Fatal errors
From Mr Tom Benyon Sir: Neil Clark ('Hanratty deserved to die', 11 May) is wrong to claim that the efforts of left-wing liberals and the Hanratty case were the main cause of the abolition of the death penalty.
Briefly, the reasons that the death penalty was abolished were that there was no clear evidence to indicate that it acted as a deterrent, and that those executed could become martyrs. Most important of all, that juries, hearing an emotive speech by defence counsel highlighting the many irreversible conviction errors that had been made in the past, ended up so terrified of making yet another that they would acquit villains whom otherwise they would have found guilty.
The late Lord Hailsham said that he could tolerate a country with the death penalty and he could tolerate a country without it; but he couldn't tolerate one that was unable to make up its mind.
Thank goodness we have done so and we can get on with gestating workable policies to combat crime.
Tom Benyon
Adstock, Buckinghamshire
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