String 'em all up...

...Or so say 99% of you, according to The Sun. Of course, they don't quite reveal exactly who they are talking about. They don't spell out who you is.

There is an online vote; it doesn't show you the results. Judging by the comments on their debate, more than the tiny figure of 1% oppose the death penalty, despite the awful killers convicted over the past few days. And some of The Sun writers (over 50% of those quoted!) oppose the death penalty as well, at least for this type of killer. The closest we get to actually defining who the "you" is that The Sun refers to is in the phrase "Sun readers".

And I can believe that. I can believe that 99% of The Sun readers want to see hanging brought back. And no, this is not just a typical "diss The Sun readers" rant. Because I can understand where The Sun readers are coming from. The crimes of Wright, Dixie and now Bellfield are utterly awful, and part of me wants to shout "hang the fuckers!" from the very top of my voice. But the other reason why I am not surprised that the vote came out at 99% is the media itself.

The response to the convictions of Wright, Dixie and Bellfield has been little short of hysterical. It is time for a reality check. First of all, all of these people are now in prison and, although Bellfield has yet to be sentenced at the time of writing, very unlikely to be freed any time soon. They were a threat, they aren't any longer. I'd be surprised if any of these people was ever released from prison - I certainly hope they won't be.

Also, each of these terrible individuals seems to have acted on some sort of demented psychological impulse. They were all cunning, clever, psychopaths. The death penalty would not have stopped them. I'd be surprised if anything actually stopped these sexual predators.

And let's get some perspective on these murders. Only one of these killers can technically be described as a serial killer - Wright. Only he has been convicted of killing three or more people. Bellfield killed two, Dixie just one. And whilst each and everyone of these evil fuckers may end up in court charged with more murders, at the moment, their combined death toll is just eight. Which (as awful as their crimes may be) is next to nothing in a population of over 60 million.

Which leads me to my final point; yes, this trio might have killed more people. But they have yet to be convicted of anything other than those eight murders - five of which you can attribute to the same person. Killers they may be, but they are still innocent until proven guilty. And the last thing we want is a Lucas Report style approach in this country. "Oh, yeah, he killed someone. Let's see what else we can pin on the fucker."

Ultimately, if you take these crimes individually, then they are terrible, heinous crimes, but rare acts here in the UK. The reason why they seem to be far more terrifying and concerning than they are - as well as the impact of the media coverage - is that the trials all ended at a similar point. Had these people been convicted at varying times, then the impact of the convictions would have been much diminished. Since they all seem to have been sent down at the same time, it all appears far worse and far more terrifying than it actually is. The end of the trials comes as a result of a quirk of the judicial calendar - and the last thing we want to be doing is making policy that will decide whether people live or die based on any such quirk.

NB: I'm against the death penalty, if you haven't already picked up on that. For a full explanation, see here.