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Donna Gee - Spain's Grumpy Old Gran

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Would YOU bring back the death penalty?
Friday, July 1, 2011 @ 5:57 PM

LIFE FOR BELLFIELD

IS ROTTEN JUSTICE

WHEN it comes to the legal system in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, there’s not much I agree with. Come to think of it, I’m not overkeen on anything else about the two regimes, either.

Not that the citizens of those esteemed democracies (I’m joking) have much say in what’s going on.

But just how democratic are countries like the UK and Spain? Do Brits really have a say in everything that matters – particularly when it involves contentious issues where government and public opinion are at odds?

Like bringing back the death penalty.

Successive governments have known from their research that a national referendum on the return of capital punishment for predatorial killers like Levi Bellfield would produce a massive ‘hang the scum’ vote.

And that’s where the British system ceases to be democratic. Because David Cameron’s government, like the Brown, Blair, Major and Thatcher regimes before them, think they know better than the voters.

So Bellfield will merely spend his life in jail at our expense. My heart bled for his victim Millie Dowler’s family in their understandable rage following Bellfield’s conviction.

‘‘In my eyes, justice is an eye for an eye,’’ said Millie’s sister Gemma. ‘‘You brutally murder someone then you pay the ultimate price ...a life for a life. So in my eyes no real justice has been done’’.

And so say the vast majority of those who think political correctness sucks. Which is just about everyone I know!

Gemma made it abundantly clear that she wanted Bellfield six feet under.

But however desirable that may be, it would not politically correct. Because it would impinge on Bellfield’s human rights.

Human rights? Since when are vermin like Bellfield (pictured right) human? And let’s not call him an animal because, unlike him, no animal is innately evil. Ask the average Brit and at least 75 per cent will say this particular piece of filth has lost its right to live.

Likewise, the likes of Ian Brady, Myra Hindley, Ian Huntley and Harold Shipman should have been executed as soon as they were convicted. It’s all very well for the Lord Longfords of this world to cry out at the lynch-mob mentality of the masses, but public opinion still seems to favour the Old Testament philosophy of an eye for an eye.

It may be PC to take the New Testament route and turn the other cheek - but if it leads to being whacked twice as hard, what’s the point?

I took a straw poll among friends the other day and whilst a majority favoured bringing back the death penalty, the one proviso everyone demanded was that guilt must be established, not beyond reasonable doubt as in the past, but beyond ALL doubt.

I would also confine the ultimate penalty to murders involving premeditated evil – which would exclude crimes of passion.

Isn’t it ironic that bringing back capital punishment is so popular with those who remember, not only the heinous crimes of the Crippins and Christies, but also the horrendous mistakes when convicted ‘murderers’ were hanged and then found to be totally innocent?

Discussing this topic is, of course, largely pointless, because Britain will never restore the death penalty. Neither will Spain, which in 2009 became one of the last nations in Europe to dismantle its gallows completely.

Indeed, the death penalty remains in only two of Europe’s 50 nations, Latvia and Belarus. And the Latvians retain it only for crimes during wartime.
I’m no fan of the gung-ho Americans, but at least they listen to the people (even to the point of electing an idiot like George W Bush and half-destroying the world as a consequence).

The Yanks executed 47 murderers last year with Texas the most prolific and enthusiastic state. The problem is that our friends across the Pond often fail to understand the difference between a life sentence and a death sentence.

I mean, serving 20 years on death row and THEN being hanged is a bit steep.

But even 20 eyes for an eye would be too lenient a punishment for the likes of Levi Bellfield.

 Published in The Courier (www.thecourier.es), July 1, 2011



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5 Comments


Patricia said:
Friday, July 1, 2011 @ 4:22 PM

Donna: I'll start by saying I have not much time for political correctness, particularly the crazy kind.
I also saw Millie's family on T.V. and my heart goes out to them, and I so understand their anger. There are no words to describe an individual like Bellfield. It is likely that he will have a very uneasy time in prison, and who knows what might happen to him in there.
He is a psychopath, with all that word implies.

But, no, I would not bring back the death penalty, strong and all as my feelings might be about Bellfield and the likes of him. The "beyond ALL doubt" aspect of the issue would make me uneasy.
Should he be on hard labour for the rest of his life? Yes! Preferably in a chain gang out in all weathers, and in view of the public. And with a whip-toting overseer or two in charge.

Then again what on earth happened in his very early life that turned him into a monster. Did he look about inside his little cradle at one two or six months old and decide to become an appallingly violent murderer.
Is everything so blak and white? I am not so sure.

Patricia




colin said:
Saturday, July 2, 2011 @ 10:04 PM

We have been forced by our governments to further integrate with socialist Europe and their pc/human rights culture without a vote on it. Not very democratic is it? None of the current wishy washy MPs have the back bone to stand up to Europe and stop this eroding of Britain and remind them it is a free trading partnership not a federal state of Europe. Not one MP of any party has the guts - what a bunch of losers we elected.
Are there any main political parties in Britain in favour of the death penalty?
We cant afford to keep Bellfield in prison for 20, 30+ years, we are in recession. Execution will save money and closure on his crimes.


Patricia said:
Sunday, July 3, 2011 @ 4:45 PM

I should hate to live in a country where human rights do not exist, where the rule of the lynch-mob prevails, and where the say-so of National Front thugs would determine how the law should be applied.
Equally, I should not like to be subject to a country where crazy ignorant bible-belt fundies decide what is or what is not to be.


Chris said:
Saturday, December 3, 2011 @ 8:53 AM

OMG you expect us to have a calculator to hand! We can no longer do mental arithmetic.

nature vs nurture. some mothers can spot an evil little bugger in the first few years of life despite trying to drag 'em up proper.
I thought Spain could still find the garotte if necessary.

We are offered idiots to elect and more are allowed in to vote socialist(Lab and LibDem and Green). More strength to UKIP!


David said:
Saturday, December 22, 2012 @ 10:36 AM

Donna, what you say is correct. The Governments are put in by us to 'represent' the wishes of the people...If they had a referendum on Capital Punishment now, I know what the answer would be. In pre-DNA times, circumstantial evidence was used a great deal, and people were, I'm sure executed when they may have been innocent.
DNA is more or less foolproof, and in my opinion when DNA AND Forensic evidence tie up completely in a Capital case then I believe there should be no more argument. The perpetrator should be eliminated. Why should we have to pay to keep some Murderer in a three star hotel for the rest of his/her life ? There have been discussions about the best method of execution. I believe that an anaesthetic should be used to 'knock out' the intended,then they should bring back the guillotine.. -


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