWII and we'd
all be under German occupation.
Of course people have made mistakes but they're
very rare and we face increasing danger from vicious gangs from eastern Europe,
from China, from Africa and our own home-grown gangs as well.
Guns can be bought very easily and the police
should have guns and there should be a death penalty for a number of offences.
I'm not convinced the world is not a better place
for the victims [when the culprit is executed] - well of course if the victim's
dead, that's all over but a victim's family would be, I would think on the
whole, delighted that the person who had killed their young son or daughter
received the same penalty.
No comments:
Post a Comment