MR SCOTT (letters, June 26) writing in favour of the death penalty claims that it is an effective deterrent to murder.

However, the fact is that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent.

A United Nations report published in 2002, found that there was no evidence to suggest that capital punishment was any more effective than other sanctions such as life imprisonment.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1975 and the murder rate has dropped by 42 per cent since then.

In contrast, the US State of Texas has executed more than 300 people, the majority poor and from ethnic minorities, since 1973 but this has had no obvious effect on the murder rate there.

Mr Scott is also concerned about miscarriages of justice leading to the killing of an innocent person. And so he should be. Since 1973, more than 100 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA as new evidence comes to light to challenge their original convictions.

Closer to home, only last month, George Kelly who was executed in Britain in 1953 had his conviction quashed. Unfortunately for George Kelly this was 50 years too late because execution is irrevocable and mistakes cannot be rectified.

As well as being a cruel and inhuman punishment that demeans all who are involved, the death penalty has been shown not to be an effective deterrent to violent crime and murder.

It is also prone to error with deadly and irreversible consequences.

That is why capital punishment has no place in the 21st century.

Dr Chris Eley

Death Penalty Campaign

Co-ordinator

Swindon & Marlborough Group

Amnesty International

Prospect Place