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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.