Execution

As you can imagine this subject is a very controversial subject, there are many who will argue that executing people is just legalised murder. I hold a different view, I have for a long time felt that we should reintroduce the death penalty. Unfortunately whilst we are part of the EU we cannot reintroduce the death penalty. The last executions in this country where on the 13th August 1964; execution as a punishment was abolished on the 9th November 1998.

For many people the thought of executing someone is quite abhorrent, but for me personally the alternative is even more abhorrent. At this time in this country, life for the vast majority of murderers does not mean life, it usually means 12 maybe 15 years, for me that is wrong. In the worse cases a tariff of at least 30 years is given, and very rare cases the judge will pass a sentence of life meaning life. I believe that if you are sentenced to life, it should mean life with no chance of parole.

I do think it a strange situation in which we have armed police in this country who can legally kill someone without a trial, you could argue that people who are shot are only shot when they are a danger to other people, but not in every case.

Today we live in a society in which people are murdered every day, if you return to 1964 the numbers of murdered was a lot less and since the abolition of the death penalty murders have increased year on year. We live in a totally different time now than pre 1970's, today our society is a lot more violent, most crime is on the increase. In the 1950's the majority of people would not have witnessed any crime even in our inner cities, unfortunately now in many of our big towns and cities we have a lot of crime and much of it violent.

We now have a police force which is reactive, it is very unusual for a police officer to catch a criminal 'in the act'. Because of the way policing has changed over the years we no longer have beat officers who patrol on foot but the vast majority drive around in cars and chase criminals after the incident. The change in the way the police 'policed' our country changed in the 1960's and it was decided that the police should move into cars and off the 'beat'. This change has brought about many problems, because of the lack of police patrolling on foot criminals have a free range to do what they want. Prior to 1966 a police officer had a certain 'beat' in which he would patrol and would usually pass the same spot every 20 minutes or so, as you can imagine if a criminal thinks there is going to be a police officer walking past a certain place he is less likely to commit a crime. We have also seen the closing down of many police stations and many are now only open between certain hours in the day, this of course creates problems within many towns and cities as those who commit crimes know that they are never going to be caught.

For many criminals the thought of going to prison is not a deterrent, as many of our prisons are not harsh places of punishment. They are more like hotels to many people, the simple fact is that for most people going to prison would be horrendous and the loss of freedom would awful. There are a group which do not care about the loss of their freedom, they do not see prison as a punishment because they have 'rights' and they are allowed so much. A prisoner can have a TV, radio, CD player, access to a gym, three good meals a day with a choice of food and they can learn a trade, to many criminals this is an easy life . With no deterrent crime will continue to rise.

I believe the death penalty is the ultimate deterrent (I don't want to look at other countries and the rights and wrongs there, I just want to look at Britain). I believe if someone had a chance of being executed for murder he would think twice about committing that crime. A number of people have said that Albert Pierrepoint who was the number one executioner in Britain for 30 years and executed 100's was against the death penalty. He wrote in his autobiography in 1973 that he did not agree with the death penalty but by 1976 his opinion was changing and Steve Fielding, his biographer said that he believed that "it was only a good line to sell the book"

One of the things that has changed in society is that it has gone from being a predominantly Christian society to a secular society. Peter Hitchens in his book 'The Abolition of Britain' says this:

'In a Christian society, execution merely refers it to a higher court, allowing the condemned man the chance of repentance in this life, and salvation in the world to come. But in a post-Christian society, the idea of a death penalty is quite abhorrent. A man's greatest position is not his soul, which does not exist, but his life, which is all he has. In that case the very idea of execution is quite intolerable, even if the alternative is as it turned out to be is a grave increase in armed police and the gradual arming of the police force'.

For me the reason for execution, in what ever it's form is not about revenge, it is about deterrent and punishment. For many Christians the idea of execution seems to go against Jesus's teaching on grace. I do not believe it does, grace isn't about doing what you want, grace is about forgiveness, grace does not give everyone the right to behave as they feel. Jesus did not preach against execution, when he was on the cross he did not turn round to the men on either side of him and say they did not deserve to be hanging like him.

I believe we need to look at where our society is headed, I believe we will continue to see lawlessness grow. What I have found interesting is that as I look back on the past 20 years I have noticed a gradual increase in bad behaviour and an increase in crime, there are many reasons for this which I am not going to go into. What I have noticed is that a lot of this is very gradual so people do not really notice it. Many towns have witnessed an increase in anti social behaviour, which in the courts eyes is a minor crime but for those who it affects is a major problem. Over the years more premises have erected higher fences and CCTV, and yet police stations have continued to shut, and the police have remained in their cars, thus taking them further away from the people who need them.

I have said already that execution is the ultimate deterrent and I believe it should be reintroduced, I believe the likes of Ian Huntley should have been hanged and I will continue to believe the same. People might ask, what about mistakes? What if someone is convicted of a crime he did not commit? I think there is less chance of this happening now than ever and I believe it is a risk worth taking or else we will continue to see; crime, especially violent crime and murders increase. Over the next few years we will see the gradual arming of our police force, which I think will then ironically increase the amount of shootings and murders on our streets.