Whats suddenly brought all this on, Brian?

The death penalty has never reduced the murder rate in the US. Many spend years on death row which some would say is a fate worse than execution.

The New Cross killers were clearly sick and deranged men.

There are still too many cases of wrongful conviction to trust the system and to trust the police. I have been involved only as witness in an inquest and a witness in an assault case, but the lies I have seen told by police officers in both cases in court under oath and the administrative incompetence in taking witness statements made me sorry for the offenders.

Barry George is a good case in point. He was hounded for years and his life ruined by incompetent police investigations and wrongful conviction. The technology for proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt has improved but there is still too much room for human error and misjudgement.

Personally I think that as a society we are better than this and no matter how heinous the crime, I would not want to live in a country with such a barbaric practice.