Melbourne CBD Incident

[PaulP]

The death penalty does nothing to deter people who commit these sorts of crimes - all it does it let them go out in a blaze of "in-glory" and then some other whacko reads about it and says "hey that was cool - I'd like to try that!". 

If the death penalty worked so well, the places in the world that still allow it shouldn't have any murders?

Perhaps we should be tackling the crap that makes them murderers in the first place......

Whilst I agree that the death penalty is not the answer (or even an answer) i think it's hard to draw out one single facet of a complex society. Apart from the U.S., many of the countries with the death penalty are beset with a variety of issues that muddy the waters when trying to analyse the effective of that strategy.

I like with your last sentence. Many of these offenders are devoid of hope and meaning long before these atrocities are committed. The death penalty would not register on their radar at all.