I am fully in favour of the reintroduction of the death penalty. Please note that the reasons below are strictly in a British context. I don't know how things work in other countries.
In the old days, when my parents were young, a child who misbehaved at home would be smacked by his parents. If he misbehaved in school, the teacher would cane him. If he was caught breaking the law, a police officer was permitted to give him a clip round the ear. That child learned the difference between right and wrong, and knew that if he broke the law, he would be punished.
Now look at the modern day. It is illegal to smack your child, teachers can't do anything ore severe than issue detentions (and they need parental permission to issue after-school detentions), and anybody who even touches anybody else without permission will probably get sued. As a result, there is nothing to teach children the difference between right and wrong, and there have never been any real consequences for wrong-doing. This, I suspect, is one of the main causes of the ASBO society in which we now reluctantly live.
The other issue is with the prisons. Criminals - every one of them a fetid piece of law-breaking scum - are suing the British Government for millions of pounds every year because of the atrocious conditions in which they are forced to live. Because of the overcrowding issue, criminals are being released after ridiculously short periods of time, and it has been known for people to serve a shorter sentence for rape and murder than for robbing a bank. The "human rights" of criminals are often protested for, but what about the rights of their victims? What about the rights of society, the innocent people who the law exists to protect? In my opinion, criminals - rapist, murderers, paedophiles, drug dealers - should not have any rights beyond the right to exist, and even that is debatable in more serious cases.
Bringing back the death penalty would solve all of these problems. There would be a definite deterrent to prevent young people from breaking the law, the overcrowded prisons would suddenly have a distinct lack of rapists and murderers, and innocent people could feel safe in the knowledge that the various monsters of the country are being dealt with in a decisive and just manner.
« Last edited by Pandaemonium on Aug 26th 2007 »