Oh no. Another Catholic trying to force his religious values onto the Prots.

Sorry mate, our British King gave the Bishop of Rome two fingers full of righteous indignation in the 16th century, and you have a nerve trying to tell us Prots what to do now. We don't want the Mafia, the Union Corse, or the Narcotrafficantes buying our politicians, murdering our judges, policemen, crown witnesses, or journalists, like they do in every Catholic country with no death penalty.

I wonder if the author of this article is just a religious nut, or is part of the PR machine of the Columbian cocaine cartels and organised crime?

Redneck

Your analysis is as dishonest as Rogers.

Your British King did give two fingwers to the pope and promptly turned around and lopped the heads of anyone who wouldn't let him continue his phillandering ways. Some recommendation :-) hey. But that's ok. Yep the prots values are outstanding of course. No slavery, no exploitation of people and resources throughout most of the 18th 19th and 20 centuries without those prots values eh? And let's not forget the religious based murder and mayham caused by William of Orange, Cromwell and other great men of prots heritage.

Look if you want to be non-secular why don't you take off and live in a non-secular country where your sort of bigotry is the norm. Try Israel, some of their West Bank outposts would be ideal, they also practice extra judicial executions too and don't seem to mind if that involves kids or pregnant women.

Most of us have left that non-secular crap behind and have accepted a secular design as embraced by the western liberal democracies
... who by the way have mostly seemingly abandoned the practice of Capital Punishment. Prots based ones as well. Remarkable eh? Just doesn't seem to fit your ideal does it?

Wizofaus

That’s rather a strange argument that life in prison is worse than death and therefore we should not have the death penalty.
You seem to be saying literally that for some nasty felons death is too good for them and they should suffer a life sentence instead.
By that logic we who believe in the rope are the nicer, more compassionate guys as compared to the vengeful rednecks like you who just want total, absolute suffering for the felons.

B.T.W. can you explain why criminals found guilty of capital crimes are, in the sentencing phase of a court trial, practically always asking the jury not to give them death but just a life sentence instead?

Wizofaus” Col, much simpler solution: if all drugs were treated like nicotine and alcohol, there would be no drug-related murders. Legalisation of recreational drugs is one side of libertarian philosophy I fully agree with.”

That is a fatuous comment wiz. I was not referring to the users of illicit drugs but to the dealers and traders who are parasites on drug addicts.

We have laws. Every “libertarian” accepts the need and expectation of laws.

When alcohol, tobacco or caffeine or “prescription drugs” are declared “illegal” I would have no hesitation in advocating their supply (and suppliers) be treated as no different to the illegal supply and suppliers of cocaine or heroine.

Re “do you honestly believe that death is a worse punishment than life imprisonment?”

It is said “Where there is life, there is hope”.

Death extinguishes all hope.

The reason for why I support the death penalty is : it is the absolute penalty.

I do not view myself as a vengeful or sadistic person. Any death penalty should be administered with accordance to the gravity which such a sentence deserves, using the most “painless” methods possible.

An “execution” is not some sideshow which panders to those with a salacious interest in someone else’s suffering.

But illegal drug dealers dispense their phials of evil with the full knowledge of the harm and suffering they are inflicting through abuse and addiction on to the users. They morally deserve the same sentence which is effectively their stock in trade, premature death and severely diminished potential “quality of life”.

Someone mentioned earlier the Australian electorate favours the death penalty.

This is actually a myth. At best, it would be a very tight race. For years polls showed support for the death penalty at under 50% of the population. Straight after the Bali Bombing, it increased to 51% of the population, but since 2005 it has steadily decreased.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2165

http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdss0406/presentations/papers/Shaun%20Wilson.pdf.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/09/1060360550031.html

Or just google it...

Edward, I'm not arguing that "life in prison is worse than death and therefore we should not have the death penalty", just questioning the underlying assumption by supporters of the death penalty who claim, e.g., "murderers deserve to die" that this is the worst possible fate for them. For me "murderers deserve to spend the rest of their life behind bars" is a stronger statement, hence the "murderers deserve to die" claim fails to support any argument for reintroduction of the death penalty.

Col, I don't think dealing and trading of recreational drugs should be illegal either, simply because it's fairly obvious that the criminalisation of such activities has both failed to reduce harmful use of recreational drugs, and been responsible for the rise of extensive organised cartels that operate with no concern for human welfare. Many of those currently involved in illegal drug trading activity are cold-blooded murderers who fully deserve life in gaol, but continually attempting to throw such people behind bars is no solution to the problem.
At least part of the reason many of these people take up a life of crime is because the rewards are so great that the risks are worth it (though they also clearly lack much of a moral conscious). Take away the reward and the motivation, and such people will inevitably take fewer risks.