The article says that he is only to be executed if he poses a threat to other inmates. As he took crystal meth at the time of the crime, this would suggest that what he did was out of character.
Therefore if he’s not on crystal meth, he’s not a danger to other criminals and so should not be executed.

That’s from an era where police work was hardly scientific and as accurate as it is today

You may as well quote the witches were burnt at the stake in the 1400’s as they looked funny

If the death penalty was in place in the UK in 70s the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, Maguires and various others would have been hanged by the neck.

Considering the advent of modern forensics began in the 1910s it’s hardly comparable to the witch trials of any era.

The nature of history is such that we judge those that went before as ignorant. We will be judged for our failings, injustices and mistakes too so the idea that our judicial system is beyond reproach is laughable.

A much better approach would be a number of strikes rule, so if someone murders someone but has no previous convictions at all then give them life in jail but if it’s clear there a drain on society with numerous convictions and failures at rehab then execute them as they prove no use to society so why should society pay to let them live their life as a drain on civilisation?

If you told me that it was beyond any reasonable doubt that this man murdered/raped my child – then i’ll press the button personally. Will the world be any worse off without an extra paedophile/murderer? I dont think we’re losing any cancer cures or great contributions to society by killing these animals.

Depends on the crime. Take the guy that killed that welsh girl, it would be a pleasure.

Problem is that innocent people do get convicted. Wasn’t there a case over in the west of Ireland a few years back where a woman returned from America to recant her evidence that a neighbour had sexually assaulted her as a child. It was all over some family feud and he was released from prison (alive)

Was he going to die for this crime? I’m sure innocent people do get falsely accused but I think the ones that do are nearly always career criminals so they have no one to blame but themselves.

They reintroduced the death penalty in some states partly because people were doing it themselves when the courts were unable to deal with criminals creating a dangerous risk of mistakes. i.e. mistaken identity

Won’t be signing that one!

Right because none of those crimes happened when corporal punishment was a thing.

And where exactly is the line between deserving to live and not to live!? And who really has the right to decide!?
The death penalty can’t be brought in as long were part of the EU anyway!!

Well put Finbarr

Speak for yourself Finbarr. I won’t be calling for the death penalty and I’m not alone. I may wish that the man had never existed but that does not equate to wanting him murdered by the state.

You’re wrong there Finbarr. Not all of us are so fickle. I would never be calling for the death penalty, regardless of the crime and/or the victim.

You watch too much tv…..

I agree. Life in prison should mean just that. Eight years, out in five, is not a life sentence. I’d like to see more minimum sentencing for violent crime, particularly sexual assault, but I have absolutely no interest in the death penalty.

By your logic jail or any form of punishment doesn’t work either. The threat of it doesn’t prevent serious crime and never has. So what do you suggest?

Singapore is a good example of how the death penalty can act as a deterrent. Crime rates at their lowest in 20 years. None of the filthy druggies you have in Ireland.

Hi Amnesty, is there an online petition that we can sign?

Any stats and comparisons for murder rates in Ireland pre and post capital punishment being abolished in 1990?

I am not a supporter of the death penalty, though I can see why a society may feel the need to apply it as an apparent extreme deterrent. I do not think a case can be made for applying the death penalty fairly to all people who commit murder because each case is so different. I agree that there should be a sufficiently long life tariff applied minimum 25 -30 years with a strict list of requirements to be fulfilled including good behaviour, attitude and remorse to qualify for parole. Society needs to be protected and murder is a most vile crime no matter what the mitigating factors were.
There is a problem of how to deal with violent sociopaths and predatory sex killers. These are extremely violent people who enjoy killing, rape and chaos and are extremely dangerous to society. These people have rejected all social norms and even while incarcerated will look for ways to fulfil their sick desires. How do we deal with these people? Locking them up for their natural life is not a humane answer for this particular type of murderer. The object here is not to deter because they cannot be deterred. In these particular type of cases I think a very strong case can be made for the application of a death penalty.

Except it’s not rotting in jail, they go in and they can earn themselves degrees, play pool with their boys watch tv till all hours in their cells. Prison here is like a summer camp, they are doing anything but rotting away.

As I said, they should rot in jail. Not Butlins.

