The Death Penalty

Recent proposals have me somewhat concerned. This is the concept that the House of Commons could be asked to debate the reinstatement of the death penalty. I think this is wrong on a number of counts:

Given the number of miscarriages of justice, corruption in the police and other involved parties I could never be confident that the right person was being put to death.  Evidence of crimes may also be inconclusive or misleading.

Violence never solved anything, and this could not be considered to be acting in defence of the victim(s) of the crime. If indeed the crime was murder, no punishment will bring the victim back.

A life sentence gives more time, if less focus, for the perpetrator to consider the wrong they committed. However I am very much of the view that for the more serious crimes then life should mean just that. In prison until their natural end of life.

Some religious texts however do seem to suggest the concept of an eye for an eye.

As far as I am aware, Jesus went back on the word of God in that the Old Testament promotes this punishment in Leviticus but the Sermon on the Mount later on waters it down to turn the other cheek.

What are we as a country to do?  I can see that the death penalty may be a deterrent to some but, as the recent riots have demonstrated, there are those who seem to have no concern for any of the consequences of their actions or compassion for their victims.

I think that until we can address these issues, and I doubt we ever will, we cannot bring back the death penalty.  I wholeheartedly believe however that life sentences should be issued for murder and should mean life.