A national debate on the restoration of the death penalty...

A national debate on the restoration of the death penalty for the most heinous murders was advocated by Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative Home Office minister. She said a case could be made for the return of capital punishment to act as a deterrent and save lives. Miss Widdecombe, a Roman Catholic said she had never believed in using the death penalty as a means of retribution. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If it can be shown that it is a real deterrent and its availability, not its regular use, is enough to deter murders and save innocent lives, then that is a case that can be made." Miss Widdecombe said she was not "running around banging the drum" for the restoration of the death penalty. It would have to be done rationally, "not just on a tide of outrage". She said there would need to be safeguards to ensure that the method of capital punishment was not "long, protracted and exceptionally cruel". Miss Widdecombe, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, said she believed juries would be prepared to convict knowing there was a death penalty, particularly for some of the more horrible crimes. But the possibility of a miscarriage of justice was the strongest argument against its return. The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turnbull, told the programme that a time of high emotion, generated by public anger over the deaths of Holly and Jessica, was not the time to make radical changes to the law. He said using capital punishment would rule out the chance of rehabilitating offenders, an essential element of current sentencing.