Misopinionated,

An atheist. An ex-Marxist. A Darwinist. But someone interested in moral systems in different societies, which usually happen to be bolstered by religion, right or wrong.

No, I don't believe that Muhammad flew on a winged horse to Jerusalem, on the night that he died, in order to climb Jacob's Ladder, leading from the Great Temple or Al Aqsah Mosque to Heaven - and that thereby, Muslims have a claim on Jerusalem. If that's the sort of thing you mean by religion.

That's really a silly question: do you really think that everything in the world is 'either-or' ? Check out 'Manichaeanism' on Google. The world is much more shades of grey, than just black and white.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to put an old head on young shoulders ?

Joe

Joe,

An old head on young shoulders?

That would be grotesque.

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Dear o sung wu,

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You wrote :

1. « If we were to stone a person to death, for the crime of murder, or instead, we give him a painless injection and euthanise him instead - it still amounts to the killing of another human being … »
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Euthanasia (from the Greek eu, “good” and thanatos, “death”) means killing someone peacefully, painlessly and humanely, preferably in a warm, cosy environment.

Cold-blooded murder, that is carefully planned and executed, is rarely committed in such favourable conditions.

I note that the OED indicates no less than 27 definitions for the word “kill” but neither “euthanasia” nor “suicide” is one of them.

Euthanasia of convicted criminals having committed one or more atrocious crimes (child murder, serial killing, torture murder, rape murder, mass murder, terrorism, and premeditated murder that is carefully planned and executed) is the logical consequence of failure to respect the fundamental human right to life (including their own).
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2. « … and what if the executed man is ultimately found innocent, what then ? »
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That would be a terrible tragedy, but, of course, life itself is full of risks and, as infinitesimal as it may be, the risk of being wrongly condemned can never be totally ruled out. It is a risk of life and there are many others to which we are all exposed every day. Here are some examples from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics which relate to the year 2017 :

• 2,782 deaths due to accidental falls
• 1,226 people killed in road accidents, over 3 people a day.
• 1,255 deaths due to influenza.
• 1,366 persons died as a direct result of alcohol and there were 4,186 deaths where alcohol was mentioned as being a contributing factor to mortality.
• 3,128 people committed suicide. Suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged between 15-44 years, and the second leading cause of death among those 45-54 years of age.

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(Continued …)

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(Continued …)

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Unfortunately, there are no statistics for wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals in Australia. However, an organisation called Civil Liberties Australia estimates that there are 16 wrongful convictions per year in Australia for crimes with 10-20 year-sentences, based on UK statistics (a near-identical judicial system).

Calculated on our current population of 25 million, the risk of an Australian citizen being wrongfully convicted of an atrocious crime is 16/25,000,000 = 0.000064% per year. The total risk exposure throughout an individual's lifetime of 100 years is 0.0064%.

Need I add that there have been advances in the field of forensic science, especially those associated with DNA evidence in Australia in recent years. There is good reason to think that the risk will continue to remain stable if not diminish over time.

That said, o sung wu, as you may well be aware, on 11 March 2010 Federal Parliament passed laws that prevent the death penalty from being reintroduced by any state or territory in Australia.

In addition, neither the Commonwealth nor any of the states can extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they risk facing the death penalty.

It will be a long time before mentalities change in order for justice to be seen simply as the rightful enforcement of the terms and conditions of the social contract to which we all voluntarily subscribe to through the democratic process, and not just as some cruel form of punishment.

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Dear individual and Loudmouth,

If you are not creation scientists then why do you behave like creation scientists?

If two lists are made, one of innocent people executed by error and another of innocent people murdered by criminals who would have been execute had there been a death penalty, which list would be the longer?