Well didn’t the same Amnesty prevent the prisoners from ‘slopping out’? According to Amnesty, prisoners should not be required to empty their own toilet buckets because it is degrading!! I’d like to see their suggestion on how imprisonment is punishment with flat screen TV’s, pizza night, Chinese takeaway deliveries, PS3′s, Pool Tables etc. we should all hold hands and everything will be just fine! Of you don’t like prison conditions, get a job and contribute to society and stay out of prison!

It does if the gas and electricity bill have been paid

Michael. Death penalty doesn’t work? Even though the recidivism rate is zero? You need to rethink that

Nope – it doesn’t – you look at the US, and check crime rates in states whereby it is legal, and states where it is illegal – you will find that in states where it is illegal, crime rates are lower than in states where it is legal. That has been the consistent case for decades.
You look at rates between the States and Norway – again, lower in Norway than in States.
You can argue for it, but when statistics talk, they will make you look like a blathering fool if you’re advocating the use of it.

Of course the crime rate in Norway is going to be lower than in America, look a the difference in size of the 2 countries. Nothing worse than you “society is to blame” idiots. You can’t rehabilitate child molesters rapist and murderers and even if you could they don’t deserve to be rehabilitated. You want to reward them for their wicked deeds.

Cian, rates are a percentage of population, not the actual number. IE: 10% of the population would be classed as LGBT members. Nothing to do with the physical size of numbers.
Your argument in relation to not deserving rehab is skewed – primarily by the fact that most child molesters (your words – not mine), have mental health issues which have not been dealt with – and in most of those instances – it revolves around the sexuality of the perpetrator. You only need to look as far as the Catholic Church to see such a theory in practice.
In most instances, anyone who ‘deserves’ the death penalty has had society fail them in a major way. There are instances where the person is just plain evil, in which case, if they refuse to show signs of repentance and refuse to work with the rehab service – keep them locked up – let them think about what it is they’ve done – don’t kill them to put them out of their misery.
There is no argument for the death penalty – because it does not work.

What utter rubbish! I cannot abide that ‘society has failed them’ attitude where people shift the blame to someone else. It is society’s fault because we didn’t hug these ‘little rascals’!! No, you are just being naive and have yet to be the victim of one of these thugs. What you fail to realise is that some people are just plain bad and no amount of soft hand, kid glove treatment or rationalisation is going to change their mentality. I wish people would stop judging these thugs by their own standards. The rehabilitation argument is more naive rubbish. Are prisons full of first time offenders? I think not. Our prisons are stuffed to capacity and our courts the same. Clearly the soft hand approach doesn’t work and no amount of rehabilitation works on the majority of criminals. It is instinctive and inherent in a lot of these people to commit crime. You’re trying to teach a cat to bark.

Jack, you state the exact issue – our prisons are not full of first time offenders. They are full of repeat offenders. Offenders who have been in prison already. The fact that they are back there shows that the service needs overhaul. Rehab is an essential part of that – criminals will go back to do what they have always done – unless you show them that there is a better way to live – and you do that through rehab. You engage the prisoner – locking them up for them to think about what they have just done – or for them to be killed off – does not work. It is a medieval practice – that has absolutely no place in the 21st century. To engage in the practice is to be as bad as the murderer or the drug dealer.

Michael, the current prison system is based on a rehabilitation and reintegration model. You are judging some of these criminals by your own standards, the ‘let them eat cake’ idea. You should read Pennington ‘Crime and Deviance’ or Aggleton ‘Deviance’for another perspective. Certain groups of people are predisposed to crime and always will be and no amount of middle class ‘rehabilitation’ will ever work because it is not relevant to their lifestyles. Dogs chase cats, cats chase mice (with exception admittedly) and I’m sure neither animal knows why, ‘it’s in me nature’!

Jack, what you are saying is that based on where the person is born decides on whether or not they get the death penalty.
Yes, it is based (loosely) on rehab, however, the system is in need of such an overhaul that the rehab does not work efficiently. Again – there is no reason as to why the death penalty should exist – it has been proven innumerable times that it just does not work. You can argue until kingdom come, but until the statistics state otherwise – it remains – the death penalty doesn’t work – it is as simple as that.

