The Cauldron of Vengeance and Deathmaker

In memory of Larry Fitzgerald, Texas Dept of Criminal Justice spokesman


First, I 'think' I am still a supporter of capital punishment. I have spent years on death penalty forums arguing in favour of it, rolled out many blog posts and even created a website that gathers records of executions that happened here in Wales hundreds of years ago. I'm a tad on the ghoulish side, I openly admit this but allow me to get back to the 'think' part of my opening.
Nobody on earth can be 100% either way regarding killing in pursuit of justice. I have met many (via forums) who claim to be fully pro death or anti and yet often it only takes a minor detail to push someone the other way. Might be the inmate on death row has murdered a child, a crime so heinous to make even the more liberal of folk wave a noose in anger. Perhaps a wretched soul has had their innocence come to light after their appointment with the deathmaker (famous, historic cases shows us this has been so), and is a potent force in stopping the fry circus get more supporters into its camp.
Pro and anti are as common and varied as flower petals, and much like petals, it can take only the gentlest of wind to change direction. I myself am in constant struggle to find where justice sits with me, and to wear the shrouded hood of death with at least a pinch of grace and honesty, one must answer the question: are we a civilised race?

And the depressing truth of it all is, that I do not think we are. Not by a long shot. Heck by looking at humanity through ragged, bloody history we are able to see slivers of the soul in all naked savagery. Stripped down, laid bare, the barbed folds of life complete. Twisted mechanics o in all its suicidal, craven glory. We are not purehearts, or saints by nature.
Certainly we like to think ourselves as kind, generous, loving, open minded race but life will cure one from that thinking all too soon. giving way to uncomfortable fact. Humans are a selfish, cruel, greedy bunch. Self obsessed to the point of indifference toward others. And this isn't entirely wicked, indeed its vital for self preservation because a honest to God, pure pacifist wouldn't be long for the world (especially this world) if they were uncompromising in his or her pacifism. So a little cold is good for the soul, and I wish folk would recognise it.

The March of the Purehearts


Listen, im not saying humans are damned to hell and locked into a terrible future. Corruption and bad intentions do not dominate every waking heart and neither do I believe this planet lost to hope. If we were swamped by a ocean of never ending evil, the world would have eaten itself long ago. There is a future, there is change for the better but there are more thorns than saints (afterall saints need courage and that seems to be in short supply these days), and the world is never going to turn into some kind of utopia where sh!t tastes like sugar and nobody hunts unicorns.

Justice for April Jones

No fun in the sun here

Yesterday the wretch that is Mark Bridger was given a whole life sentence for the murder of 5 year old April Jones. He will die in prison. And you know what? Dai Jakes is satisfied with that result. Long time readers of this blog will know by now that it is a supporter of the hangman and scaffold but for once there is relief that death will be a very long time coming (providing the Scum That Is Bridger doesn't hit upon some razor blades and a death wish.)
To begin with, he will be a Category A prisoner stuck in a prison within a prison with up to seven others on his disgusting kind. Single cage, monitored 24/7. Just one hour exercise, five days a week, clothes taken off him every evening, meals eaten in a cage after coming all the way from a kitchen (so you can imagine what they will be like when he receives them.) And certainly nobody will want to talk to the Scum That Is Bridger. He will forever be within a shout of the general population shouting out what they will do to him when they get him and chances are someone WILL get to him (they did Huntley and Whiting.) He will never be safe, never be able to trust anyone, never have a friend and best of all the Scum That Is Bridger will live in fear always until the end of his days. One way or another he will suffer every minute of ever day for this vile crime.

Compared to all of this, death would be so very easy.

Rest in peace April fach, justice has been done. Hedd, perfaith hedd x

No More Light Of Day?

