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Tuesday February 9, 2010

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Should we kill the death penalty?

Posted by: Derryn Hinch for 3AW.com.au | 1 July, 2009 - 4:58 PM
A controversial but important question: Should the death penalty be reinstated in Australia for certain crimes?

I believe that if such a question were put at a referendum it would pass by a vote of about 70% to 30. But it will never be put. And I raise it again today because the gederal government is making moves to ban capital punishment in this country forever.

Technically, the death penalty is a state issue. The last person executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan in Melbourne in 1966 - more than forty years ago.

But if a state tried to bring back the death penalty and execute creatures like Martin Bryant and Julian Knight and the killers of Anita Cobby the Federal Government would intervene.

That's what the Rudd Government is trying to do now. The Federal Attorney-General has written to his state and territory counterparts telling him what the government intends to do.

Robert McClelland has told them the Government will introduce new legislation to ban the death penalty nationwide. They will invoke the external affairs power in the Constitution. The same one used to block the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania.

But in the debate agead you will hear a lot of hypocrisy from death penalty opponents. And that includes all Labor premiers. And it included the former Howard Government.

It was obvious during the final days of the Bali bombers. At the time I said good riddance. It can't come quickly enough. They lost their rights to mercy and even a skerrick of sympathy when they seet those bombs that killed more than 200 innocent people.

But when you tried to get either Prime Minister Rudd or Premier Brumby to say they should be spared you were met with silence.

In opposition Rudd said as Prime Minister he would fight to save the lives of Australians on Death Row overseas. But he wouldn't intervene over convicted terrorists.

Back the McClelland was shadow Foreign Affairs Minister. He was honest and said that under a Rudd Government Australia would oppose the death penalty in all circumstances. Even for killers like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

His speech was cleared by Kevin Rudd but he was then abandoned when the Labor pollsters realised it was not a good look so close to the fifth anniversary of the Bail bombings. Rudd rebuked his Shadow Minister and described his comments as 'highly insensitive'.

And if you argue that you didn't oppose the execution of the Bali bombers out of respect for the victims' families then what about the families of those slaughtered by Julian Knight and Martin Bryant?

I believe the death penalty should be available for certain crimes. And when there is no doubt, not just beyond reasonable doubt, about a killer's guilt.

A person who abducts, rapes and murders a child should face the death penalty. A person who kidnaps, rapes and murders a woman. A person who kills a witness to protect his own identity, a cop killer, a serial killer. A Knight or a Bryant.

They have forfeited the right to remain in this world. Even behind bars.

And when prime ministers and premiers say the opposition is bi-partisan and that they speak for the majority... well count me out. On this issue they don't speak for me.

Blog comments Your Say

  • Once we get rid of All State Governments we can have new laws,

    col Monday 6 July, 2009 - 6:12 PM

  • hot topic but i think it should remain up to the states. i think it should apply to certain crimes and only when it is proven conclusively like the bryant case or the knight case. when the killings or crimes are caught on video and there is absolutely no doubt then... yes, capital punishment. but i do not believe in the lethal injection. it should be by hanging or electric chair or gas chamber. it shouldn't be an easy thing to have done at all. it should be something to fear for crimes like those.

    dingo Monday 6 July, 2009 - 12:35 AM

  • Probably the one section of Victoria Police that really amuses me is the Ethical Standards Department, a follow-up from B11. One of the most amusing historical events was the Beach Inquiry 1975 (no reflection on Beach himself). Fifty-five members were charged and NOT one single conviction. Truly amazing~! That event alone summed up the integrity of internal Police investigations~! Corruption has been rampant in Victoria Police since the year dot! In the early 60's a Bendigo Police Superintendent and 3 sergeant equivalents were investigated in relation to a hotel protection racket. They were all shanghaied back to Russell Street, but the whole incident was swept under the carpet. We had a Police sergeant in the early 70's whose colourful interviewing techniques were well known throughout the force (not surprisingly was mentioned at the Beach Inquiry). These techniques included placing a suspect in a clothing locker and launching the locker down a flight of stairs from the first floor, the old 'truth serum' trick - the introduction of a horse needle during the interview procedure, and the old faithful lie detector test - a telephone electricity generator & wires being attached to specific parts of the body. The END result does NOT justify the means~! We also had another group of detectives who hung suspects out of a 1st floor window during the interview process, until someone was accidentally dropped~! During the 70's & early 80's we also had the Chief Superintendent under investigation by the NCA for prostitution, located in close proximity to the Chief Commissioner's Office. Let's NOT get into Police credibility and ethics~!

    Lenny Saturday 4 July, 2009 - 11:44 AM

  • Even when you go back to the Ronald Ryan case, there is still massive debate over whether HIS bullet actually killed the guard. The tiangulatons never matched up~! Ryan was a political decision~!

    Lenny Saturday 4 July, 2009 - 10:09 AM

  • Why should my taxes pay to keep people like Julian Knight in jail?????

    Tom Friday 3 July, 2009 - 11:39 PM

  • of course Hinch thinx that way, i will never forget his blather when Barlow & Chambers were hung. A good point was raised about Lindy Chamberlain, how many innocents would have been murdered in that kind of case? I know of a few in history.

    deb Friday 3 July, 2009 - 6:54 PM

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