Should we re-introduce the death penalty - at least for terrorists?

An Iraqi court has sentenced Ahmed Ali Ahmed, a leading member of al-Qaeda in Iraq, to death for the murder of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was abducted on 27th February.

   Archbishop Rahho

Responding to the sentence, the Anglican vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White, one of the Church of England's leading experts on the Middle East stated that the death penalty was 'justified'.

The case for the UK re-introducing the death penalty, at least for terrorism, if not for all murders, is strong:

• Terrorist prisoners become 'living martyrs' - and in the eyes of other terrorists, provide the justification for further terrorist acts and kidnappings aimed at securing their release, as Israel has discovered to its cost.

Such a move would also send a positive message to the general criminal fraternity about how seriously we as a country take the sanctity of human life:

• Respect for the sanctity of life has been undermined in the UK by murderers being released on parole after serving only 10 - 15 years of a 'life sentence'. Society can only hope to preserve a degree of respect for the sanctity of life among criminals, when those who deliberately kill others face at least the possibility of the legal system requiring them to forfeit their own lives.
• The evidence clearly shows that the death penalty acts as a general deterrent against murder and so saves innocent lives. Between 1965 and 1970 when the death penalty was temporarily abolished as an experiment, the UK's murder rate more than doubled, rising by a massive 125% and has continued to rise ever since.

The major impediment to Britain reintroducing the death penalty is of course the EU, which requires member states to sign up to its own particular brand of human rights law - the European Convention on Human Rights - which prohibits the use of the death penalty.

However, the next Conservative government intends to both rewrite the Human Rights Act and examine how Britain can take back powers from the EU. The death penalty is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed in this way.