The film, 10, Rillington Place, is a good account of this, and is one of the first instances when John Hurt dies on screen (the hanging sequence was advised by the executioner Pierrepoint, and is apparently very accurate in the timing). Worth a watch.
And Christie has been thought to be the guilty party for years.
Haemophilia_Type_A on
Evidence no.13502 as to why the death penalty should never be allowed under any circumstances. Even “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” is not 100%, and I’d rather let an evil bastard live (rotting in prison) than potentially kill an innocent person.
I’ve heard people suggest “oh, but you can just do it for when there’s absolutely no risk of them being innocent”, but for me that is untenable. Adding a level of guilt above “beyond a reasonable doubt” undermines the whole legal system because it adds a level of doubt into ‘default’ convictions. You can’t have a ‘super duper guilty’ conviction without making the regular ‘guilty’ one untrustworthy.
rol2091 on
If offenders got whole-life-in-solitary for crimes that used to get the death penalty [rape-murder, pre-meditated-murdder, etc] there probably would be almost no calls or desire to bring the death penalty back.
For all those commenting that we shouldn’t have the death penalty, check a few comments threads down and go make the same points in the assisted suicide thread.
If we can have strict procedures in place to ensure nobody is pressured into assisted suicide, why can’t we have strict procedures in place to make sure the death penalty is only ever used on cases where there is overwhelming evidence?
5 Comments
The film, 10, Rillington Place, is a good account of this, and is one of the first instances when John Hurt dies on screen (the hanging sequence was advised by the executioner Pierrepoint, and is apparently very accurate in the timing). Worth a watch.
And Christie has been thought to be the guilty party for years.
Evidence no.13502 as to why the death penalty should never be allowed under any circumstances. Even “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” is not 100%, and I’d rather let an evil bastard live (rotting in prison) than potentially kill an innocent person.
I’ve heard people suggest “oh, but you can just do it for when there’s absolutely no risk of them being innocent”, but for me that is untenable. Adding a level of guilt above “beyond a reasonable doubt” undermines the whole legal system because it adds a level of doubt into ‘default’ convictions. You can’t have a ‘super duper guilty’ conviction without making the regular ‘guilty’ one untrustworthy.
If offenders got whole-life-in-solitary for crimes that used to get the death penalty [rape-murder, pre-meditated-murdder, etc] there probably would be almost no calls or desire to bring the death penalty back.
Obligatory clip of Ian Hislop and Priti Patel talking about Capital Punishment on Question Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DrsVhzbLzU
For all those commenting that we shouldn’t have the death penalty, check a few comments threads down and go make the same points in the assisted suicide thread.
If we can have strict procedures in place to ensure nobody is pressured into assisted suicide, why can’t we have strict procedures in place to make sure the death penalty is only ever used on cases where there is overwhelming evidence?