Death Sentence

[stevefoster]

All I said in that respect is that I thought Sophie Lancaster wouldn't be dead now if there was a death penalty.

I went on to suggest that she wouldn't be dead if there were any kind of proper penalties in place for these types of misbehaving children.

ie A Deterent. A person i know's sister was murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper, i know what his vote would be. You can debate all night, but good people know the difference between right and wrong, live by the sword, die by the sword, keep it simple

[stevefoster]

I think that corporal punishment is the way to go. If we were to remove most of the modern conveniences in the prisons of today and suspend the prisoners' civil liberties for the duration of their internment it would make a far better deterrent. Set them to work for 16 hours a day, isolated in a small cell, walking round and round a giant hamster wheel to generate power for the national grid. If they do not comply, light torture could be applied (e.g. electrical shock?). People today are too afraid of administering pain by proxy, never mind experiencing it themselves!

Well said that forumite, sounds like my working day, make them go fell running as well, that'll cure em. Seriously though, i agree

[NotIntaFells]

Executing murderers does not appear to be working in America, so why would it here? I have an Uncle who is a lawyer - he was friends with someone who had a family member murdered back in the 1950s in Liverpool. He was with this family when they hanged the murderer (they listened to the news on the radio and heard the hanging had gone ahead) - they were not pleased that he had been brought to justice as instinctively I would have been... they were thinking more of the fact HIS family were now going to go through what they did. Also, executing them means they escape the process of growing old or ill - life imprisonment to protect society makes more sense, providing it is LIFE!
The subject of Corporal Punishment is a different one - most of us as kids got a good belt which did us no real harm, and it would do some of these unruly yobbos we encounter on the streets some good. So for some kids, bring it on... however we cannot go back to the times when you got the cane for trivial little things like 'talking in lines' at school (as I did!)...

[daz h]

bringing back the death penalty would be a step backward in my view
im at work and i will post later as to why
we have touched on this subject in the past and ive had my views about it before.

[Stolly]

All I said in that respect is that I thought Sophie Lancaster wouldn't be dead now if there was a death penalty.

I'm not sure I agree with that Chris. I'll admit I don't know the full details of the case (other than it was a vicious attack on two goths for no other reason than the way they dressed) so bear with me here. I suspect though these kids thought that they were just beating them up (very badly) and may not have appreciated the fact theat they could actually end up murdering Sophie.

I mean, had Sophie survived, I bet they would have be charged with assault and GBH or something as opposed to attempted murder. If so the death penalty isn't a deterrant.

I think that the government and police should advertise very strongly how dangerous punching and kicking people can be. They should also shout out loud their clear up rate for murders like this, which is very high. No big deal in isolation but probably more of a deterrant than the death penalty ever would be.

[Tea]

When i was at school, when i got the cane, which was often, cos i was a right tearaway

The way it works is that the punishment puts people off doing it.

I went on to suggest that she wouldn't be dead if there were any kind of proper penalties in place for these types of misbehaving children.

The point I was unsuccessfully making Chris, is that Merrylegs says harsh punishments like caning are needed to deter people.

He goes on to give an example of how in his view harsh punishments worked successfully as a deterrent when he was at school.

Except that the harsh punishments plainly didn't work, or Merrylegs would have been caned only once rather, than often.

Better?

[Graeme]

I was quite disturbed about this case, not sure why, maybe it is because you hear aboutthese things happening more often now, maybe it's because I used to live down the road from where Gary Newlove was stamped to death. Anyway back to the point, I'm not sure what good a death penalty would do. It seems to me that these kids who are carrying out these actions do so because they are in someway removed from what they do. They have never been held responsible for their actions until they kill someone. And their parents refuse to believe that their children could do such things. With the Newlove case the parent's of the boys that kicked Gary Newlove to death refuse to believe their childrencould do such a thing.
I don't believe parents shouldn't take total repsonsibilty for their actions, but they should at least open their eyes to the fact that their kids could be toe rags and not the angels they could be.
That's my view, my wife thinks parent's should be held accountable for the acts of their children, I suggested to her that it's not really on expecting parents to serve a life sentence with their child.
I am of the view that these kids think they're untouchable and it's about time something was done to change this, take the stroy when Jeremy Clarkson dealt with some ruffians he ended up being questioned by the police after the kids reported him squaring up to the ring leader. Make of that what you will.

[Fortinbras]

the harsh punishments plainly didn't work, or Merrylegs would have been caned only once rather, than often.

Deterrents only completely remove aberrant behaviour in a theoretical situation; in practice however, a successful deterrent can significantly reduce the occurrence frequency of incidents, which I think is the point. There will always be crime because it is human nature to feel anger, envy, lust and all other such first causes of criminality, but it should be possible to manage the levels that do occur.

Merrylegs probably wasn't as big a tearaway as he could have been, thanks to the canings. Am I right Merrylegs? One visit to the modern classroom to view the antics therein should be enough to demonstrate to anyone the need for the reintroduction of some kind of tempering factor.

[FREDDIE]

They should make people like this really suffer on a Cell on there own, NEVER allowed out of it and NEVER be able to speak let alone make contact with another human being

[Graeme]

They should make people like this really suffer on a Cell on there own, NEVER allowed out of it and NEVER be able to speak let alone make contact with another human being

While agreeing with your sentiment Freddie, there are several prisoners in the UK who will never be parolled for release. This is good it includes the likes of Peter Sutcliffe and other notorious murderers. However the European court of human rights is currently trying to decide whether or not a whole life tariff is against a persons human rights. Make of that what you will.