barham red wrote:I would of thought if the death penalty came back then more people would get off with crimes as Jury's would be more inclined to return a not guilty plea due to the weight of responsibility paced upon them.
I personally feel the dath penalty is barbaric in this day and age and realistically it woud not prevent the most heinous crimes from being committed. It may stop the odd money motivated crime, shooting during armed robbery etc but in all likelihood the perpetrators of such crimes will never think of the consequences prior to committing them.
The real issue with the criminal justice system in this country is the inabilty to deal with and the inconsistency that 'petty' / less serious crimes are dealt with. The antisocial behavior and lack of respect for the police of a large element of our society seems to have is the real problem with todays society. For all the death penaly worthy crimes are abhorent they are also very isolated and in reality are not the crimes that affect us most.
Having said all of this if it was one of my own kileed / raped then i no doubt would change my point of view but I guess that is why we should let people a bit more detatched and impartial make a decision on this. The outcome of a referendum would be decided on by the Murdoch empire and how they decided it should go.
This fella know's his onions.
I think that's a very interesting point you make about the likely hood of jury's failing to convict, impossible to prove but I do think there's something in it.
Having the death penalty doesn't appear to have done a real lot to put murderers in Texas and other US states off.
As to DNA, there's a real danger in viewing it as an all knowing panancea for justice. Yes, it is a very valuable tool, 100% reliable, not at all.
