Suse, back in 1970's, my cousins daughter was murdered at the age of 19 by a co-worker, unwanted advances, on Xmas day of all days. Sure those closest to her, mum and dad wanted the bastard hung, totally understandable, and I think I would not have cared if they had. He eventually did a long prison term. But now with hindsight, hanging him would not have achieved anything. He was also 19 at the time, there is no winners in those situations.
My nephew was killed on his bike at 9 years of age, coming home from school on the footpath, in front of his grandmother, by a careless young girl in her car on her way home from work, not drunk, just a bad driving "P" plate'er. Should she have been hung, she took a life through stupidity, is stupidity an excuse? That girl has to live with that for the rest of her life.
How about the woman of some years back who committed premeditated murdered of an abusive husband. For the learned ones here she should have been hung, some may say, oh no, she had a good excuse.
Many of us formulate a "verdict" on a particular case based on a 30 second emotive grab on the 6 o'clock news. When the judge and jury have listened to hours, sometimes days and weeks of complex evidence. For all its faults I think we should stick with what we have got, and make progressive changes over time. There's that word Beach progressive!

When I suggested that a person who is caught in the act committing a heinous crime should be put down on the spot, my reasoning was the person is obviously guilty so why waste the time, expense and grief of a trial (and the risk he will be set free on a technicality).

Why shouldn't people who behave like wild animals, or actually worse than wild animals given their behaviour is premeditated, deserve the same treatment as a rabid dog?

I realise my suggestions are outrageous but it comes out of the frustration of seeing the Justice system totally failing us time after time.

It's annoying to read the comments from a person who is adamantly opposed to the death penalty that he cannot differentiate between a violent sadist murderer with evil intent and a bad driver accidentally causing a death. Perhaps making such statements is a convenient tactic to deflect the discussion away from the valid points.

If we had judges that would administer realistic sentences, a system where 10 years means 10 years, less sympathy for the criminals and more for the victims and witnesses, people like me would not be developing such radical ideas.

I still prefer the option of the death sentence in certain situations where there is no margin of doubt, and I do not see such a system dragging our whole society down to the level of the perpetrators.

To all those who say the death sentence doesn't deter criminals, well neither does not killing them; a dead rapist or paedophile won't get out of jail and reoffend, usually within four years.

Dear O Sung Wu and Paul,

Thank You both for your kind words.

There's been some very valid points raised in
this discussion.

Personally, my views are not set in concrete on
this or for that matter - any subject.
I usually tend to try to look
critically at things like motivation, circumstances,
context, and other such considerations.
Then again - if any of my family members were to
suffer from a heinous crime - I don't know what
my reaction would be in those circumstances and I
suspect that most people would also not be able to
guarantee rationality during those circumstances.
Normality would probably only return later on.

Thanks for raising this discussion. It will be
interesting to continue reading the reactions of the
contributors.

Hey Paul, now you are telling us that your not only seditious, but you can't handle math either. I wasn't round in the 20s & 30s, & a little math should have told you that, but you make a good point there.

It was the tough penalties imposed on thugs in those days that cleaned them mostly out of the community.

It is the feather duster approach you so like, that has led to the explosion of thugs & the king hit fraternity reaching the proportion it has today.

You may not have much sense, or math, but thanks for proving my point.

Dear Paul,

<<That does not justify any goodness in the stick. I would accept prison over Crucifixion. That is not to say prison is good, crucifixion is bad, just the relative horror of one against the other.>>

So what do you suggest instead?

Even if you are saintly as individual, you cannot realistically convince a whole society to turn the other cheek to crime. If nothing changes, society will continue to administer prison sentences with no other recourse, which is cruel and terrible - both for the offender and for the tax-payer.

Optional corporal punishment should be available as alternative, especially for those who are generally good people who are not dangerous to society and who do not belong in the prison system.

Hi there SUSEONLINE...

Some of us are off Topic at the moment. I must confess I'm one of the worst offenders generally !

Lets be very very clear on this corporal punishment thing ! My submission essentially rests on the word (noun) 'punishment'. Crimes of great violence and/or aggravation committed upon; women, children and some men, as well as attracting, appropriately long terms of imprisonment, should 'include' a mandated degree of corporal punishment as well !

In relation to capital punishment, forget it, we'll not see such punishment again, in our lifetimes. There's no political party in this country, with the nerve or gumption to introduce a bill to enable execution to be included within the suite of options available to the judiciary ? Personally, I'm totally against capital punishment for all offences, other than treason perhaps ?

Further, there are many of those within the judiciary who would decline to sit on capital matters. Such is the level of feeling of many Justices who are totally averse to any attempt to reintroduce such a measure. Also between you and I SUSEONLINE, neither will there be any meaningful attempt to introduce a Bill allowing corporal punishment as an alternative either I reckon ?

Finally, if government were to mandate corporal punishment, would society see it as a sorry decline in our level of civilised behaviour ? You mention in your previous thread SUSEONLINE, language to the effect, '...with several men fancied him...', meaning homosexual rape ? Do you really mean that ? Have you any idea how truly horrid gaol is, SUSEONLINE ?

Me thinks, it may prove quite interesting to allow certain members of the public, a warts 'n all tour, of Long Bay Gaol ?