The death penalty
Sir: Unlike Alexander Chancellor I like my pro-hinger friends best. They are realists and have their priorities right.
Repugnant though the death sentence is to all normal people, it is the lesser of two evils if you value the lives of innocents above those of criminals. There is no virtue or courage in the woolly-headed piety that in effect chooses to preserve the life of a child murdered before that of his innocent victim. It is tantamount, if viewed realistically, to watching the terror of a precious child as it is brutally assulted and killed, then passively reproaching the criminal, telling him he should not do it again, but thatite will be free to do so after a period of custody. The primitive instinct would be to defend the helpless child to the extent of killing the attacker if necessary, an instinct not to be ashamed of. It is not hatred for tlie perpetrators of crime that motivates those who advocate capital punishment, but love for the innocents, especially the innocent children who are so abused.
M. MacKenzie 98 Oak Close, Bristol
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