Should there be a death sentence?
Absolutely. You are getting a lot of US answers, but I am sure yours is a UK question. I think the sentence for murder, any murder should be death. But in most cases it should be commuted to life imprisonment. But sometimes, when the crime is especially heinous and when there is no doubt about the criminals guilt – it should be allowed to stand. Child murderers, sex murderers and terrorists would all be excellent candidates for capital punishment. The main point of my system is that all murderers and potential murderers (e.g. armed robbers, violent criminals) would know they could face the death penalty and it might be carried out. It’s time the criminals felt real fear – not just their victims. But we should definitely not go down the US route of endless appeals and prisoners waiting years on Death Row and ‘novelty’ methods of execution. It’s horribly expensive and horribly inhumane.
Yes I think so. I also think death sentences should be more efficient, and shouldn’t take years to carry out. More resources should be allocated to disposing of these cases quickly and correctly. They screwed up a lot in the past, and I know many convicts were proven innocent later on. However, with DNA evidence, I think it is possible to reach a higher level of certainty than the past. Even with that, there are other circumstances. Women lie about rapes sometime, and DNA wouldn’t help you with that. For those cases where they report a sexual assault or rape months later, I think those cases should be thrown out.
