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Thread: Death penalty, abolished or not?

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[quote=GHOST,252665]In England:

In 1722, you could be hung for stealing a rabbit, destroying garden trees or setting fire to haystacks.
In 1833, a 9 year old was sentenced to death for stealing paint worth 2 1/2 pence..

60% of countries still have the death sentence.
The death penalty was abolished in the UK in 1969.

Question:  What are the reasons why we as a society punish people for their crimes?
There are 4 main reasons:

1	Retribution	- receiving what they deserve for doing wrong.
2	Deterrence	- discouraging the wrongdoer from repeating the crime.
3	Reformation	- making the wrongdoer into a better person.
4	Protection	- protecting society from the wrongdoer.

Murderers are classified by the law in two ways:
a)	Those who act due to a disturbed mind.
b)	Those who act knowing what they are doing.

The existing law of imprisonment has failed in two ways:
a)	It has failed to deter.
b)	It has failed to reflect society's outrage.

Since hanging was abolished approximately 35 years ago, murder has doubled from 6.3 per million of the population to 12.5 per million.  This means that from 359 people murdered in the 1960/70's there are now 712 people murdered on average each year.  (Based on a population of 57 million in the UK.)
More than 70 convicted murderers who have been released have killed again.
The last time the murder rate was this high was in the 1870's.  You could say that there was capital punishment then but it still meant the murder rate was high so why should bringing back capital punishment now make any difference?

One of the problems is that you can never be absolutely sure that you have made the right decision.  Could there be some evidence that someone has missed or misrepresented?  God only knows.
[/quote]

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