WITH Peter Sutcliffe being charged with one of the 'Ripper' murders, there has now come the inevitable demand for the restoration of the death penalty. How should socialists react?
The most vigorous campaigners for the death penalty are fascists and Tories. That is hardly surprising because ultimately the death penalty would be used as a weapon against the working class.
One reason is that the use of any death penalty would be in the hands of the police and the courts. As every worker who has been involved in a serious strike knows, the police and courts are not neutral.
This is not to say that the re-introduction of the death penalty would be used to hang strikers, but if we stand back from the furore surrounding the 'Ripper' case, it is clear that the most typical victim of legalised murder would be those our rulers wish to tame - the irish and black people.
Weapon Its use against so-called terrorists would be the main object of any re-introduction of the aeatn penalty, wnich would ten become not d disinterested form of retribution, but a weapon of control by the ruling class.
It is argued that the death penalty would act as a deterrent. This claim is refuted by all the available evidence. deter then since its abolition in this country the murder rate would have risen out of proportion to other violent crimes.
In fact, the opposite has been the case: violent crimes not previousiv subiected to the death penalty have mushroomed, while the murder rate has risen more slowly.
In the United States numerous studies have revealed that there is no statistical difference in first degree murders committed in those states with the death penalty and those without.
the death penalty can encourage mentally unstable individuals to commit crimes liable to be punished by the death penalty, as a method of self-destruction.
United States, a couple of years ago, when Gilmore's demand that he be executed tipped the balance in favour of restoration of the death penalty in Utah.
With or without the death penalty, be psychopaths. They are the of our society.
Cases like that of the 'Ripper' arise from the way women are treated under capitalism Women are dealt with as objects for titillation and satisfaction for men. They are treated as lesser beings than men and violent sexual assault against women is the consequence.
Present society creates frankensteins, but Inat Is no reason tor using tne metoas such frankensteins themselves use. This would be no more than a call for vengeance: the morals of the mafia; justice by vendetta.
If such standards were applied then why not inflict other physical punishments, like the gauging out of people's eyes by the police, as recently happened in the Indian state of Bihas.
If it is wrong to trust the police with inflic ting such punishment in India it is also wrong to enable them to secure the hanging of someone in Britain.
The cops are experts at frame-ups. There was the famous case in the 1950s of Timothy Evans hanged for a murder, proved he did not commit. Other convicted 'murderers have been subsequentiy proved innocent and released. But you cannot be released from death.
Socialist Challenge For instance, if hanging did What has been shown is that the existence of There is the famous Gary Gilmore case in the there will nevitable product which it was later 15 January 1981 The show of massive force by the resistance — is the latest dramatic example of a growing threat to civil liberfuture.
ties Contemporary attacks on civil liberthe case of Gerard Tuite, the calls for the restoration of the death