Madam, – Regarding the Mayor of Limerick’s call for a referendum concerning the reintroduction of the death penalty (Home News, June 9th), I think there are some fundamental issues that have not been taken into account.
We removed the death penalty by referendum in 2001, as was necessary to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights, and we would need to remove ourselves from this in order to reinstate the death penalty.
Further, the murder rate is consistently higher in death-penalty states in the US year-on-year: it is clear that the death penalty does not deter crimes of murder.
While I am sympathetic to Steve Collins regarding the tragic killing of his son, I do not think that introducing the death penalty will deter criminal gangs from their ways.
Life-sentencing without the availability of parole should be in place. Otherwise we become a vengeful society which advocates the taking of lives and we become no better than the criminals themselves. – Yours, etc,