Revenge is a futile reason for an extreme (or any) penalty, but fear of retribution may concentrate some minds on not committing capital murder, which means decent lives saved at the cost of worthless ones. However before taking a prisoner's life the state needs to be 100% sure of being right. The way to improve the chances of this is to empower the Attorney General to decide yea or nay in each case, and if it turns out later that an innocent person has been executed the Attorney General who made the decision should hang without benefit of appeal. This affords a balancing concentration of mind -- extreme injustice should be paid for and this needs to be remembered by any official risking it. I doubt if there would be many executions! There might well be a welcome execution in the USA however -- how many innocent people will George W. Bush have already had put down when he was Governor of Texas? -- Dion

Interesting comment there Dion about the Attorney-General facing the same penalty for an error. I somehow dont see it running. But primary problem is not the penalty but how the penalty was reached. If one looks at Bernie Matthews article you will note a men prevalence, absolute confidence in the court decision, and state right to execute.

But, is there a greater crime than an innocent been found guilty of murder and punished.

There are known cases where the only 'crime' was that the accused was in the area of the murder on the calculated time of murder, then someone else confessed about 15 years later, and this person released as a article I read about 6 months ago.

The primary problem is the court system itself, how the 'truth' is not the primary consideration but 'what can be proven' is, a severe bias and diminished sentencing if you are a lady, about a year ago in Victoria a lady wrapped a baby in a blanket and beat the babies brain to death, I believe the female had a suspended sentence, and such like. If anyone wants to criticize please do your home work first, we all can do without emotive attacks on this topic.

I say we cant take a life of another without first creating a proper criminal system that serves it function of keeping the community safe, which includes the community safe from the courts itself.

Sam

I don’t see revenge as an objective for capital punishment.
I see the dispensing of justice for murder not as revenge but as the most efficient method of ensuring a murderer does not perpetrate such acts in the future.

The issue of the innocent suffering unjustly is applicable not only with regard to the death sentence but to any sentence – from the most insignificant to the absolute.

A debate regarding guilt or innocence needs to focus on the quality and rules of evidence and the very process of jury trials and accepting 'the world is not a perfect place' is part of the reality of being.

So to return to the matter of death sentence -

I believe it has a valid place on the scale of penalties.
I believe it is appropriate as much for drug traffickers as for “direct murderers” (a drug trafficker is trading in and profiting from “death” in a far more cynical and predatory manner than most murderers) – hence the Bali 9 (or whatever name you can to give them), anticipating the outcome of their trial, deserve to be exterminated. The good thing is they were caught in Indonesia where “appropriate justice” can be dispensed

I am the sister of Susan Frost, the murder victim of Darren Osborne. I am also now very good friends with the Davies family - Osborne's victim in Queensland. I say NO to the death sentence. 1. it is too easy to get the wrong person and 2. it is a very easy way out for the offender. I appreciate that it would save our respective governments many pounds or dollars not to keep the offenders in jail, but the reality is they should be made to suffer, there is no way they will ever suffer like Shari Davies or my sister Susan, but deprive them of their liberty and let them feel caught and trapped like Shari and Susan and all his other victims.I can say this as a victim - not a murder victim as my sister was, but a real victim, the ones that get left behind having to suffer every day.

Interesting to read everyones thoughts on capital punishment, but truly this past week when the media have reported on Milat's threatening suicide etc & on his having "his luxuries" taken away make me feel rather ill. I regard myself as a christian but truly I am fed up with this "softly softly" approach. Murderers such as Milat have no place on this earth..I believe its time for those who are all for "capital punishment reintroduction" to be heard!!