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![Is it time we had a discussion about capital punishment in Australia? Picture Shutterstock Is it time we had a discussion about capital punishment in Australia? Picture Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/8WgcxeQ6swJGymJT6BMGEL/6dd73244-b675-451e-8e50-5946b578d9bf.jpg/r0_343_6720_4136_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ever wondered if Hell actually exists and what eternal horrors may lie in wait for life's worst sinners? I once snuck through its gates and walked among the wretched and the damned. Let me give you a quick tour.
I was searching for the man who changed my mind about the death penalty. Before the soul-numbing events in Port Arthur in 1996 I opposed capital punishment for all the usual reasons. State-sanctioned murder seemed barbaric and undignified. It allowed no margin for human or scientific error in our flawed justice system. And its victims were often the defenceless, the poor and the mentally ill.
But then along came Martin Bryant and his indiscriminate shooting spree that left 35 dead, dozens injured and millions heartbroken. Consecutive life sentences didn't seem commensurate with the cold brutality of Bryant's crimes. Barely human, he had forfeited any right to be treated as one. Like many others I came to believe an extraordinary crime deserved an extraordinary sentence.
A few years later a source organised a rare visit inside Tasmania's Risdon prison. A guard accompanied me through its maximum security wing, the air reeking of antiseptic and despair. Someone somewhere was crying, their sobs echoing through all that cold brick and concrete. A toothless prisoner with a tattooed face lunged at us through the bars of his tiny cell, screaming and spitting maniacally. His badly burned right arm was heavily bandaged. "He likes roasting his flesh whenever he can find a flame," the guard explained in the tone of a discerning judge on MasterChef.
Moments later we arrived at Bryant's empty cell. Like the man himself it contained few traces of humanity apart from a pair of worn blue slippers and a rumpled cot. I caught a glimpse of his pudgy body soon after through the darkened window of the prison kitchen. Heavily tranquilised, Bryant's mane of blond hair was shorn, his eyes vacant. He looked up briefly and sneered.
Like most Australians I try not to think of Bryant these days, just like I'd prefer to forget my Risdon experience. Yet the thought of all the effort and money expended just to keep him locked up and out of the public consciousness still rankles. We're moral creatures, guided by a sense of justice and the hope of redemption. But an unrepentant Bryant was never jailed with the intention of rehabilitation. He was imprisoned because no harsher option was available.
![David Pope's view. David Pope's view.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/8WgcxeQ6swJGymJT6BMGEL/46e1c3d3-4524-45c8-80b8-b6aee9363ba1.jpg/r0_0_1540_1003_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has called for a national discussion on capital punishment after a former Gold Coast childcare worker was charged with more than 1600 child abuse offences against 91 young girls. "Life imprisonment seems too soft a penalty for a crime this heinous," he said. "We really should consider the death penalty for people ... that have ruined so many other lives."
Good luck with that, Senator. We're not encouraged to have that discussion in Australia. Federal legislation passed more than a decade ago prevents the states from reintroducing the death penalty, despite repeated surveys showing a majority of us favour it for crimes that go beyond normal human reckoning.
Those who want that debate are scolded for nursing a primitive bloodlust. They're lectured about the overcrowded death rows in the US and that country's shameful history of wrongful convictions. Those claiming the high moral ground also highlight the excesses of repressive nations like Saudi Arabia, where public squares have turned into human abattoirs (the Saudis executed 81 people on a single day last year).
Finally, they trot out the old fallacy that no evidence exists proving capital punishment works as a deterrent. It's time the moral absolutists did some homework.
Several studies in the past two decades have shown the impact that executions can have as a last resort. One, in the Journal of Law and Economics in 2003, found a strong correlation between executions and a reduction in murder rates, with its authors estimating that each execution deterred an average of 18 murders.
Another, in the American Law and Economics Review, found the federal reintroduction of the death penalty in the US in 1976 led to a significant decrease in the murder rate. Other studies have also highlighted its role in satisfying the desire for retribution among victim's families and general society.
Criminal science continues to improve, further lessening the chances of wrongful evidence.
But despite all this there's little chance of Senator Canavan triggering a new debate about capital punishment. Not when our lawmakers have decided that hell on earth is good enough for our worst offenders.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you believe capital punishment is appropriate in exceptional circumstances? Have you changed your mind about the death penalty over the years? Is it time to overhaul our centuries-old judicial system? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- The era of relatively stable inflation is over and price pressures are set to fluctuate more as the economy is buffeted by climate change, the energy transition, the move away from globalisation and other developments, departing Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe has warned.
- Sydney has a chronic housing crisis and it's costing the economy more than $10 billion a year. In the world's 20 most unaffordable cities for housing, Sydney is ranked the second least affordable major housing market after Hong Kong.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Beijing before the end of the year. Confirmation of the visit came during a meeting between the Prime Minister and China's second-in-command, Premer Li Qiang, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta.
THEY SAID IT: "I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate." - Jack Kervorkian
YOU SAID IT: Blackouts during heatwaves can be more than inconvenient. The experience in Europe suggests they can be deadly.
Ian writes: "Air conditioning has allowed us to create artificial climates for ourselves that shield us from the discomfort associated with global temperature rises. Perhaps, this is the major reason why we Australians are still so complacent when it comes to the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps our enduring quite a few sweaty, sleepless nights without AC might cause us to think much more seriously about how we might individually reduce our emissions."
"I count myself very fortunate to live in Tasmania where the majority of our power is produced by hydro," writes Brian. "But in the rush by our present government to become the so called 'battery of the nation' we are supplying Victoria and South Australia at present under the name Momentum. Just so happens that as we come out of winter that our dams are only 45 per cent of capacity and surprise, surprise if and when we run out of water then we will have to revert to gas which those smart Victorians have abandoned What a dog's breakfast this whole energy mess has become."
From a "very cool Warrnambool", David writes: "The highest temperature recorded in Australia was when the mercury hit 53.1 degrees on January 16, 1889 in Cloncurry. The next hottest was 51.6 at Bourke on January 3, 1909 in an official Stephenson screen at Bourke Post Office. These temperatures are ignored by the BOM as they do not suit the current fraud that has ruined our electricity supply system."
"I've never used air con at night in the bedroom," writes Joan. "In real heatwave conditions, we should all use the simplest aircon available, which is a light sprinkle with the hose - yes, in your PJs and outside, then lie down. Do it randomly during the day too. Possible water restrictions mean being very careful but it is possible to cool down with very little. We kids used 'playing under the hose' in summer all the time. Home swimming pools belonged to the very rich and there was no town pool. How things have changed."
Terry writes: "What needs to be done is mandate double glazing be installed in all new homes. I'm sure developers have lobbied against this simple fix. It is such a simple part solution. Hornsby in Sydney will be building 25-storey buildings in the future. I asked a senior council officer if double glazing would be compulsory and was told it was up to the state government. So I imagine double glazing won't happen."
"As an active member of our local volunteer bushfire brigade we are already seeing the signs that this year is going to be a busy one," writes Stephanie. "I live in the shire which boasts more trees than any other in the country and yet it seems like less fire mitigation work is done every year. As we rely on a rain water tank for our water, no power means no water either so we are equipped with a generator which can run an aircon as well, thankfully we installed double glazing when we built the house so it does keep reasonably cool."