So the European Courts have told the UK we can extradite suspected terrorists to America. Very kind of them, thank you EU im sure. (Seriously do we really need Brussels to give their approval on everything?) The newspapers are covering the main story so Dai Jake's Book now looks at what kind of 'jug' (jail) these men are headed to. And bad luck chaps, judging by where other terrorists are sent in the United States it looks like ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado will be your new home. A place nicknamed 'the Alcatraz of the Rockies' and described as a cleaner version of hell. Nice.
Cells are single only and windows are 4 inches by 4ft which makes it tough for inmates to know exactly where they are within the jail because they can only see the roof and sky. 23 hours lock up and the hour exercise is in what is described as a concrete pit resembling an empty swimming pool. They are held in near total solitary confinement, rarely do inmates see each other. So a lot different to our prisons where most spend all day outside their cells mixing all they want.
Of course we are getting some people now telling us that Supermax is 'inhumane' and cruel but in Dai Jakes opinion its not. Sure its hard but it isn't supposed to be easy. this is prison, not a country club. Keep this in mind: its not easy getting sent to a Supermax, its designed for the worst of the worst, extremely violent prisoners who have killed other inmates and guards. You won't find any street muggers or people who have not paid their fines in them. You'd think they would welcome the silence to read holy books and think about the horror their crimes have had on innocent people. If ever I found myself in jail id be begging for solitary confinement to be away from other lags and their (presumably) filthy habits and smells.
Anyway enjoy your stay lads, send us a postcard from Colorado, I hear its nice this time of year.

Lenient Sentences and Sicker Paragraphs

The story about 29 year old Gemma McCluskie, an actress whose headless body was found in London is terribly sad, and my thoughts go out to her family and friends. Nobody should have to meet death in such a grusome way and so young. One would think most people would feel the same and no doubt the saner ones do (I haven't lost ALL hope yet) but there are also twisted individuals who think this tragedy is comical. They are merrily creating sick 'jokes' and posting them all over the internet, on joke sites and in news comments and frighteningly very few have pulled these creeps up on their vile antics.
Who killed compassion? When did it wither on the vine and dry with the sand? Some folk have totally and utterly lost any thread of humanity. Why on earth has a brutal murder become the subject of such hilarity? Are we so desensitised to violence and horrors that it has become acceptable to poke fun at the headless body of a young woman?


Justice be done. Or we will be...

I believe a lot of blame can be pointed at our lenient sentencing. Afterall if the State thinks a crime warrants a lenient sentence, the public believe the crime to be not too bad. Five years for rape? Tweleve years for murder? Those crimes cant be that heinous then can they? If, as the Anti death penalty mob are fond of saying, a country killing its murderers are simply saying its okay to kill, then surely one handing out soft punishment is doing the same?
And this allows the rot to seep deeper into society because we start to see violent crime as almost trivial. Go back to Victorian times, or even as recent as the 1940/50s. Crime was dealt with much more severly then than it is now and as a consequence of that people respected the law of the land. Id even go so far as suggest folk had sympathy when their fellow man suffered at the hands of thugs and murderers. Why? Because back in those distant days, killing somebody meant you would recieve the full weight of justice. People knew it was a serious offence when they witnessed murderers hang for it.
Fastforward to 2012 and we are seeing killers freed before they've even had time to grow a decent beard! As a result of this, murder doesn't send the same shockwaves through towns and cities anymore so idiots on the internet cannot see the harm in posting tasteless 'jokes'. And there is no use being angry at these trolls, we have done this to ourselves.
The way to save humanity from turning in on itself and getting warped out of recognition is withdrawing the woollen mitten we currently use to punish serious crime, and replace it with something that will actually put a dent in it. Do this and respect will fall into place by its own motion.

Death of the Death Penalty?

