A letter from RM. Lamb in response to the Ministry of Justice
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- Author: Richard Michael Lamb
Letter from Ministry of Justice
May 23rd 2016
Central Correspondence Team
M.O.J Ref: TO15/4289
Mr Richard M. Lamb,
Temon Estate
Crown House
Home Gardens
Dartford
DA1 1DZ
Dear Mr Lamb,
Thank you for your letter to the Ministry of Justice, regarding your views on the reintroduction of capital punishment. Your letter has been passed to the Central Correspondence Team to reply.
The govrnment has no plans to bring back capital punishment. There is no evidence that the death penalty acts as a deterrent. Futhermore, the death penatly would bring with it the very real risk that some genuinely innocent people would die; dreadful in itself and seriously undermining public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Parliament abolished the death penalty more than 40 years ago and in free votes has consistently voted against it being restored in recent decades. In 1998, Parliament made clear, in a free vote, that it was opposed to the death penalty for all offences. Murderers are subject to a mandatory life sentence and rightly spend a long time in prison; in appropriate cases for 30 or more years or their whole life.
Yours sincerely,
Central Correspondence Team
Ministry of Justice
R M. Lamb's Response to Ministry of Justice Letter
May 25th 2016
To: Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
M.O.J Ref: TO15/4289
M.O.J Ref: TO15/4289
Dear Sirs
Capital Punishment: R.M.Lamb essays and your 23/5/2016 letter
My response:
a) The Death Sentence is a moral question as the crime of coldblooded murder
demands that Death Penalty in all proper morality. It is not purely to be
considered in terms of deterrence. Essentially that is fatuous.
b) You will never measure the deterrent effect of Hanging even if you restore it.
Would-be murderers who think twice and desist will not own up to that evil
intent so vile. They will go undetected and unknown to the end of their lives.
None of us will be the wiser.
c) You say the innocent may be hanged. This is ludicrous. We have an
excellent police service, forensic tools and Judges of the highest calibre. The
Juries are strongly established in our murder trials justice and they have
proved their mettle time and again. Your writer is fanciful. If it is right to
restore hanging: discretionary for murder and related crimes we must have
the strength to see that through and not be put off by such weakening
thoughts. Taken to its logical conclusion such thinking would be devil our
Criminal Justice in murder trials, to this day. Let us have the strength of
Character to prosecute and defend Capital Trails by Senior Counsel, so
esteemed, and not be deflected by such childish and foolish preoccupations.
We either prosecute Capital murder or not. If the will is not there in the
Director, the Judiciary, Senior Counsel and the Ministry of Justice, yes, that
will have to be accepted. But first of all the will of the people must be tested.
Are you sure they are against Hanging (discretionary) for murder and
associated crimes? I verily believe, if they are consulted, they will come down heavily for Restoration. What parliament voted in 1998 is not relevant for the
post 2015 era. With great respect to your Ministry of Justice the Death
Penalty was not debated in the peoples “faces” in 1998. There has been no
mandate from our people for or against Hanging for murder since the War.
There have been debates in the Commons and the Conservative Party
Annual Conference. It has not been put to the people this issue. Yes
Parliament is supreme subject to our High Court. But until we have a
countrywide debate and Parliament resolves to be accountable to the debate
we are nowhere. How can Parliament make itself accountable? By the
leadership of a major political party declaring for the Death Penalty for murder
and that leadership going to the Country with that declaration embedded in its
manifesto. Anything less does not do justice to this issue nor the wishes of
the people of England & Wales. Parliament cannot decide this issue alone on
a so-called “free” vote. It has to go through a general election and that
leading party political machine, putting this declared policy to our people. If
the mandate comes back for Restoration then those who lead that party will
honour that mandate I have no doubt. There will be no “conscience” vote that
dodges the issue. Capital Punishment is so morally monumental it demands
such leadership and this procedure. If you belong to the Party which has
declared for Hanging to return then you either follow the Party line at the
election or you do not stand for Parliament in this election. The future of our
Country depends on the general election I have in mind whether in May 2020
or under the Fixed Term Parliament Act before.
You have my essays (Transition and Finality of the Debate). Let the debate begin in earnest - the way is clear. Whether Parliament takes us out of the EU sooner or later it has to be done with Repeal of the ECHR. Then we may have our general election on the Restoration of Hanging for murder and its ancillary crimes but only by the Judge’s Discretion.
Yours sincerely
R.M. Lamb esq.