麻豆约拍

Good morning. 63 years ago today, Derek Bentley, a nineteen year old, was hanged for his part in the murder of a policeman during a bungled robbery. He had cried out 鈥淟et him have it!鈥� But was that, as many claimed, telling his accomplice to hand over the gun to the police, or to shoot? It was a truly tragic case. His sister claimed he had the mental age of an 11-year-old, was an epileptic, and could neither read nor write. By 1993, he had been granted a partial pardon- it was clear he should never have been hanged. But in 1998, the Appeal Court quashed his conviction on the grounds that the original trial judge was biased, and had misdirected the jury on points of law. Scientific evidence also emerged suggesting that the three police officers who testified against him had lied under oath. Sadly, his sister died before his conviction was quashed. What a mess!

But it鈥檚 the classic case that demonstrates why the death penalty is so contentious鈥︹�︹�� however good our criminal justice system, we can never be absolutely, 100%, sure that the accused is guilty. And once they have been executed, even if new evidence comes to light, that鈥檚 tragically of no use to them. In the Jewish tradition, there is a saying that 鈥榳hoever destroys a single life, it is as if they have destroyed a whole world.鈥� When I think of Bentley, I think of what might have been, how his family鈥檚 world must have crumbled around them. And of how long it took our justice system to quash his conviction.聽 His case should make us all the more determined to do all we can to preserve human life, and not take it away as punishment. He who destroys a single life, it is as if he destroys a whole world. Amen.