How many murderers are executed every year in the United States these days? Forty? Fifty? I think I can safely say that its certainly not over sixty. If I was an Anti Death Penalty supporter I would be pretty happy with those figures. With that rate they soon won't be strapping anyone to a gurney, and as less are indeed getting sentenced to death by American courts this is exactly whats happening. Its easier for opponents to get some thing abolished if support is low and surely it must be if a mere fifty or so killers are sent to the death chamber.
Let me put it like this: if I was the ruler of a country and one of my aides told me, "look we might as well scrap hanging criminals because we only execute fifty a year anyway," I would probably go along with it. Its half hearted, and bordering on lenient, so why bother continuing it Id think to myself. Its almost guaranteed that it won't deter any future murderers if deterence is the reasoning behind capital punishment. (I personally believe it shouldn't be and that punishment is the sole reason).
Of course if the USA want to be rid of the death penalty, then they are on the correct path because the numbers will keep dropping and dropping until....well they end up with no death rows. One only has to look at Britains history with capital punishment for proof of what I say. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we hanged people like there was no tomorrow. Even common thieves and sheep rustlers were not spared the walk to the gallows in our enthusiasm to bring lawbreakers to justice. Heck audiences flocked to public executions like rugby matches today (numbers ranged from 30,000 to an incredible 70,000), and stalls sold foor and drink to the ghoulish crowds. It was we Brits who turned hanging into a science when William Marwood developed the 'long drop' and Albert Pierrepoint perfected it. None executed with more zest than the United Kingdom.


But for how long?

And look at us today. The number of death sentences, or more importantly the number actually carried out, began falling in the early 1900's until in 1969 we abolished it completely. Our last hangings were in 1964. So you can see how abolishment creeps up, almost without the general public (especially the majority who take no interest in the subject) ever realising it. I believe its happening in America right now. According to statistics online the number of executions as well as newly imposed death sentences slumped to record low levels in 2011. Also the governor of Illinois put a stop to executions in his state and don't think for one minute that other states won't look at this and think of following it. Once the rot (some call it enlightenment) starts its hard to stop it spreading. We Brits know this and if the Americans have any desire to carry on executing its murderers they would do well to learn from our mistake. (Mistake or victory depending which side of the fence you stood of course).
Could it be that Americans (or its movers and shakers) have been actually listening to European countries when they keep on saying that the death penalty is barbaric and uncivilised? Americans don't like to be seen taking the lead from others, they like to be leaders, and my guess is they have looked around at all of the countries where execution has been scrapped and it has made them uncomfortable being one of the few left who carry it out. Especially when you consider the company they are in. (And I would like to make this clear here, I personally don't regard places like Iran as backward but it seems that some in the Anti death penalty movement do because they enjoy snootily informing us that Americans are in doubtful company when it comes to executions).
We must remember that the United States is a very young country compared to places like Britain, and IF it truly is civilised to abolish the death penalty as folks like Amnesty keep telling us then it will take them that much longer to discover this. European and Middle Eastern countries have been puttig people to death since before Jesus turned water into wine and are not exactly new to the subject. America is. And this is why I really do believe that in something like ten to fifteen years there will be no more executions there.

** If any readers are interested in chatting with Dai Jakes about the subject, you can find him on the ProDeathPenalty .com forum where he is a regular poster. Pop in and say, it really is a friendly place.

Swing To Skin

In the news today its been reported that a lot of parents are in favour of letting the cane return to schools, and as someone who has been caned (on more than occasion) I am able to offer a first hand (no pun intended) experience of this type of corporal punishment.
I attended comrehensive school from 1981 to 1988, and corporal punishment was used freely for 6 of those years. You could be caned for any number of different offences, and they didn't have to be that serious either. (Although to be fair, if it was at the lighter end of trouble you could get lucky and be let off at the last minute). I recieved the cane ('cansen' in Welsh) on four occasions and it wasn't limited to the traditional six of the best. My 'sentences' were 4 strokes, 6 strokes, 8 strokes and 6 strokes, all over the palm of my hand. (I also recieved the 'slipper' across my behind in both junior and comprehensive but I'll stick to caning here).


Let me read your palm boy

excerpt from my story, 'Iron Abacus Oiled in Spit':
'Boy! Get in here NOW!'
'Yes sir.'
I hated standing outside the headmasters office/orang utangs lair, waiting for the cane. It was like awaiting death by electrocution, and just before the cane fell the caped clown would ask your religious denomination.
'Catholic?'
'No sir.'
Presbyterian?'
'No sir.'
'Methodist then?'
'I really couldn't say sir. Whenever I think of religion I bring bile...'
'Six of the BEST!' (Six lashes land on my palm)
And off I'd go to sting and simmer the rest of the break, and sit under a tree to immerse myself in more poetry.
(Whispers)