misanthrope - I often hear the old chestnut that the death penalty doesn't deter violent crime

It appears to be pretty effective in stopping the clowns who get their heads amputated :) :) :)

thanks Raycom the rules are different for the most vulnerable (the unborn). Those that speak loudest against the death penalty often support butchering the unborn.

As usual my favorite Philosopher gives a unique perspective on this topic, a perspective which is supportive of Michael Hayward's thesis.
This essay http://www.dabase.org/p9rightness.htm was written in response to the execution of the former bad-guy of Iraq who we were all taught by the media in Pavlovian and Orwellian fashion to hate. And yes he was a vile human being.
By the way there is also a section on the horrible topic of abortion in this essay.

I agree with the author on this one.

If the state agrees to execute criminals, then they are no better than the criminals who commit murder.
The chance of executing innocent people is too great, given the problems we have in our legal system.

Australia should continue it's current stance on no executions of criminals.
Let them suffer a lifetime behind bars doing hard labour...

The death penalty is not progress in modern society
Mickey,
You've got that right, it's a major component in the stifling of progress.
On a lesser scale, I had conversations with a couple of indigenous today. One a Lawyer the other in the aviation game. They both fully & utterly agreed with me on the subject of national service & stiffer sentencing. Everyone in our village is simply sick to death with the ridiculously lenient punishment handed to thieves & assailants.
I think it won't be long before people are forced to take the Law into their own hands because the magistrates are literally aiding young criminals.

Dear misanthrope,

You are perfectly entitled to come on this forum and be as belligerent, bellicose and just plain ignorant as much as you like but how about at least attempting to get your facts straight.

You wrote;

“I often hear the old chestnut that the death penalty doesn't deter violent crime, nonsense. I heard on the radio a chap (some UN envoy from Qatar) say all the Middle Eastern countries who behead violent criminals have the very LOWEST crime levels, and have so for years.”

What rot!

Qatar's murder rate is higher than many European countries who do not have the death penalty such as Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria etc. It certainly is lower than the US, which happens to the only Western nation besides Belarus with the death penalty, but then so is most of the rest of the world. Qatar is actually on par with Australia and New Zealand for murder rates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

Facts in future mate, not just something you may or may not have heard on the radio.