The first section of the Bill: "No person shall suffer death for any offence", is the crux of the matter. In other words, the death penalty should be finally and totally abolished from the Statute Book. The death penalty was abolished, as some Members will know, in 1964 for all but a very few specified offences. In 1981 this very Bill was introduced in this House by the Coalition Government of the time. It was introduced by the Minister for Justice at that time, Deputy Mitchell. What happened was that this Bill was passed by this House by a substantial majority, by 35 votes to 18. Before the Bill could get to the Dáil the Government of the day fell and so it could not be passed through both Houses. Surprisingly, this Bill was not revived by this Government when it came into power in late 1982 nor, surprisingly, is it part of the programme for Government, but I suspect that that is due to omission rather than conviction. Nevertheless, as far as I remember, it is a part of Labour Party policy and the Labour Party are, of course, a constituent element of this Government. In 1981 Deputy Mitchell, the Minister for Justice at the time, described this Bill as an essential measure of law reform. He also said, and I quote: "Abolition of the death penalty was right in principle". I see no reason why the Government should have changed their point of view in that time.
During the debate on that Bill the Fianna Fáil Party opposed it unanimously, as they have a habit of doing. They opposed it on various grounds, but the principal one appeared to be what they called the extraordinary circumstances of the time, which were, presumably, the activities of subversive organisations in this country. That situation remains and it is likely to remain and there is no foreseeable end to that despite the best efforts of the Government.
The situation is neither better nor worse at the moment. I do not want to anticipate what the Government's attitude will be to this Bill, their own Bill, but I hope they will welcome it; I hope the Government will not come down with the line that "of course we are in agreement in principle with the Bill but just at this moment it does not seem to us to be a particularly good idea", because that is a cop-out. That will be the case if they do not want to take a stand on it for every hour of every day from now until eternity.
This Bill is not about a matter of time; it is about a matter of principle and it is about the death penalty. I hope we do not have from the Government or, specifically, from the Fine Gael element, a holding operation that really their heart is in the right place but they do not want to see this go through just at this moment. What I would appeal for, and what would be the most acceptable solution to this problem, is for all the parties to allow a free vote. There is no great tradition on the part of the Opposition, particularly at the moment, to allow free votes on matters of public interest or controversy, nor have they had a particularly long tradition of allowing people to take the road of their conscience. But I suggest that on a Bill of this sort, there is no room for party political conflict; there is no room for the Whip to be used as it was used last time. It should be non-contentious in party political terms.
I introduced this Bill because, like so many other people, I believe that in principle and in practice judicial killing on all occasions is wrong. I see no reason why the State should have the power to execute a man; it is the ultimate form of execution. The State is condemning someone to a fate of execution because the person has in these specific cases murdered. That is not only degrading; it is hypocritical. I also find the on-going death cell culture particularly ghoulish and horrifying. The whole aura of execution culture is a very good and effective way of selling newspapers. There is continuously and there has been speculation every time a garda has been murdered about whether the sentence will be commuted or not. We may say that we knew all along it was going to be commuted and execution was not on the cards. The newspapers have a field day. In Britain, about a year and a half ago during the death penalty debate the newspapers had a field day with descriptions of the death cells, what people ate for their last meal and so on, all treated in a morbid way. I would like to see that sort of culture and that sort of mood abolished forever.
One of the reasons, often the principal reason — although those in favour of the death penalty are inevitably confused about the reasons for their positive approval of the death penalty — has always been that it is a deterrent. There is a strange contradiction in their argument here. I cannot see how the death penalty acts as a deterrent. I cannot see how you can justify keeping it on the Statute Book when it has not been used for 30 years. Does anybody who goes out to kill somebody else really believe that they are themselves going to be hanged for it? Because the death penalty has not been used for 30 years it is in some way redundant. It is not, presumably in the eyes of the potential murderer, a real threat. Yet, in the debate in this House three years ago it was maintained that it was a significant deterrent and should be kept on the Statute Book to deter people from killing gardaí, prison officers and other people in the category of section 3 of this Bill. That does not hold water — unless the death penalty had been used. It has not been used. There is no evidence at all for the deterrent argument which is inconclusive. There is no evidence that the pattern of crime will change as a result of this. Expert criminologists will always tell you that it has been a principle of criminal activity down the centuries that detection is a far more effective way of deterring than the severity of the penalty. In the Middle Ages when people were executed for stealing such things as apples, the greatest number of petty crimes such as picking pockets were committed during public executions.
