OK here goes

[RogerS]

Devonwoody - please don't use the 'if you haven't argued against me then you must agree with me' line.
I heartily disagree with you, but I log on to this forum to read about and discuss woodworking, not to take part in pointless discussions about punishments. I suspect most of the 230 felt something similar.

Which surely is why we have the Off Topic area? No one is forcing you to read these threads.

 

[Smudger]

Quite. And I wouldn't have replied if my diffidence hadn't been taken as support. I'm not interested in the thread but I'm damned if I'll be taken as agreeing because I don't post. That sort of statement is what takes and chucks away any civilised discussion.

 

[devonwoody]

Quite. And I wouldn't have replied if my diffidence hadn't been taken as support. I'm not interested in the thread but I'm damned if I'll be taken as agreeing because I don't post. That sort of statement is what takes and chucks away any civilised discussion.

Sorry Smudger about that.

However you must have read 19 posts.

 

[Losos]

DW - I can see that this thread could get very long and quite contentious, but here's my 2 euros worth. While I can sympathize with that viewpoint but it's been shown time and again in various studies that capital punishment has little if no effect on the rate at which murders are committed, in other words it's not a deterrent.

I'm sure you're right about the studies that have been done, but surely the result of these studies begs the question - What will deter people from going around killing other people, do we need an injection that changes the murderers brain function (Assuming they have a brain :lol: )

I am always perplexed that while we can put men on the moon, communicate all over the globe, but we can't seem to find an answer to this problem.

Sorry I will have to wait 'till tonight to read all this thread, just wanted to ask that, which I think is a relevant question.

 

[devonwoody]

Losos, sorry you are so late in coming into the thread.

If you hang a person you are 100% sure to know that he will never commit murder again, so that is a 100% deterrent.

If you have a person with a bomb strapped to his waist, authorities do not negotiate with the person if he is in a crowded situation so they shoot to kill instantly. So the death penalty is alright there . (the man could have changed his mind and not detonated his bomb so then they have killed a man who did not commit murder) Also if an armed man threatens in response to the police armed unit he is quite often killed in that instance.

I think the death penalty was abolished because the home secretary did not want to earn his wages. When an appeal was launched he did not want the responsibly (and did he also have to witness the execution?) of ordering the hanging.

 

[Digit]

The argument that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent begs the one question.
How do you know?
Try this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4457402.stm

 

[Jake]

Fire and brimstone all you like, fortunately we are a member state of a civilised human rights treaty which renders all the fulmination pointless. Unless you wish to withdraw from a international human rights convention like some mucky banana republic. Oh and be forced to leave the EU while you are it.

There, that last bit should send this thread DailyMailtasttic.

 

[Digit]

What a wonderful idea. You've got my vote!

Roy.