I am not convinced that Sir Ninian has read the public sentiment correctly but equalliy I am not convinced Mr Bowden has either - I would hope Sir Ninian is on the money but what I hope for is realy of no consequence;

The curious thing I found with his piece were the quotes from JH and rather qualified rejection of the concept - he doesnt support capitol punishment "but know those who do" he then goes on to describe them as decent honest people - neither vengeful nor vindictive: Nothing wrong with that at all. But if you were an opponent, particularly in this climate I would have expected a more emphatic statement. But no JH left the door open in such a manner as to foster on going debate. I would have thought an opponent of the death penalty might have not wanted to do that. Sure have a debate if one arises but dont fuel the fire.

His rather wishy washy appraoch to some principles was demonstrated too over the sugestion the hajib be banned - the reason he rejected that notion was not because he endorsed the right of women to wear it - but he rejected it because, given the other forms of religious attire worn by jews, sikhs etc - the implementation of a ban would be too hard; no principle there. A ban would be just to hard.

Again his support of the death penalty for Saddam H exposes him as holding to a double standard on that subject as well- a bit like his core promise approach to so much of policy that impacts on our lives.

One gets the idea that it would not take too much to convince JH to bring back the rope, or ban the hajib if theclimate was right - after all it is good moral people who endorse it.

Sweeping statements such as, "ALL Australians are opposed to the death sentence!" interests me. When were ALL Australians asked?
Every person who has an axe to grind makes that statement , it is stupid and it is wrong.
Perhaps in more innocent days we were against taking life but now with horrendous crime following horrendous crime ,drug dealers growing rich on the bodies of our young dead, we are not as adamant against taking the life of those who kill so deliberately for profit or whatever reason suits that particular murderer.
I can see no reason for caging a person for the rest of his life. If he/she is going to be a threat to ordered society, far better to end that useless,dangerous threat. The money so saved could be used to educate and rehabilitate young people and give them a life worth living.

Mickijo, from what I can see, nobody in this forum, or in the orginal article ever said "ALL Australians are opposed to the death sentence!"

Yoo hoo. To the people who are running this debate site. We have now had three journalists submit anti death penalty articles to this site. Could we have some balance and get a journo. who endorses the death penalty?

If none exist, then this is proof to me that there is little cultural diversity in the Australian media.

Mr Bowden

Thank you for your article.

As a survivor of two bashers and rapists, I think that I am in a good position to make comment.

I do not believe in the death penalty, no matter what the crime.

I wanted my rapists to spend the remainder of their lives in prison - without any quality of life, so that they could reflect upon their actions. But our so-called "justice" system does not do that.

One of them got 200 hours community service because he had a built up shoe - claiming disability.

The other got 4 and 1/2 years after the DDP intervened.

The judge said he was sorry that he had made "an error of judgement" -based on data some 20 years earlier.

I wanted them to live in a prison for the remainder of their lives. They admitted that they had planned to go out that night and find a woman to rape.

I live with that every day of my life. I would not feel any better if they had been hanged.

I would have liked to go to the prison and confront the coward. That was not offered to me.

Regards
Kay

PS: Here's my ambivalence. Hang all proven paedophiles!

YES BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.
Why should Australian Tax Payers pay for hardend and repeat crims to have a sustained life style for a crime against others. If there is absulity no dought of guilt then some crimes should have the D?P set against them. No all crimes but some..Like pedifelia, murder, agruvated assult causing death, and alike. the crims and offenders have no fear of the judicial system any more. So until there is somthing to fear then the system supports the offender and not the victum. But you will need Judges to have the balls to make sutch a decision. Not many of the do, as they all are used to there comfortable life style and dont want to rock the boat. If they want someone to flick the switch or pull the lever then I am sure there will be no shortage of victums families who will put there hand up. Yes drug trafficers should be put on the list as well.