You quote Wikipedia Csteele, of course that source can be trusted Mate!? You and your little 'peaceniks' mates, wouldn't have the guts to execute anyone, you come on this On Line Opinion and start abusing all and sundry, if they disagree with you. Mate you're a real jerk for the way you think. One thing can't be denied if you execute a murderer, you can be assured he'll never commit the crime again. But if your leave it to the leftys like csteele and his cohorts the killer will spend his life in jail costing the tax paying public huge amounts of money to keep the killer alive. That makes a lot of sense doesn't it just?

Dear misanthrope,

You are a strange fellow aren't you.

Let us have a little look at what we have here. You quote some bloke on the radio but give no source. I challenged your assertion with figures from Wikipedia. You deride it but then offer no alternative facts to counter my source, just a flippant churlish remark.

As to me coming on here and “abusing all and sundry, if they disagree with” me I will confess to this; I had a quick look at your posting history and noted your aggressive and bullying stance on homosexuality and those who support gay marriage. As the old adage goes 'treat others as you would have them treat you', or in this case I have treated you as you have treated others. If you don't like it perhaps modifying your own behaviour might be in order. However if you do like it we shall have some fun.

As to me and my little peacenik mates, I am 6'5” in the old scale and 100kg in the new. Most of my mates are from my sporting days and not too many of them are much smaller. Yet I don't think there would be any of them who would have the 'guts' to execute someone, I certainly would not, but then again I wager neither would you.

However there is certainly no cowardness involved. In any case executions are often carried out in a manner designed to lessen the impact of those taking the life.

“Members of the police force’s elite Brimob paramilitary brigade make up firing squads. They consist of 12 armed soldiers however only three of them actually have live rounds in their weapons – the rest have blanks. Nobody knows who has the live rounds and who has the blanks. This is to ease the conscience of the firing squad and so that no-one knows who fired the killer shot.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/harsh-reality-of-kerobokan-prison-awaits-british-gran-sentenced-to-death-in-bali/story-fnat79vb-1226559942582

Ultimately mate, if you truly have no problem in taking another's life it doesn't mean you are brave but rather an inhuman psychopath.

The death penalty is not 'cruel punishment', it is Justice - where the evidence is irrefutable and the crime sufficiently severe - such as murder in the absence of mitigation (such as self-defense, defense of another, or where there is mental impairment - such as might be argued in the case of Martin Bryant).

What should happen to the two men who (allegedly) hacked a soldier to death in the UK, in broad daylight before many witnesses (and where one of the assailants even gave a media presentation to a bystander, stating his intention was to start a 'war')? A slap on the wrist? Or 'Justice' for the slain soldier, for his family, and for all who stand horrified by this inexcusable act of barbarity?
Are we free 'Men', or cringing curs too weak and feeble to apply legitimate Justice?

'Amnesty' for all the rapists and murderers - because we are 'civilized'? So, what of those men who raped and murdered a young woman traveling home on a bus with her companion in India? (Poor fellows were just out for some fun I suppose; or were they perhaps deluded into thinking no-one would care - she was just a woman after all?)
Should we care more for the possibility of 'reforming' those men, or for the woman and her companion? She is dead! What Justice does she deserve?

Sure, it is necessary to do all we can to ensure that no 'innocent' is unfairly convicted or punished, and that any punishment should fit the crime, but to stop short of the death penalty, when 'Justice' calls for no less, is a pure cop-out, an evasion and abrogation of our genuine responsibility.
Death for drug dealing? No. For unconscionable murder? Yes.

Should we be criticizing Japan and Indonesia, or they us - for we are the 'weak' ones, the ones unwilling to do what is 'right'? We may go to war in defence of the innocent, do our own 'innocents' deserve any less consideration?

'Civilized' or weak, spoiled and pampered?

Dear Saltpetre,

We are indeed free men and women who have decided that the State should not hold the power of life and death over we the citizenry.

We have stood up and said the notion of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth belongs back where it came from, in the Old Testament.

We have decided we do not want executions done in our name and that we consider them barbaric.

We have decided that what separates us from the 'curs' or beasts is the belief in the sanctity of each human life and that for us as a society to condone executions would make us lesser, closer to those who murder, than what we wish for ourselves.

I call it civilised behaviour and I'm proud to be part of a country which, certainly on this issue, continues to engage in it.

"we must stand up and speak out until it is no longer acceptable for governments to take a life on our behalf"

Like Medicare-funded abortion and euthanasia?
Strange where "progressives" arbitrarily draw the line.

Revenge? What's wrong with revenge?

"Progress"? Every advanced civilisation in world history had executions.
The only question was what crimes deserved it.

Deterrent? *No* penalty deters crime or there'd be no crime at all.
Penalties and punishments are a *response* to crime, that is all.

No option for capital punishment may actually lead to inadequate investigations and prosecutions, since the outcome can always be reversed and the innocent party "compensated".

How many times do we hear of the released "life sentence" prisoner, or "cured" psychopath, who commits more atrocities as soon as they're out in the streets?
What "justice" for those victims? Victims that would never have suffered had their attacker been executed previously.

Your leniency also assumes a materialist perspective, assuming no metaphysical level of reality, where all minds/souls are connected.
When a vicious criminal is executed, their mind is severed from the living forever.
Kept alive, their soul-sickness infects our own consciousness, leading other vulnerable minds to deteriorate into crime.

the State should not hold the power of life and death over we the citizenry.
csteele,
I agree, the state must not have such power, that's what juries are for !
I have been a victim of crime several times now, the offenders being known to everyone in the community because they are repeat offenders because visiting moron magistrates are repeatedly letting them off. The whole community is utterly disgusted at academic Law, we're now trying to reinstall traditional law. It'll be interesting what barriers the hangers-on do-gooders will put up. What barrier would you put up csteele ? If you don't want 3-5 break-ins in a community of 400 a week you could either get tougher will the culprits or you could offer to compensate the victims if you feel sorry for the little $hits. which way are you going ?