David Davis ‘shot in the arm for death penalty’
David Davis, the new shadow home secretary, has made the case for introducing the death penalty by lethal injection.
In interviews with the BBC and a broadsheet newspaper, Mr Davis claimed that DNA evidence can eliminate all doubt and ensure only the guilty are killed. However, he also claimed that support for the measure is his personal view, and not Conservative Party policy.
Mr Davis became the shadow home secretary last week following the selection of Michael Howard as the new Tory leader. He replaces relative liberal Oliver Letwin, and his comments this weekend have been attacked as another shift to the right by the official opposition.
The MP explained that, while a death sentence would be inappropriate in for crimes of passion, it should be used where the murder of children or the elderly was premeditated.
Greater detail was revealed when he suggested that killing several people in one crime would not be punishable by death, for example in the case of the Soham trial. But he backed capital punishment in cases where several people had been killed in separate instances, such as with the moors murders.
Mr Davis also suggested that only ‘humane’ methods such as lethal injection should be used.
Reintroduction of the death penalty is highly unlikely as there is a long-standing convention that such a decision is left to the conscience of MP’s. This means that parties would take no formal position and allow MPs a free vote.
Mr Davis told a Sunday newspaper that this makes it very unlikely that the death penalty will be resumed. He explained that most MP’s, and even most Conservative MPs, would oppose such a move.