Michael, I never actually mentioned the death penalty at any time in any of my posts. I was merely pointing out that you are blaming society for failing our criminals, which I totally disagree with. My view on the death penalty is that it is final and what if the person was wrongly convicted in good faith? The death penalty is unsafe because criminals are convicted ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, it may be ‘one in a million’ but id prefer not to execute even one innocent person. I am also suggesting that certain people are predisposed to crime while others are not. This is without suggestion as to where they are born determining this. Good people come from bad areas and vice versa. I think you are misunderstanding me. I think what I’m trying to say is that generally, by the time a person ends up in prison it is already too late. We develop a set of values as children from our parents/guardians and peers which we carry into adult life. It isn’t society that has failed criminals, it’s their own guardians. I mean, do we blame capitalism for creating the have’s and have not forcing people to commit crime/thefts? Or for making greed? Or is it a human condition? Essentially we are all responsible for ourselves and that’s why neither you nor I have ended up as criminals. Some people are just made differently. Just my opinion.

Hard man at the keyboard.

How do you know there weren’t miscarriages?

Cleaning the street around the 4 courts doesn’t count as having “worked around the courts of Ireland for seven years”
Nor does it give you the right to dictate policy.
The death penalty doesnt work.
It has been proven that it isn’t a deterrant
The sad thing is that sometimes society just spits out amoral individuals.

Surely then no one would plead guilty?! Don’t they only ‘co-operate’ to get a reduced sentence anyway?

Well the idea would be that less serious crimes are committed? What better deterrent than the possibility of death..

But if you only get the death penalty IF you confess …? I don’t see how you’d expect that to work towards reducing crimes, just guilty pleas. And that wouldn’t be much good as guilty pleas save a lot of time, police and court resources.

‘So if I plead guilty you’ll kill me? If I don’t plead guilty I get twenty to life or possibly acquitted? Hmmm. I’ll have to discuss this with my lawyer. ‘

Aside from anything else, all evidence points to capital punishment providing no deterrent at all. It’s a vengeance thing and nothing else.

what if he is coerced into pleading guilty for the crime. and put to death. ?????? where does that leave us. ????

Creamy, even a quick Google search would show you that the death penalty does not act as an effective deterrent, so you can’t use deterrence to justify it. It therefore comes down to plain and simple retribution.

And that’s not even mentioning the serious racism problems with the system in the USA.

As they said in the West Wing – “you are just as stupid as these guys who think capital punishment is going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn’t live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process”

….leaves everybody blind.

It’s never right for one human to take the life of another.

Helps us see clearly why pre birth executions are problematic.

Most people are on here baying for blood every time one of our own is murdered or a child is killed. The same people are then on calling for the death penalty to be outlawed. Hypocrites.

Paradox of the death penalty: If you use the death penalty as a punishment and even one innocent person is killed, then you yourself are a murderer and should be put to death. The death penalty reduces the state to the level of the murderer.

This guy shot out the windscreen of a car being driven by an off duty police officer who was on an evening out with his wife. When the officer drew up beside the guy and got out to talk to him the thug shot him in the head and drove off.
I’m not particularly fond of State executions but I’m miles away from signing this petition .

It really disturbs me that your vengeful, Old Testament dribble got so many thumbs up. The death penalty is a barbaric act the belongs to the annals of history. It does nothing to lower homicide rates as has been repeatedly shown in the United States.

Personally I think the death penalty should be done away with but the argument that he took crystal meth does not excuse the fact that he shot dead another human being , the death penalty is too easy 20yrs hard labour and even the sight of drugs or guns will scare the sh1t out of him or others like him !!!

I can understand as I am a parent too but bloodthirst only attracts more violence.

Crystal if he had killed a family member of mine I’d probably want to kill him myself, that doesn’t mean I’d want to live in a society where the state would kill him. Do not confuse justice with revenge.

Stephanie wants to live in a lawless society where the law of the jungle prevails. It’s OK for her to want to kill someone as an individual but not collectively as a society. Lets hope your utopia never succeeds Stephanie, the island of Ireland has fought a long time north and south to remove vigilantism from our society.

Wow, Jack, it’s a good thing you’re here to speak for me. Or at least it would be if you had any idea what it was that I wanted to say. My point is that I would want to seek vengeance, I think that’s human nature, that doesn’t mean I should be allowed to or that the state should have to carry it out for me.

But cheers for the misrepresentation. I’ll just go put away my torch and pitchfork.

Well Stephanie, maybe if you were as adept at expressing yourself as you are at sarcasm the misinterpretation might not occur.

Well, Jack, perhaps if you as adept at English comprehension (and understanding that a person’s life view cannot be interpreted based on a two sentence comment) as you are patronising people from your keyboard the misunderstanding would never have occurred.