James Bulger

[milliezoe]

If the two animals that killed James Bulger had been hanged then we would not have half the problems we have today. I am pointing to the yobs that killed a shopkeeper with a hammer in the news today hanging would have made them think twice ?

[ummmm]

Of course it wouldn't have. He was too young to understand....

[jno]

docspock, the Evans response is a good one. That's why executions were stopped in the first place: because innocent people were being executed. How exactly would you propose bringing Colin Stagg back to life? Barry George?

[Seadragon]

What can one say about a society that hangs its children?
We live in a democratic society and the question we should be asking is 'What kind of society is able to produce children who act so abhorrently?
- some may suggest that responsibility lies with inappropriate parenting, the education system, social system and rehabilitation system?
Focusing on a simple solution of eradicating the culprit is not addressing future preventive problems.

[ummmm]

The Bible contradicts itself many many times. If you want to go by what the Bible says then we should turn the other cheek.

Don't bother quoting the Bible....

[milliezoe]

We seem to be missing the point here a shopkeeper has just been murded with a hammer for very little money. An elderly couple were killed by yobs setting fire to a scooter for standing up to them when they were causing a nuisiance when are we going to stand up and be counted and demand the ultimate penalty to make these yobs think twice

[jno]

Well, you raised the Evans case, docspock, so I answered you. What about Stagg?

[ummmm]

Yobbery is not a phenomenon....

[jno]

whoops, sorry doc, you got in ahead of me. Yup, you're right, Stagg was acquitted, George wasn't. Evans wasn't but has since been pardoned, which is nice. But you're saying George should have died because Bulger did? Isn't that two wrongs making a right?

[NoMercy]

Stagg was an innocent man who was subjected to years of accusation, finger pointing and death threat made against him, his wife and his children. He was innocent of the murder of Rachel Nickell and Robert Napier was subsequently convicted of the crime.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unsure I want the accept the laws from an ancient tribe to dictate what should be so now. The eye for an eye thing was not because it was right, it was because the various tribes had to find a way to avoid permanently having grievances with each other, and being permanently at war. Hardly applicable within a nation state.

I believe this country stopped hanging people because it was wrong, and Europe came to that conclusion also, not because we couldn't be sure of the verdict.

An no, I hope my morals would not be affected if one of my family had been a victim. Although if I did change my mind it would be because I was no longer in my 'right' state of mind; concerning myself more with revenge and vengeance than what is morally correct. Hardly a reason to change the law. Those with an emotional involvement regarding something are the last ones that ought to be making decisions on it.

[Oneeyedvic]

///We seem to be missing the point here a shopkeeper has just been murded with a hammer for very little money. An elderly couple were killed by yobs setting fire to a scooter for standing up to them when they were causing a nuisiance when are we going to stand up and be counted and demand the ultimate penalty to make these yobs think twice ////

No, we have the point. Is there much crime in America? They have the death sentence. Does this stop people being murdered or arson attacks? No.

Thinking that a death penalty is a solution is just plain naive. It is purely about retribution.

[Bobbisox]

Because of this country's so liberal views, very often the juditional system is mocked,
I would applaud any Judge who hands out a sentence to fit the crime, we are a democracy which low-life's take advantage of, the people who serve the real sentences are the families of these people who have had such heinous crimes done to them, when you have the likes of Ian Huntley asking for a DS and laptop to lessen his boredom...it's time to toughen up !

[jno]

I'll just copy over this post I just put on JJ's thread, as it applies here too:

It does raise the question of whether released killers can ever live a normal life. The anwer is they can and sometimes do. Did anyone see Heavenly Creatures, about the two schoolgirls who killed one of their mothers with a brick in a sock? They served a few years and were given new lives. One works with horses somewhere in the south east and has kept her privacy. The other one is a bestselling crime novelist. Would there actually be anything to be gained by putting them both behind bars again, or is to everyone's benefit that they remain productive members of society?

[Old_Geezer]

Your thread is about James Bulger. The murdered shopkeeper was just mentioned as and example of something possibly avoidable. I'm unsure the shopkeeper was made teh point of the thread. Hanging people seemed to be the point being suggested, as far as I can see.