The Death Penalty Dom Martin Salmon,
Neville Braybrooke. Rev. Nick Earle, Maurice Jacks
Spanish Justice Vicente Girbau Leon.
Catholics and Abortion Rev. L. L. McReavy am a Pornographer' Nicolas Walter And Fight Again Stephen Hugh-Jones
Corporal Punishment
Rev. Lambert Foxell, Geoffrey Lane
Fringe Medicine F. Newman Turner Clerical Blood Pressures Rev. Austin Lee Osborne on TV Robert A. Adams Opus Dei Brian Butler The West End Decorations N. F. Hamilton Rossetti and Morris R. Glynn Grylls Cymru am TV Alan J. Reath
British Students in the US
Brian Van Arkedie and others
THE DEATH PENALTY
SIR,—Without attempting to make any useful pro- posal towards the solution of the intractable problem of keeping death by violence out of the land, whether by prevention or by a deterrent, it is pos- sible to regret the emotional overtones on both sides of the argument, not least the attempt to suggest that a Christian must necessarily be an abolitionist.
Lady Wootton, in her venture into the realm of Summerskill-Castlery, wrote, for example. 'I am ashamed that in my country bad men can be put to death without a chance to show their repentance.'
On his cross the Good Thief acknowledged the justice of his punishment, which was neither con- firmed nor contradicted. He also asked forgiveness, implicitly, and was promised Paradise. If in the course of capital punishment he could repent (to 'show' repentance is surely meaningless), then the condemned man in England has far more oppor- tunity to do so in the time which is so properly al- lowed after sentence. Paradise this year is perhaps a better option than, say, Pentonville for twenty. It is the victim on the footpath who may not have time to repent.
But this is not to answer the question whether capital punishment should be retained or not, whether or not it is an effective deterrent.—Yours faithfully, Somerset
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