Sorry if what I said before is not strictly relevant to the death penalty. As I hope I made clear before and am happy to do so again, I am strongly against the death penalty. I could theoretically accept it in cases where there is absolutely no doubt, but the number of such occasions is minute: witnesses can be mistaken, DNA can be contaminated, CCTV can be misinterpreted, and so on. And that is to say nothing to the skills or otherwise of the lawyers involved. So in practice, we are probably down to the Stalins, Hitlers and Pol Pots of this world not ordinary crimes.

However, I don't think what I said is completely beside the point either. I believe that without the death penalty the number of people wrongfully imprisoned is somewhat greater than it otherwise would be. That is to me something we have to face up to and say "If that is the price we must pay for a more civilised society, so be it (while doing all we can to minimise it, naturally)"