One of the arguments for not bringing forward this Bill at present has been that all death sentences are still mandatory and have been commuted. That is tantamount to saying "Ah, well, it is a bad law maybe but it does not matter because it is never enforced." That is absolutely true. This remains on the Statute Book but if it is a bad law it should be taken off the Statute Book. Those who want to keep it on the Statute Book must be consistent and say that it will or it might be used. They have to be honest about it. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot have it on the Statute Book and say we will keep it there but we will not use it. That shows contempt for the law and a total disregard for the statutes of this country. There are circumstances in which the death penalty might be used, and that is why I think it is extremely important that it should be removed.
There is a very disturbing trend in America in certain states towards using the death penalty again. There is a most unpleasant repetition of these very public executions which are going on and which appeal to the basest instincts of human beings. They do that. That trend has not, thankfully, yet spread through Europe. But if we have the death penalty on our books, if we have the possibility of the use of the death penalty, I can see a very realistic scenario when a killing of the most unpleasant and vicious nature occurs public opinion will demand — public opinion frequently demands — the death penalty. I am not at all sure that public opinion is behind me in this. Where public opinion demands the death penalty for someone who has committed a most dreadful crime then I can see a situation whereby a weak Government may decide that the death penalty is on the Statute Book and that therefore it will be used. They see no reason in that situation why they should not yield to pressure from significant pressure groups.
It does not matter which way public opinion stands on this issue at present. Indeed, in Britain they have continuously kept capital punishment out while the opinion polls have continuously said that the majority are in favour of it. We are not here to yield to every opinion poll. We are here to lead public opinion on this sort of matter and on occasions to defy it. This is an occasion where I believe public opinion should be led and defied if necessary. It seems that if public opinion demands the death penalty in certain circumstances it will be merely a cry for revenge from public opinion which a Government could yield to. All we would be doing is perpetuating a violent society. All we would be doing would be increasing the violence which we are ourselves condemning. We would be murdering the murderers, so to speak, and become murderers ourselves.
The European trend and the European pressure is very much in line with what I am saying. I think it is only in Turkey in Europe and in no EC country that the death penalty is retained. The UN also has made several recommendations urging the countries of the world to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty is used. As a Christian, democratic, civilised country we have no right to be out of line with our European counterparts on this. I would like to know why we are.
One of the most obvious reasons why those who advocate the retention of the death penalty do so is because of the problem which we have with terrorists and illegal organisations, both in the North of Ireland and very much in the Republic of Ireland. The issue of terrorism is not relevant to the principle of the Bill. In Britain in the recent debate they tried to isolate terrorism as a reason, as an exception and as the only circumstances in which the death penalty should be used. It would be utterly wrong for any Government of this country to execute terrorists for any offence, however heinous. I believe this not just as a matter of principle which I do sincerely accept but also as a matter of practice, because all we would be doing if we executed terrorists for crimes which have been committed against the security forces — and these are the crimes on the whole to which this Bill refers—would be to make martyrs of evil men.
There is no doubt that the effect of hanging, with all the build-up there is to it, would be to create an aura and a mystique around the people who have done wicked things. The sight of IRA coffins in this country would become a recruiting agent for the IRA. We have enough martyrs. We do not want any more martyrs. These people should be put away but they should not be executed. There is very little doubt that there is a certain type of subversive, and a certain type of person who wants martyrdom, who will go out and commit a dreadful murder or other crime in order to be executed. There is a certain type of psychological misfit who is seeking that sort of notoriety. If we execute such people we will be playing straight into their hands. That is what is on the Statute Book at the moment and that is what this Bill is intended to prevent.
This Bill includes — it would be more appropriate to talk about it on Committee Stage — what is known as the 40-year rule which is a minimum sentence for the crimes specified in section 3 of 40 years imprisonment. This was part of the original Bill and it is a part of the Bill which I do not like because I do not like mandatory sentences. I do not believe in mandatory sentences; I believe that every crime has a specific and a different motive and deserves different, specific treatment. The 40-year rule was put in the original Bill because there is a very powerful lobby which includes the gardaí and the prison officers who for very understandable reasons wish the death penalty to be retained. The reasons are simple in that they believe — I think wrongly — that it gives them some form of protection. The 40-year rule was introduced as a balance to reassure these people that anyone committing such a crime would go to jail for what was virtually the rest of their lives. I do not believe in mandatory sentences and if the Second Stage of this Bill is passed, as I hope it will, I will be with my colleagues putting down an amendment to remove that clause.
The most important reason for abolishing the death penalty is the possibility of a mistake. There have been several documented cases of mistakes, of people being hanged in error. Hanging is a fairly final solution: it is also one which cannot be remedied. There have been attempts to give posthumous pardons in Britain for people who have been hanged wrongly. That is as important a reason for taking it off the Staute Book as any other, because nothing justifies in any way the taking of an innocent human life. To keep this on the Statute Book will give us the power to do this, and if we exercise it in time we will make a mistake.
