The death sentence would have been a more appropriate...

The death sentence would have been a more appropriate sentence for the two Sizzlers killers, the New National Party said. Adam Roy Woest and Trevor Theys were sentenced in South Africa to nine life sentences each for the murder of nine men at the Sizzlers gay massage parlour in Sea Point, Cape Town in 2003. NNP safety and security spokesman Johnny Schippers agreed with Judge Nathan Erasmus that a more effective deterrent was needed for brutal crimes like the Sizzlers massacre. During sentencing Erasmus said there was a public perception that life imprisonment was effectively imprisonment for a limited time to be decided by the prison authorities. However, his understanding of life imprisonment was that it was the most severe sentence that could be imposed in order to remove the accused from society for the rest of their lives. Schippers said that while the NNP supported Erasmus's statements the party would continue to campaign for the return of the death penalty. "The death penalty is the only effective deterrent for such hideous and violent crimes."