The Death Penalty: why I'm against it

A question of conscience and the World Day Against the Death Penalty 2025

If there’s one thing I can say about all the topics I’ve written about, now over many years, it is that my readers have plenty of variety to choose from!

Each month I shall be creating a podcast and article about the death penalty and the issues that are attached to this final of all sanctions. In this first article and podcast, I am going to talk about the death penalty from a personal perspective, and how and why I have opposed such a sanction since I was a young police officer patrolling Birmingham’s City Centre in the UK, from 1975 onwards.

The UK abolished the death penalty for murder offences (including those arising from a court-martial) in 1965, and Parliament made that abolition permanent in 1969...(Read More)