The death penalty…your views please

@slayer wrote:

@American Woman wrote:

I guess so far I’m in the minority here. I don’t believe in the Death Penalty as I am a Catholic and believe the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” rule. They only way I could are if my family or I was being attacked. Sooner or later everyone will die and that is when the judgment will be handed down. For all those who honestly deserve the Death Penalty, it’s going to be worse than any torture we could ever pass. I do believe that they should be locked up for life and any luxury they could hope for would be taken away. I know some of the prisons are way too nice for these people to spend their end of days in.

Catholicism has been responsible for millions of deaths over the centuries- being a catholic has nothing to do with opposing the death penalty- being a human being may have?

Actually it’s both I guess. The Catholicism comes into play when I said that when we die, we will be judged for our actions here on earth, and those who’ve done evil things will pay for it in hell (yes I believe in hell). And yes, the Catholic Church does not have a proud past. However, I wasn’t alive back then so who knows if I would have been born and raised Catholic. I just believe we shouldn’t kill people just because we have the ability and it was voted on. Human Life is human life – And in my opinion the death penalty is hypocritical. I’m really not one to get into church politics – But I stand by the beliefs and not the politics.

@drivel wrote:

@slayer wrote:

@forumhostpb wrote:

@eve wrote:

Surely the greatest point against the death penalty must be the Birmingham 6?

Just slightly aside from the topic – but this Birmingham 6 thingy has always puzzled me.

OK they were originally convicted of killing all those people in Brum, imprisoned, and many years later their convictions were overturned on appeal, and they were released.

The bit that puzzles me is this. Why, given that they were totally innocent of any sort of involvement at all, did the Police arrest them in the first place???

I mean, there they were presumably living in or around the Birmingham area, going about their lawful business as most everybody else does, when along comes Mr Plod and arrests them for, apparently, no reason at all. Not only that but then they are tried at great public expense and so on. What on earth made the Police just pick on 6 guys at random???

Can anybody shed any light on this at all???

Is that a serious question?

They were Irish, Catholic and in Birmingham at the time- that was all the police needed!

Have no idea how old you are PB but I can (just) remember the early 70’s when bombs were going off like firecrackers and the police were under a huge amount of poressure to find and convict those responsible. The fact they found people who they knew weren’t responsible but would “fit the crime” was irrelevant for the 20 years they were falsely imprisoned.

they were also IRA members or sympathisers – probably a “sleeper” – waiting for instructions to reek havoc
If they weren’t responsible for those 2 bombs no doubt they would soon have been in action
Keeping them in jail probably saved a lot of lives

This is just total speculation. There’s a huge difference between a sympathiser to any cause and being an active member.

American Woman

I guess so far I’m in the minority here. I don’t believe in the Death Penalty as I am a Catholic and believe the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” rule. They only way I could are if my family or I was being attacked. Sooner or later everyone will die and that is when the judgment will be handed down. For all those who honestly deserve the Death Penalty, it’s going to be worse than any torture we could ever pass. I do believe that they should be locked up for life and any luxury they could hope for would be taken away. I know some of the prisons are way too nice for these people to spend their end of days in.

And how do your Catholic princles on the sanctity of life, equate to your support of the slaughter in Iraq. they didn’t attack you.

Some pretty persuasive points there Mr A. But surely the death penalty is intended to be the ultimate deterrent?

I would support the re-introduction of judicial execution in cases of proven premeditated unlawful killing.

@Lambrini Girl wrote:

It is not a deterrent because the legal system as it stands is flawed to say the least. Life should mean life … 30 years should mean 30 years.

I would not … As the ultimate guilty verdict would still rely on the decision of other human beings who are, by definition, fallable.

So you are saying that every guilty verdict is flawed – therefore every innocent verdict is flawed !!!

So what do we do – give “cautious” sentences because of these flaws ??

If you have a system you have to have faith in it – if there is DNA evidence to prove murder – then in some cases they murderer should hang .