Brian Edwards calls for death penalty for terrorists

Brian Edwards writes:

I have been a vocal opponent of capital punishment all my adult life. I have given speeches, written articles, debated the rights and wrongs of it. And my position has never changed: the state has no more right to take a life than the individual. Life is sacred.

I now find myself, quite inconsistently, making an exception.

Terrorism, the random slaughter of innocent people without just cause, to make a point, can never be defended, or forgiven.

I now believe that the terrorist is entitled to fair trial.

But if the verdict is ‘guilty’ then that individual, who placed no value on the lives of innocent men, women and children, should have the same value placed on his/her own life. None!

Mad dogs just have to be put down.

Life is sacred, but not to the mad dogs who slaughter eight year olds at concerts and slit the throats of people at cafes.