Government urges Yes for death penalty ban

The Government today started its campaign for a Yes vote in the forthcoming referendum on prohibiting the death penalty.

The Minister for Justice Mr O'Donoghue.

The referendum will effectively delete all references to the death penalty in the Constitution and make specific provisions to prohibit its re-introduction in any circumstances.

The Minister for Justice Mr O'Donoghue said: "The Government is putting forward its proposals for a referendum on the prohibition of the death penalty on the basis that, in the Government's view, there are no circumstances that could warrant its re-introduction."

Mr O'Donoghue said: "We see no evidence that it acts as a deterrent to criminal activity in any of the countries where it is still carried out."

"When a miscarriage of justice occurs then there is no opportunity to right the wrong where an execution has been carried out. I can think of no worse injustice to anyone that to be executed in error," he said.

The death penalty was abolished in 1964 for all offences other than treason, capital murder and certain military offences. It was abolished for all offences under the Criminal Justice Act 1990 even though it had not been used in the State since 1954.

Mr O'Donoghue said he was aware there were still concerns with regard to the abolition in the context of the protection of certain public servants, such as Gardaí and prison officers.

He said: "The Criminal Justice Act 1990 put in place strong measures to deal with the protection of such public servants."

Section 4 of the Act specifies a minimum period of imprisonment to be served of not less that 40 years for capital murder.

The "maverick" Fine Gael TD Mr Brendan McGahon told ireland.com: "Society has gone soft on crime and the authorities are losing the battle."

Mr McGahon said he still believed in the death penalty. "If somebody takes a life in full knowledge of their senses they should pay for it with their own," he said.

He said he believed in the death penalty partly as act of retribution and partly as a deterrent.

He said society was too fixated on why the accused did the crime rather than on the victims who had nobody to speak for them and in the end just became a statistic.