Ethics and wrong convictions in the case of Tim-othy Evans Essay

e key counterargument asks 'what if they were innocent?'. Wrongful convictions are still evident even in an age where we have the technology to scientifically prove whether one be innocent or guilty, just look at the recent case of Steven Avery (1985-2003) Avery was found innocent after serving 18 years for sexual assault (Making a Murderer, 2015). So consider the amount of wrongful executions that could have potentially taken place from 1735 to 1964 Timothy Evans (1924-1950) was hung at HMP Pentonville for a crime which was later found to be carried out by John Christie (1899-1953) who was then hung for the murder of Evans' daughter (see Seal, 2014). An innocent man, who had not only lost his 13-month-old daughter, had his life taken away from him. It would seem that capital punishment is simply too dangerous, unless of course there is dozens of witnesses, video evidence and a DNA match. Unsurprisingly the case of Tim-othy Evans was a case which pioneered the fight against capital punishment. This concept will be discussed in further detail and heavily scrutinised in Chapter 3 of this dissertation.
Bringing ethics back into contention, many of whom commit serious offences are found to be mentally ill and therefore can be unaware of their actions a number of these offences are cer-tainly not carried out in a malicious nature, more simply a misunderstanding of society. Stafford and Wygant (2005) revealed that "77.5% of a sample of 80 defendants in a Mental Health Court were found to be incompetent to proceed to trail" (Walker et al, 201626), therefore if the bulk are deemed not suitable for questioning, we can speculate that the majority would not have under-stood their own actions whilst committing a crime. Cases as such would benefit more so from a more rehabilitative approach, teaching the offender to integrate into society as opposed to pun-ishing them. From a personal perspective, I do believe that if we were to bring back capital pun-ishments in todays society, then crime would reduce significantly due to the fear of being exe-cuted in a nature unknown to our generation. However, I do acknowledge that often crimes are committed in the heat of the moment (sometimes a result of one's social surroundings) whereby the consequences of actions are not considered, it is merely a case of the benefits of the crime outweighing the potential costs.
As the pressure on capital punishment rose during the latter part of the 1700s, there became a need for a new form of punishment. One which would end the "physical confrontation between the sovereign and the condemned man" (Foucault, 197573). After all, how can society legitimately undersmSimeon Lord are amongst a vast list of names who became successful following their sentence, they went on to become an entrepreneur, fleet operator and a magistrate respectively (Beckett, 2012183). Transportation to Australia proved to tackle the problem of crime from an alternative angle and as you can see from those examples, proved to be efficient when dealing with criminals by