And what do you say to the family of an innocent person murdered by the state? "Sorry, we didn't mean to"?

It would be interesting to know, for those who would like to see the death penalty come back, how many innocent lives would be an acceptable number to take, considering the number of false imprisonments.

Also, considering the gravity of imposing the death penalty, how many criminals may not be convicted because a jury didn't want to be the cause of their death and so its implementation would be self-defeating, on several levels.

That's precisely what I'm inferring, all that before you even get to what adidan mentions, and 'murdered by the state' becomes another aspect of a given perception he mentioned earlier too

What else do you call it? It's state sanctioned murder. Would "death penalty" or "capital punishment" help you sleep easier at night?

I call it 'killing' no matter what because that's definitely what would happen , 'murder' as I've often said before, is down to any given situation and for me, my perception of that situation - you may take a different view in a given case.

As somewhat mentioned before, is it 'murder' that we drop bombs and kill innocent people in the Middle East? It's a war, and people can justify a lot during war, before you even get to individual countries' laws and interests, the UN etc...

Often I hold no particular opinion on what's considered 'murder' by a given state or it's people, especially considering where I grew up.

Well there's no doubt in my mind that the IRA are a bunch of murdering terrorists either, and Gerry Adams is slimier than George Dubya.

I agree. Though look where all that murdering got Gerry Adams, rotting in a jail for ever for the deaths of all of those innocent people . . . . .oh. . .wait. We continually here the UK government soundbite "we don't do deals with terrorists" Pah!

That's precisely one of my main reasons for not voting anymore - how am I supposed to have any faith in that system? Or indeed, law and order?

Yeah, he's almost as slimy as David Cameron - not quite, but almost.

On the execution thing - in fairness to the Chinese, Shaikh had never actually been diagnosed (apparently) with a mental health problem despite reaching his 50's - and that was rather a lot of heroin...

What would have stopped Harold Shipman claiming insanity? - he hadn't been diagnosed either, but murdering hundreds of pensioners isn't typical behavior for a normal person is it. Granted we don't have the death penalty, but its the difference between rotting in jail for life and a psychiatric hospital.

Family of executed Akmal Shaikh calls for an inquest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8438522.stm



No wonder they want an inquest

I agree with the Chinese on this one............ and so do a lot of friends I've spoken to about it.

The evidence of mental illness was lacking to say the least.
With regards comparing China's punishments for drugs compare to ours, let's take a look shall we? When Kate Moss was found to be taking class A, the industry gathered round her and painted her as a victim, not a criminal. Pete Doherty has been spared jail how many times for class A use? Is there any wonder why we have a bigger drugs problem here than in China. They just don't tolerate that crap there. Drug dealing is a serious offence and the punishment should be harsh. Maybe not death I'll agree, but harsh none the less. We have no deterrent over here.