Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Growing up on a farm gives one a very pragmatic perspective on life. Almost all aspects of human behavior are mirrored, in one form or another, by animals. Much of how to deal with people can be learned by how to deal with animals.

I was thinking this today, when I read that Jon Venables – the monster who bludgeoned toddler Jamie Bulger to death in 1993 – had been convicted of distributing child pornography and sentenced to two years in jail.

[Which begs the question of why he was walking around free in the first place. - Editorial Bear]

This just proves what we should have known from the horrific crime he committed in 1993. Jon Venables is a wrong ‘un.

You encounter wrong ‘uns in nature quite a bit – especially amongst dogs. Dogs can be the sweetest, most loyal animals in the world – but sometimes you just encounter a wrong ‘un. You know the type – the dog who bites, suddenly and without warning. The dog who is unpredictably violent, so you can never allow yourself to be complacent around it. It could be the way the dog was raised – in a home in which it was abused – or it could be that it’s just genetic (the track record of pit bulls suggests this.) In either case, the dog just isn’t ‘right.’

And I think that’s the same with people. Jon Venables just isn’t ‘right.’ If he was a dog, you’d take him out back and shoot him.

And as I read today’s paper, that was exactly what I thought ought to be done with him.

Now this is a complete contradiction to what I’ve said before. I’ve written extensively about my opposition to the death penalty – based on purely practical reasons (an estimated 10% of those on death row are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of) and pretentious liberal ones (who are we to wield the power of life and death over people? Except when it comes to abortion, denying health care to those without insurance and bombing civilians in the middle east.)

However, today’s newspaper headlines make me dramatically reconsider my position. You look at Jon Venables and it’s difficult not to conclude that he’s never going to be ‘right.’ He’s already murdered a child (admittedly when he was a child himself) and now he’s been caught with gigabytes of illegal pornography featuring the rape and abuse of children (as young as two.) He’s just wrong and I fail to see how he could ever be rehabilitated.

As far as I’m concerned, Jon Venables is just a mad dog, and in order to protect society, he should be treated like one.

But as is increasingly the case in Britain, that’s not going to happen. Sources have already suggested that when his two year sentence is complete, he’ll be given a new identity (for his own protection, of course) and released back into society. The Crown has the power to detain him indefinitely (he’s on a ‘life licence’ for the murder of poor little Jamie) but they won’t. After all, that would infringe his ‘rights’ - which seem to trump the rights of everybody else in Britain.

I don’t want to get too Daily Mail about this issue, but when it comes to Venables I almost wish it was possible to take him outside and put him out of his – and our – misery.

After all, that’s what you’d do if he was a dog.

NJ Bans the Death Penalty

Today, New Jersey Governer Jon Corzine signed into law the historic state legislation which bans the death penalty.

Both New Jersey's assembly and senate approved the measure, which replaces death by lethal injection with life imprisonment without chance of parole.

Although there had been much ire about the move - which on paper spares death row inmates like child sex killer Jesse Timmendequas - in reality all the legislation did was legitimise a de facto ban on capital punishment. No inmate has been put to death in New Jersey since 1963.

The death penalty is one of the biggest contradictions in American society. To many, the very existence of capital punishment undermines the United State's place as 'leader of the free world.'

In the European Union, vocal critics of the death penalty point out that 'capital punishment is incompatible with a civilised society' and cite that membership requirements of the European Union include a total ban on capital punishment.

Supporters of the death penalty claim that convicted murders and terrorists cost the tax payer thousands of dollars every year by keeping them locked up - and the death penalty ensures that the guilty will never re-offend.

However, I believe the ban on the death penalty is a good thing. While convicted offenders might deserve to die (or, rather, not deserve to live) it's a very hypocritical society that considers itself authorised to kill them.

New Jersey votes on the Death Penalty

Today, New Jersey's state government begins deciding on the landmark legislation that would ban the death penalty.

The law, which would spare the eight men on New Jersey's death row (including child sex killer Jesse Timmendequas) is groundbreaking because it would be the first time one of the States of the Union had opted out of capital punishment since the Supreme Court first reinstated it.

The bill is likely to go through. New Jersey is a traditionally liberal state and the senate has a democratic majority (New Jersey's governer, John Corzine, is also a democrat.) In addition, the current death penalty law in New Jersey is essentially meaningless. Nobody's been put to death in this state since 1963.

But there are outspoken critics of the proposed abolishment. No voices are louder than those of the Kanka family, who lost their daughter Megan in 1994 to registered sex offender Jesse Timmendequas, (sparking the controversial Megan's Law.)

"If there is any individual that deserves the death penalty, it's the animal that did this to Megan," they wrote, regarding the proposed law. "To abolish it would be an injustice to our family."

But is that true?

After all, even if the Death Penalty was to be maintained in New Jersey, it hasn't been realised in almost 45 years. The Kankas can fight to bring this proposed abolishment crashing down - but it doesn't mean Jesse Timmendequas will ever feel the sting of a lethal injection.

There is already a de facto ban on the death penalty. All this proposed legislation is doing is legitimising it.

And that's no bad thing.