Rethinking the Death Penalty !

The last man executed by hanging in Australia was Ronald Ryan who met his death on the scaffold of Pentridge prison in Melbourne on February 3, 1967.  His crime was the killing of prison warder George Hobson and ending capital punishment was a growing national sentiment in that era. All later murder convictions were downgraded to life imprisonment and the death panalty was finally revoked in this nation in 1985.

A century ago many people believed in "a life for a life "concept of punishment for willful killing of another person.  To satisfy this revenge motif in outrageous murder cases the judges sometimes decreed a life sentence "with no possibility of release ", hoping that would dispel public outrage that could not be satisfied by imposition of the death penalty.

Over the intervening decades, the attitude to murder has softened. Today's trials delve deeply into the emotions involved and whether the killing evolved from a planned intent or a sudden burst of rage.  Age and the influence of drugs or alcohol are taken into account and psychiatric illness sees the murderer taken to a hospital ward rather than a prison.  The maximum sentence for most murders is now twenty years, usually shortened by parole granted earlier for good behaviour.

We have created what is called the SuperMax, a prison within a prison at Goulburn with advanced security to hold the worst of the worst of this state's dangerous prisoners.  We are also experiencing a new phenomenon whereby a sect of Sunni Islam developed the Wahabist doctrine that urges it's followers to inflict murder on all who do not convert to this extreme outlook.  It calls itself "Islamic State "and has carved out a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq and urges young Muslims to fight to force it's notion of Islam on the entire world.

Islamic State has cleverly used social media to it's advantage to radicalize new followers and train them to launch terror attacks in western countries.  Terror cells have formed and delivered mass killings in a number of venues and while our security forces have deterred most Australian attacks it seems inevitable that eventually such a mass killing will happen here.  The question that arises is precisely how do we deal with such people who indiscriminately kill our citizens ?

Rehabilitation is the aim of our prison system but that is an unlikely outcome on those who have been brainwashed to believe that killing an "infidel " will be rewarded by instant access to Paradise as an honoured elite, to be feted and served with countless luxuries.  It seems inevitable that we will be housing an ever growing number of highly dangerous people in the SuperMax with the intention of a mass breakout to achieve widespread killing as a religious duty.

This is a form of fanaticism that will not retreat with time and in essence these people consider themselves soldiers in a war with the rest of the world.  They wear no uniform and are prepared to sacrifice their own life by detonating explosives on their body or being killed in a shootout with security forces. They come here posing as peaceful settlers and accept the oath of citizenship but in reality they are legally mercenaries in mufti who can be executed under the rules of war.

Perhaps it is time to rethink the death penalty.  There is no more gross a crime than the deliberate killing in mass of men, women and children simply because the killer has hate for their way of life and wishes to impose a dogma that they are unwilling to follow.   The cost and risk of incarcerating growing numbers discovered prior to launching such attacks is to create what amounts to a prisoneer of war camp within the SuperMax.   They are soldiers of a foreign power which has declared war on our country and they do not deserve the protections afforded to uniformed combatants under the rules of war.

This is not a war that will eventually end with a peace treaty.  It is an attitude of mind to which some zealots subscribe and it has existed in one form or another over many centuries.   When such an enemy engages in conduct that delivers mass murder on a grand scale perhaps it is time to rethink the whole question of ethics and outcome !