UK: Amnesty slams death penalty call

Amnesty International has slammed a call by a DUP politician for the use of the death penalty in the UK and internationally.

Mass murderers like Ian Brady have sacrificed their right to life, according to East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell.

He added that there was a cosy political consensus to deny the people of the UK their wishes.

"There are times when the death penalty, operated within a robust legal framework, is an appropriate form of punishment," Mr Campbell said.

"We can all think of mass murderers who through their evil acts forfeited their right to life.

"I have no compunction at all in saying that someone like Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer who murdered 5 innocent children has forfeited their right to live through their actions."

'Sordid'

Amnesty International's Northern Ireland Programme Director Patrick Corrigan said: Beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, lethal injections, shootings and stonings have no place in the modern world. Any popular support which exists for the death penalty falls dramatically when people are confronted with the sordid reality of capital punishment. All the more so when people realise that there is no evidence that it even deters crime.

"The good news is that executions are only carried out by a small number of countries and that this number is getting smaller by the year. Our members in Northern Ireland will continue to campaign for a death penalty-free world."

Mr Campbell, a former Stormont Culture minister, was addressing a Westminster Hall debate on capital punishment and added polls regularly showed a majority in the UK favoured the death penalty for crimes like premeditated murder.

SDLP Justice spokesman Alban Maginness was appalled at the suggestion.

"I think there is a well-established view that capital punishment in the western world is regarded as abhorrent and unlawful and inappropriate," he said.

"Capital punishment doesn't work. Quite apart from that it goes against the modern view of human rights and indeed there's a protocol attached to the European Convention on Human Rights outlawing capital punishment."

Source: UTV News, Oct. 28, 2009