To put it simply, I agree with capital punishment......depending on the crime and circumstances of course. When someone murders another person, they lose all right to their own life. Brutal murder, even more so.

Capital punishment and justice go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. If a person murders someone they should get a life sentence....and by a life sentence I do not mean 25 years imprisionment and getting out in less - I mean, life as in dying for the crime that has been committed. That is the only REAL life sentence.

Butttt..there has to be absolutely NO doubt what-so-ever - you can't go around killing people just coz they did get convicted of murder, coz not all people who are found guilty actually are guilty.

For example;
Martin Bryant is a serial killer. He went on a shooting rampage in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur a few years ago (I forgot which year) and killed a number of people (again, I forgot the exact number). Yet he has never been to, and never will, go to court on charges of murder and injury and everything else. He was deemed to be of unstable state of mind at the time and will spend the rest of his life in a psychiatric unit paid for by the Australian tax-payers. There is no justice in that. Whether he was of stable state of mind or not, the fact remains that he killed all those innocent people and for that he should face court and be convicted. And his punishment, in my opinion, should be capital punishment - he deserves to die for what he did that day.

Another example;
The Birnies, Catherine and David, over a number of years murdered a number of people. They were tried and convicted of murder in a Perth court....but their punishment is only time behind bars. Where is the justice in that?! Australian tax-payers are again footing the bill for people who do not deserve to live. I think their punishment should also be their deaths. They have no right to life after taking so many other young, innocent lives during their murderous rampages.

A third example;
In Perth, over the past few years, a number of young women have vanished off the streets. Two of these women's bodies have been found - they'd been murdered. The person responsible for this has never been caught and is most commonly known as "the Claremont serial killer". If, and when, this person is found, I think they too should be sentenced to capital punishment.

Murder is murder. The taking of another person's life is never justified. And justice would mean the criminal themselves dying. Serial killers, especially, in my opinion should be sentenced to capital punishment because they have not killed just one innocent person, they have killed a number of them. Families of murdered victims, people who survived murder attempts and the general public will constantly live in fear that one day these murderers may be released from jail. Yet if these criminals are not around anymore, there is less people in the world to be feared.

Capital punishment should be reserved for the most serious of crimes, such as serial murder, and there must be no doubt at all that a person is guilty. Guidelines should be in place to be followed, but discretion should also be used. Courts need to be fair to victims and their families, as well as society in general - criminals give up all right to freedom when they commit a crime, and murderers give up all right to life when they commit the murder.

Written: 10/12/01

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