Writing at New English Review, Dalrymple examines the vexed question of capital punishment, arguing that while some crimes are so heinous that no other penalty seems adequate, the death penalty remains so brutal and error-prone that it resists easy justification.
On the matter of capital punishment, as on many other questions, I face in two directions at once. On the one hand, I think that there are some crimes so heinous that no other punishment is appropriate; on the other, that it is so brutal and dehumanising that it should never be employed.