Death penalty remarks criticised

THE IRISH Council for Civil Liberties has criticised the remarks of former High Court president Mr Justice Richard Johnson, who suggested the death penalty might be revisited.

Its director Mark Kelly said: “The death penalty is unlawful in every European Union and every Council of Europe state. If Ireland wished to reintroduce the death penalty, it could do so only at the cost of renouncing its membership of the European Union and the Council of Europe.

“As a matter of law, it is deeply misguided for a retired judge to suggest that it is within the realms of possibility that the use of the death penalty in Ireland could be revisited.”

He pointed out that Ireland signed and ratified protocol 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances.

In an interview published in The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Justice Johnson said the death penalty for certain kinds of murder, for example those committed during armed robberies, should be revisited.

He said: “The Government should look at it, then if the people want it, they should have it.”

A constitutional ban on the death penalty was introduced as the 21st amendment to the Constitution in 2001. A referendum would be necessary if the death penalty were to be legislated for.

“I am not totally in favour of it, but it should be revisited,” the former judge said.

However, he acknowledged it was very difficult to be absolutely certain a person was guilty of murder and that he would be deeply concerned about wrong convictions.

“If the death penalty existed in Britain, the Birmingham Six would have been executed.”