1: Because it is wrong
2: Because it does no good.3: Because all murderers are "definitely guilty". (The legal term for someone who is "probably guilty" or "almost certainly guilty" is "innocent".)
4: Because Paul Hill, Gerry Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Carole Richardson and Andrew Malkinson were definitely guilty.
5: Because it would involve keeping the story, and the criminal's face, on the front page of the newspapers, possibly for decades to come. (This is also why the tabloids are in favour of it.)
6: Because the Daily Mail would claim that defence lawyers and appeal judges were enemies of the people.
7: Because the Sun would run morbid, comedic, punning headlines ("Hang To Rights" "Swing Voters" etc etc etc.)
8: Because it would not satisfy the mob, who would call for more tortuous killings and a greater degree of public spectacle.
9: Because in 1950s crowds used to gather outside prisons to see legal documents being pinned to doors
10: Because in the 1950s the Home Secretary used to receive several letters a week from people who wanted the job of executioner.
11: Because in 1955 the children in the school near Holloway prison were well aware of what was being done to Ruth Ellis and were ghoulishly excited by it.
12: Because it was wrong for Tony Blair to exploit the murder of a small child for political gain in 1997; and it would be equally wrong for the Tories to exploit the murder of several infants for electoral advantage in 2024.
13: Because I literally don't know what you mean by "evil".
14: Because almost every nurse who has ever lived has not been a serial killer.
15: Because of the smirk on some Tories faces when they talk about this stuff.
16: Because of that Dave Allen story about the time he lost his temper with one of his kids and thumped them while chanting "Never! Hit! Anyone! Smaller! Than! Yourself!"
17: I object to the damage it does to my spirit for my government to kill people, because my government is supposed to be me and I object to me killing people. It's really simple. - Steve Earle
18: A community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime. - Oscar Wilde
19: Making life means making trouble. There's only one way of escaping trouble; and that's killing things. Cowards, you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed. - Bernard Shaw.
10: Because in the 1950s the Home Secretary used to receive several letters a week from people who wanted the job of executioner.
11: Because in 1955 the children in the school near Holloway prison were well aware of what was being done to Ruth Ellis and were ghoulishly excited by it.
12: Because it was wrong for Tony Blair to exploit the murder of a small child for political gain in 1997; and it would be equally wrong for the Tories to exploit the murder of several infants for electoral advantage in 2024.
13: Because I literally don't know what you mean by "evil".
14: Because almost every nurse who has ever lived has not been a serial killer.
15: Because of the smirk on some Tories faces when they talk about this stuff.
16: Because of that Dave Allen story about the time he lost his temper with one of his kids and thumped them while chanting "Never! Hit! Anyone! Smaller! Than! Yourself!"
17: I object to the damage it does to my spirit for my government to kill people, because my government is supposed to be me and I object to me killing people. It's really simple. - Steve Earle
18: A community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime. - Oscar Wilde
19: Making life means making trouble. There's only one way of escaping trouble; and that's killing things. Cowards, you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed. - Bernard Shaw.
20: I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge. - Albert Pierrepoint.
5 comments:
This.
I'm thinking on whether or not to post my own riposte to this elsewhere.
Superbly done. My own usual line is "I can think of lots of people who deserve to die, but absolutely nobody who deserves to kill them".
Actually, my views are rather stronger than that. I can think of lots of people who I would rather hadn't existed in the first place; but absolutely nobody who deserves to be killed. I can think of lots of circumstances where killing someone might be the least worst option: e.g if I were the Captain of a ship in a war, I might order that a mutineer or a saboteur be unceremoniously chucked overboard. But not because they "deserved it"; simply because I needed to get rid of them in a hurry. In that sense I think "deserve" may be a non-sequitur; which of course puts me squarely against C.S Lewis on this one.
I liked this very much.
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