THE QUESTION of the death penalty for certain kinds of murder, for example those committed during armed robberies, should be revisited, according to the former president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson.
Speaking to The Irish Times, the judge said: "The Government should look at it. Then if the people want it they should have it."
A constitutional ban on the death penalty was introduced as the 21st amendment to the Constitution in 2001. Another referendum would be necessary if the death penalty were to be legislated for.
“I am not totally in favour of it. But it should be revisited,” the former judge said. “It would have to be for specific offences. If people arm up and go out to rob and decide to take out anyone who gets in their way, they should pay the price. It should be a matter for each individual case.”
He believes the death penalty had a deterrent effect in the past.
“When I was growing up if a murder took place there were headlines in the press for a week. Now no one notices. Murder is no longer shocking anybody. People have far less respect for each other than they used to,” he said.
Some of this he blames on the prevalence of sex and violence in advertising and the media. “We’re becoming unshockable,” he said.
However, he acknowledged it was very difficult to be absolutely certain a person was guilty of murder, and that he would be deeply concerned about wrong convictions. “If the death penalty existed in Britain the Birmingham Six would have been executed,” he said.
The last person executed in Ireland was in 1954, when Michael Manning was hanged, with the sentence being carried out by English official hangman Albert Pierrepoint. No further executions were carried out and it was abolished in law in 1990.
The abolition of capital punishment is also a condition of EU membership and exists in a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ireland is a signatory.
The 21st amendment inserted a clause preventing the Oireachtas from reintroducing the death penalty without a further referendum. It was passed in a referendum held the same day as the first Nice referendum by 62 per cent of those who voted, with 38 per cent voting against the ban. Voters also voted that day for Ireland to sign up to the International Criminal Court.
The former judge also said that there was a “culture of dishonesty” in Ireland. “In England they are just as dishonest, but once they are found out they are gone,” he said.