Death penalty
Sir, —Sue Hunt is quite right to condemn Bill Dillon’s private member’s bill abolishing the death penalty for treason. What, in effect, this bill says is that to betray one’s country to an enemy, or to betray one’s comrades in the field, causing possibly the deaths of thousands, is so trifling a crime as to warrant only a few years of internment. It is, in effect, no worse than bank robbery, grievous bodily harm, or the like. This society is disintegrating for lack of respect — respect for property and respect for human life. If a crime so heinous and contemptible as treason can be treated so lightly, if we can show so little
respect for our national security, to our right to life and liberty, how can we expect criminals to respect our lives and property in everyday life? This society needs the extension of the death penf. alty to cover crimes like v premeditated murder and terrorism, not its abolition. The only fault with capital punishment as a sentence for treason is that it is far too lenient. —Yours, etc., T. R. LOUDON. March 30, 1989.
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Press, 4 April 1989, Page 12
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189Death penalty Press, 4 April 1989, Page 12
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