Execution in US reignites debate over the death penalty

From: M E Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

IN his cogent letter on the death penalty (Yorkshire Post, September 26), The Rev Anthony Buglass didn’t mention that Troy Davis was unquestionably “guilty” of being black and we are speaking of the southern states of America – the only western country which still practises ritual killing as part of its penal code, I believe.

The protracted and grisly farce of Davis’s trial and execution by injection is bad enough, but doesn’t the method of his killing give even greater cause for revulsion?

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It seems that, to some twisted minds, dressing hangmen as nurses somehow sanitises their depravity; but who trains them in injection techniques? Am I right in thinking that the spirit of Herr Doktor Josef Mengele continues to thrive in the medical establishment of the Land of the Free?

From: B J Cussons, Curly Hill, Ilkley.

THE Rev A E Buglass bases his view on capital punishment on one case in another country from ours.

No civilised member of our society would support capital punishment where there is the slightest shadow of doubt, even if they believe in the guilt of the person concerned, but at the same time, how can he believe that the condoning of murder where there is outstanding evidence is the proper way to run a “civilised” society?

Does he believe that it was right not to hang Peter Sutcliffe? How many people did Sutcliffe kill? Was there ever any doubt? How much money has he cost society by being allowed to live? For what purpose? And then avaricious lawyers, paid by us, were hired to fight for his release on that other travesty of justice – human rights legislation.

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In my view, the interference of religious leaders and other “liberal thinkers” have contributed to a huge increase in violent crime as the lack of appropriate discipline escalates crime among the young.

The Rev Buglass and his like-minded peers should themselves be on trial for the result of their philosophies.

From: John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, New Road Side, Horsforth, Leeds.

THE Rev Buglass is obviously very sincere in his condemnation of the death penalty, and he is entitled to his opinion.

But how come he knows so much about this specific case?

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Enough, in fact, to make him feel entitled to be caustically dismissive of the views of all the lawyers, jurists, judges and others over there in the good old USA who have spent the last 20 years examining it.

Is he perhaps under the impression that their hearts do not bleed as much as his does?

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon.

THE Rev Anthony Buglass states (Yorkshire Post, September 26) that “the death penalty is always unsafe, always wrong, and should never be part of any civilised society.”

Always? What utter nonsense.