Death penalty could be debated in Commons after e-petition calls

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/04/death-penalty-e-petition-commons

MPs must not shy away from debating capital punishment if a groundswell of voters backs a petition demanding it be returned to the statute books, the Commons leader has said.

Among the most prominent is one calling for legislation allowing child killers and those who murder police officers to face execution. It has been presented by Paul Staines, who writes the libertarian Guido Fawkes blog, and has already been backed by several MPs.

If it is signed by the required 100,000 supporters or more, then the cross-party backbench business committee will decide whether it will be debated.

Young said hundreds of petitions had been submitted on subjects "from setting up an English parliament to ensuring Formula One remains free to air".

[oldironside]

1. Guido Fawkes produces astro-turf

Given that Mr Staines is an old fashioned Catholic (think Mel Gibson, Peter's father in Family Guy or Tomas de Torquemada) it's tempting to think that he wants to bring back ritual burning at the stake for crimes like failing to attend mass or masturbation with malice aforethought. In addition, since it is against the European Convention on Human Rights, it could have the added bonus for him of seeing us kicked out of the EU.

Still, if the people want it debated, let it be debated. The arguments in favour of capital punishment are few and easily dismissed. The arguments against include names like Stefan Kisco, Barry George, Michael Stone, and the 1001 other innocents who were convicted by twelve good persons and true.

As Albert Pierrepoint said (and he knew more about it than most) "The fruit of my experience has this bitter aftertaste ... Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge."

[mh74562]

3. +1

[oldironside]

4. Thank you for the vote of confidence...

... and welcome to DU.

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. You've got to be quicker to welcome them than that

They're gone before you know it!

(Don't worry, it wasn't because they put +1 after your post - they did it with 50 random others too. Which is more than odd.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Petition to retain ban is ahead of the ones for bringing back hanging

League table: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/departments/17?order=desc&page=1&sort=count&state=open

Petition to retain the ban on Capital Punishment View 2,616
Restore Capital Punishment View 1,110
Return of Hanging for Serious Crimes View 267
No to reintroducing the death penalty View 90
The return of Capital punishment for crimes of Murder View 86
Stop the Death Penalty coming back to the UK View 81
Bring back the death penalty View 67
Do Not Restore Capital Punishment View 59
Do NOT bring back capital punishment. View 49
Against the restoration of capital punishment View 43
Restore the death penalty View 34
Restoration Of Capital Punishment For Serial Killers View 31
Death Penalty View 27