Originally posted by Spirit
How can you chose the death of 50 innocent people over that one 1? How can you justify that?
Easy. If you have Capital Punishment, an innocent will always be wrongly convicted. Statistically, it is going to happen. 1 innocent person being convicted and executed is 1 too many.
The point is that in this case, there is
nothing which could save that person, or bring them back from the dead.
With all those released murderers,
anything could happen to prevent them murdering again. The victim might stab their eyes and escape. The victim might scream loud enough to help. And so on...
In short, it is not a foregone conclusion that more people will end up dead if a murderer is released. It may be
highly likely but that is completely different. But an innocent person who gets executed stays dead.
Aside: From what I've read in newspapers, Ian Brady never asked for parole, and in fact twice asked for his ventilator to be turned off when he was ill in a prison hospital before he died of natural causes. Maybe he came to realise that the nature of his crimes was such that he would never be released. Myra Hindley on the other hand does not seem to have reformed at all. She apparently regularly applies for parole, and tries all sorts of tricks like apparently "converting" to Christianity, and forming a relationship with her prison psychologist in an attempt to appeal to her parole officers on "compassionate grounds". Unfortunately for her, most people seem to see these exercises for what they are: a cynical attempt to deflect blame from herself. The crimes she committed with Ian Brady can have no excuse, and should be subject to the strongest sanction available. If that means she rots in prison, so be it.
There is something worse than murder: Its called Torture.