Questions about the death penalty
While packing away on Monday morning to leave All Tomorrow's Parties, I stuck on Radio 4 as typical 'get up and get out' sort of stuff. Start the Week turned out to have a woman called Joan Cheever who has written a book about inmates on America's Death Row, called Back from the Dead:
In short, when America abolished the Death Penalty in 1972, 322 prisoners actually ended up being freed rather than going back to prison (due to their time already spent in prison waiting). Joan Cheever is a lawyer who, after representing a murderer and wondering whether, if freed, he would have killed again, decided to track down those murderers who were freed to find out how many had in fact killed once more.
Of the 322, five killed again, one of whom was actual a serial killer, released due to his family having made bribes to get him out. This flies in the face, somewhat, of the idea that you kill these people because you assume they will kill again. There is more in the, book obviously, but it sounds an interesting read.
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well...
...people who are in favour of the death penalty would probably argue that deterrence is as important a factor as preventing that individual from re-offending.
of course, that's complete bollocks....