Sir, - Punishment should perform three functions - retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. While it is clear that the death penalty is the ultimate retributive punishment, it lamentably fails the other two tests. Apart from W.G.A. Scott's rather shaky grasp of Christian theology (May 8th), he is on no firmer ground in relation to capital punishment's deterrent effect.
The (UK) Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (194953) examined British statistics in the half-century to 1950. Its analysis showed conclusively that murder did not carry any certainty of execution whatsoever. Only one in 12 murders in the period resulted in a prosecution. In other words, if you committed a murder in the period, you had a better chance of getting away with it than of winning £2 on a lottery scratchcard. Even of those charged and convicted, only just over half faced the death penalty; the others were given life imprisonment or reprieved - sometimes apparently capriciously - by the relevant Home Secretary. Some deterrent!
The state was notoriously reluctant to execute women and very young people. The hangings of Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis in the 1950s - both young, both (in the eyes of many people) morally innocent - were therefore all the more shocking for not having been stopped by the then Home Secretaries, and led to a sea-change in political and public opinion on the death penalty.
In any case, all of this is beside the point if an innocent person is executed. There, but for the grace of God and the 1964 Labour government which abolished capital punishment for murder, go the Birmingham Six. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Ian D'alton, Rathasker Heights, Naas, Co Kildare.
Capital PunishmentSir, - As W.G.A. Scott sees the execution of Christ as a good thing (May 8th), will he now seek the beatification of Pontius Pilate? - Yours, etc.,
James Mcclatchie, Braemor Road, Dublin 14.