Capital Punishment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 July 1979.

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Photo of Sir John Morris Sir John Morris Shadow Attorney General 12:00, 19 July 1979

With respect to the hon. Lady, I have already given way twice and there are many other hon. Members who wish to take part in this debate. I wish to conclude my remarks as rapidly as possible.

A Royal pardon is wholly academic when a mistake of that kind is made. I do not believe that the State has a right to demand this penalty for one of its own citizens for murder in peacetime. It is for the State to prove its right to do so and not for the individual to establish his right to live.

On the issue of the restoration of the death penalty, I suspect that many of its proponents avidly believe that we should walk hand in hand with our colleagues in Europe. Indeed, some would follow every harmonisation within the EEC to the end of the road. But if we restore the death penalty we shall be out of line, in a legal or de facto sense, with every EEC country, except France and Ireland. I am told that there has been one execution in France since 1976 and that the last execution that took place in Ireland was in 1954.

We take pride in the way in which our legal system, with all its faults, has developed over the years. We have exported our common law and our system of justice over the centuries. There has been respect for the need to protect individuals, and that principle, too, has been exported to many corners of the world. Given what has happened in the rest of the world and also the position in Europe, I must ask what makes us so confident that we should act in a contrary sense to our closest colleagues and partners in the world? Why should we seek to put the clock back? Why should we be right and they be wrong?

I return to the issue of deterrents and statistics. As the hon. Gentleman said in introducing the motion, these factors do not prove very much. Does the fear of the rope make a potential murderer so rationalise his position that he will change his mind? Many murderers are not rational beings. Usually, about a third of all murder suspects commit suicide or are subsequently found to be mentally ill. On average, over half the number of convicted murderers committed their crimes while in a state of anger, extreme jealousy, quarrelling, fighting or drunk. That leaves us with only the cold-blooded, calculating murderer who, potentially, could be deterred, and there is no evidence on that account.

The hon. Gentleman dealt with the issue of terrorism. I shall not go in detail into the matter of escalation of terrorism, hostages, and the problems involved by trials in Northern Ireland because I am sure that many other hon. Members will deal with those topics. When one tries to categorise murder, one should never forget the experience in 1957, when the use of the gun was regarded as capital murder, whereas the use of the knife was not. Surely no credible advocate of restoration would now wish to restore any such absurd distinction, whether in regard to the method of murder, the motivation or geographical considerations. This is exactly what the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds was seeking to do today by putting forward that issue in that way. Because of the deep concern about terrorism in one part of the kingdom, he sought to raise emotions.