I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but I can't help it...

Punisher: Most of the population of Australia do not descend from convicts. The few people who do are usually proud of it, after all, it gives you an interesting story to tell, and means you can take part in the First Fleet reenactment stuff on Australia Day (you get to go on the rebuilt tall ships).

I don't know whether any of my ancestors were convicts. It's possible, and I don't think I'd have a problem with it if they were.

Having convict ancestry, or not, is not the reason Australia got rid of the Death Penalty. We got rid of it for the same reason many other countries did: the majority of the population thought it was barbaric.

Descended from a penal colony, from murderers perphaps, your view on the death penalty is understandable.

i like your essay on the death penalty very very much. It's going down as one of my favourite stories. Very thought-provoking and intelligently argued. I always opposed the death penalty anyway, for a whole variety of reasons. But you raised questions that definetely strengthened my belief that capital punishment is a babarbic act that cannot be justified under any conditions.

Once again, congratulations. This is a quality essay with (in my opinion) quality conclusions.
I like the distinction drawn between the murderer deserving to die, and our right to kill her.

*Applause* Yay, finally a view on the death penalty which is more than just a bunch of melodramatic rhetoric. The totally un-political way you treated this issue is commendable, especially considering that you still managed to make your point. So, it is possible to write a persuasive essay without being intellectually dishonest, after all.

I agree totally: the phrase 'social hygeine' scares the hell out of me.
I'm in the process of writing a short piece of fiction in which the adolescent criminal gang I created in 'Young Guns' take on the US 'Justice' system. Watch this profile!