Sir, - W.G.A. Scott (May 8th) is right when he says that capital punishment is an effective deterrent to violent crime. I believe, however, that the death penalty is justified for a different reason: simply that it is just.
A person who premeditatedly takes the life of another deserves to die. That is what almost all of human civilisation, on every continent, has believed ever since civilisation began. "An eye for an eye" is not an obscure or outmoded theological concept; it is the principle on which criminal justice systems the world over have always been based and which we are abandoning at our peril. - Yours, etc.,
Brian T. Hickey, Taney Rise, Dundrum, Dublin 14