Sir, Frank Skinner is wrong to think that capital punishment is a “cost-cutting measure” (“Save £40,000. Kill off thugs. Capital idea”, Opinion, Jan 15 ). Its use in the United States shows that capital trials are expensive to mount and subsequent appeals take the overall cost of the death penalty well beyond that of ordinary criminal cases.
And this is just the fiscal argument. The human rights “cost” of capital punishment is immense. The cruelty of the death penalty degrades everyone associated with it, it doesn’t deter crime, and it undermines the rehabilitative function of the criminal justice system. And, as Frank Skinner himself notes, the death penalty also runs the risk of killing the wrongly-convicted. Frank’s columns are frequently food for thought, but on this issue he’s just plain wrong.
Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK