Whenever brutal child murders fill the news, I receive several dozen emails demanding restoration of the death penalty. The trial of Axel Ruhakana has prompted many more such demands.
I have voted for the return of the death penalty on the three occasions that the opportunity has presented itself during my parliamentary career. Alas, I was always in the minority -and by a wide margin.
When I first became a parliamentary candidate in the New Forest, I expressed my view robustly. I was challenged at a church hustings, as to how I could reconcile this support with my professed Christian faith. I answered by quoting article 37 of the 39 Articles (which form the doctrinal foundation of the Church of England): “The laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death, for heinous and grievous offences”.
When my questioner responded with the sixth commandment “ Thou shalt not Kill” , I pointed out that the original biblical languages suggest “thou shalt do no murder” is a closer translation, and that is a clean different thing.
The latest polling by More in Common reports that overall, 55% support restoration with 37% opposed. This is a 5% increase in support and a 5% reduction in opposition, since their last poll in 2023. In the generational breakdown, there is majority support across the age ranges with millennials (28- to 43-year-olds) leading the way, 58% of them are in favour, to only 27% against. Generation X (18- to 26-year-olds) was closest with 45% in favour and 42% against, even here however, there has been a 16% increase in support since the last poll.
Whatever the level of public support, the reality is that there is just no parliamentary majority for it.
Even if we did restore it, a significant minority would remain viscerally opposed and every death sentence would be the focus of public protests. It might also be more difficult to secure convictions for capital offences -as jurors contemplate the finality of a guilty verdict. Whatever the argument, one way or another, it certainly won’t happen in this Parliament.
The public demand for justice might be assuaged however, were a life sentence to mean what is says. Which is why the inability to sentence Ruhakana to a whole-life term was so frustrating. It is an affront to justice to see criminals who have been imprisoned for the most horrible offences being released (even though this is very unlikely in Ruhakana’s case).
We devalue human life by our refusal to punish those who take it, with death.