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Home News Cases and articles The Sun Opinion Page. Jail NOT the noose The Sun Opinion Page. Jail NOT the noose
Monday, 25 February 2008
THE clamour for the death penalty is deafening.
Some 99 per cent of 100,000 voters in our poll demand its return.
Such an overwhelming response is no surprise after the killings of Garry Newlove, Sally Anne Bowman and the five Suffolk Strangler victims. Not to mention the anarchy that has erupted in some parts of Britain.
No one reading the heart-rending interviews with any of the victims’ families could fail to understand their desire for the ultimate revenge. Most of us share it.
But The Sun does not believe in capital punishment. It will not be brought back on a wave of public emotion, however much we sympathise with it.
Emotion cannot dictate a nation’s system of punishment.
Retribution is only one element. Punishments must also deter others and protect the innocent by taking offenders out of circulation.
Crucial
There is no strong evidence that the risk of execution deters criminals. Even Britain’s last hangman Albert Pierrepoint didn’t believe it did.
And there is another method of removing criminals from society without executing them: Prison.
Which brings us to the key point.
Demands for capital punishment are only so strong because the justice system fails at every turn.
Too few police. Too few arrests. Too few offenders being locked away because there are too few jails and, scandalously, they were allowed to become too full.
Too few judges taking public safety seriously.
And far too many serious offenders whose “life” terms mean nothing of the kind.
Revenge is the real motivation behind the calls for the return of capital punishment. That’s not enough in a civilised society.
Yes, we can argue that Broken Britain is no longer civilised. That we should fight fire with fire.
But a civilised society is nonetheless what we aspire to be.
The rope is not the way. Instead we need more police, tougher policing...
And a complete overhaul of the justice system.