The government’s new e-petition site went live yesterday and provided the mechanism for two petitions, one for restoring the death penalty and the other opposed to doing so. At the time of writing, the pro-hanging petition put down by Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes) has won over 7,000 14,000 signatures, but the anti-hanging petition put down by Martin Shapland over 13,000 22,000.

The anti hanging petition reads as follows:

Petition to retain the ban on Capital Punishment

A petition to call on the government to retain its position regards the abolition of the Death Penalty for all offences.

That the British people note that only 58 nations currently use capital punishment, as opposed to 95 which have abolished it, further notes the un-retractable nature of such a sentence in incidents of miscarriages of Justice, further notes the death penalty does not reduce crime or act as a deterrent Continue reading →