In modern Britain your view on the death penalty is a test of whether you are a good person. I am therefore a bad person. Hundreds of right-thinking people, especially at the , regard me as a monster. For I believe that there are some heinous crimes which are best punished by death. If (and only if) our courts could be reformed, with proper grown-up juries, unanimous verdicts and judges who took their jobs seriously and stopped obviously unjust trials, I would urge the return of hanging here.I will not therefore be joining any protests against the execution of the killer Kenneth Smith, who is due to die by nitrogen hypoxia in the Deep South state late on Thursday night. I am unsure about the method used, as I shall explain. But not about the need to execute.I hold this opinion reluctantly, but firmly — because I have given it a lot of thought, and because I have looked into the whole issue, over many years. I am persuaded, above all, that the death penalty deters the carrying of lethal weapons by criminals and discourages the use of dangerous violence by them in general. How do we know?
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