Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 December 1969.

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Photo of Mr Willie Hamilton Mr Willie Hamilton , Fife West 12:00, 16 December 1969

The debate has shown one thing and that is the sense of unreality about the debate that we had yesterday. I do not think that anyone would admit that he has been influenced in the decision that he will make tonight by what he has heard from the Home Secretary or the right hon. and learned Member for St. Marylebone (Mr. Hogg). We have made up our minds long ago whether we were retentionists or abolitionists. No matter what figures the Home Secretary presented this afternoon, or what figures are presented by the Secretary of State for Scotland tonight, I shall vote for the abolition, permanently, of the death penalty.

I have a great respect for the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Sir S. Summers). We work in close harmony in other spheres in this House, but when he talks about humanising the rigmarole of hanging and making it more pleasant to contemplate I find it a most absurd and repulsive argument. If we take a Christian view of this, it is a very profound argument that we have no right deliberately to take life. In saying that, we are immediately faced with the argument by the retentionists that the murderer has taken a life. This is no argument for saying that because the murderer did something which cannot be based on any Christian ideal, therefore the State ought also to take the same kind of action.