Friday, 7 December 2007

Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba RIP

"For the murder, Judge Richard Hawkins sentenced Ekaette to youth detention for life, with a minimum of 14 years."

Nope. Life should mean life. No early release, no parole, no nothing.

My latest blogpost: Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba RIPTweet this! Posted by Mark Wadsworth at 19:59

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3 comments:

The Sage of Muswell Hill said...

MW

From your quoted news page this paragraph is jaw-dropping:

"After being found guilty of murder by an Old Bailey jury, it emerged that Ekaette had taken part in the rape of a 14-year-old girl that was filmed on a mobile phone."

So this charmer gets 14 years: a friendly lawyer (paid by you and me) will have him out in 7. Life should indeed "mean life" but it never does. I know that legislating on the back of specific individual cases usually creates bad law (eg Dunblane) but if ever something called out for serious consideration of a return for capital punishment this is it. Failed asylum seeker, rapist and murderer: there is not a scintilla of a doubt that this guy is world-class slime and (when at liberty again) will be a constant danger.

8 December 2007 at 12:09
Mark Wadsworth said...

I totally oppose death penalty, too expensive (endless re-trials at taxpayers' expense), too barbaric, and there's always the question "Would you be prepared to be executed by mistake?".

But automatic life sentences and/or deportation seem perfectly fair.

8 December 2007 at 12:14
The Sage of Muswell Hill said...

"But automatic life sentences and/or deportation seem perfectly fair."

Yes: but they're rarely imposed and, if imposed, are never implemented (except in the most notorious cases like Hindley). As you said in your original posting "life should mean life" as we were promised as a quid pro quo for the abolition of capital punishment in 1965. I remember those debates (in and out of Parliament) very well - I was a fairly keen abolitionist. I also remember Sidney Silverman the MP driving abolition through the Commons coming to LSE confirming exactly the understanding that "life means life" were the abolitionists to succeed.

I take your point about the possibility of endless retrials etc but pre-1965 it was generally 3 weeks from sentence to execution despite appeals through the courts (heard as a matter of urgency) and, ultimately, to the Home Secretary. Mind you there was no Human Rights Act nor were appeals to a non-English court available.

We're never going to agree on capital punishment or, while we're at it, on corporal punishment (?) of which I'm also a supporter. I opposed capital punishment on moral and practical grounds: those grounds, for me, have disappeared. People like Ekaette have forfeited any rights to life: and, as a practical matter, I suspect even he might have thought twice about the "shanking" of his victim had hanging been on offer. But even if Ekaette at the time of the crime had been beyond redemption (which he probably was), the wider lesson - that English society has a right to defend itself from and, moreover, actually takes steps to rid itself permanently of this detritus - might lodge in the consciousness of the many other Ekaettes and potential Ekaettes out there.

8 December 2007 at 14:17

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