Death penalty no solution

EMOTIONS are always running away with lovers of the death penalty when brutal murders take place. The writer of the letter “Time for us to wake up”, May 19, is a new addition to this lot. This letter appeared in more than one paper.

Countries where judicial killing is law are drowning in violence, civil and outright war. When the state spreads the message that killing to stop killing is the only solution, such states are doomed.

We come from an extremely violent past where the death penalty was used not only for criminals but for political opponents. There is an ongoing project in Pretoria to exhume the remains of these 130 political prisoners. The evil apartheid regime was so callous that they buried them in unmarked graves.

When rivals could not be dispatched fast enough, they resorted to extra-judicial killing. We will never know how many unfortunate people met with their deaths in this way. Many were even burned while their captors were sitting around braais.

Lovers of the death penalty are far removed from reality. Executing large numbers of people, 18 000 murderers in our case (if they are all caught and convicted), is an impossible task. Rapists, armed robbers, drunk and reckless drivers and gangsters cause just as much misery. No country, not even big bullies China, India and America, can kill so many people.

The Nazis tried it, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and many others, and what did that achieve?

One must sit still and think rationally before rushing off to the media instigating these lies, myths and distortions that death penalty is the only solution to stem violence.

Most countries realized this, some as far back as two centuries ago, and they are the most prosperous today.

The death penalty is a complex issue which does not get the necessary coverage in our country. What is needed urgently is a Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC) like in Washington, to educate our ignorant and misinformed public.

The death penalty is never a solution.