Todays criminal justice is a joke. There are too leanient at giving sentences, and the thing that makes me more mad is that once in jail, the prisoners think of it like a youth club - they get TV, Snooker tables, they have a laugh etc.

It shouldn't be like that at all, especially not TV's in their cells etc.
On the topic of this thread though, Its not right for those two to be on new identites. There was a known criminal in my town with a new identity a few years ago, but after a few months and many threats made, they moved the person on. It kind of shows we aint dumb and we shouldn't be giving criminals the right to live and work in our society where they could strike again.

Mary Bell was also given a new identity. Some of you may not be familiar with her.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bell

May be the should have hanged for the crime?

I'm sure a lot of the general public would go with that... an eye for an eye and all that.

And that achieves?

An eye for an eye only makes everyone blind - Mahatma Ghandi

I'm with you Sticks! ... I would have ripped Red a new one for comment like that... "eye for an eye" OMG.....

but you quoted Ghandi ... lol nice work

What they did was evil no question, however you have to ask yourself would Venables and Thompson have murdered James Bulger had they come from stable homes. As with a lot of deliquents from broken homes with violent Fathers they fail to distinguish between right and wrong. So the two boys' parents are just as much to blame for the death of James Bulger due to their failure as parents.

These two obviously have mental illness and borderline personality disorder. The prison system messes young kids up even more. It's an extremely sad situation, especially if they came from extremely abusive families. It all fits. These kids didn't even have a chance.

You would have to be EXTREMELY certain that they weren't a danger to society. I would say, keep them locked up until they were at least in their 30s. Getting out sooner, they are still growing, and that could make the outside world even worse for them and could make them end up straight back into prison. That isn't to say that if they were released in their 30s that they couldn't end up straight back into prison. But at least by your 30s, you're a person who has reached full set adulthood.

It's just extremely sad, and these cases are heartbreaking. I'm not sure if these two feel any remorse and anything period for that matter. They sound like extremely broken individuals with an extremely screwed up home life. Their families should also be locked up!

If they are extremely mentally debilitated, they may never be ready to see the outside world again. Who knows? Perhaps mental illness runs in the family, thus ensuring that their families were going to be abusive and destructive from the get go.

What these two did was inexcusable. But a ten-year-old is not rational. The brain is not fully developed. That's just a fact. They still need to pay for what they did though. What punishment is enough, I haven't the answer.

I'm not against giving them new identities if they ever get out though. They will most surely get killed by someone for what they did. If they pay their debt to society, they at least deserve to make a fresh start without being attacked for something they did when they were ten-years-old. They should probably just leave the country.

Not sure if this is the same baby, but the 2boys that stole a baby from the supermarket were released.

They beat the baby, threw bricks at it and eventually left it on a train track thats what i thought anyway.

The animals that killed James Bulger should have been put to death.

Justice by means of the death penalty leaves nobody blind as we only take the lives of those who have chosen to kill another human being, they pay the price for justice with there own life.

Simple, but it dont solve every problem, not that the death penalty claims to either.
However it does achieve more than the woefully inept procedure we have now, namely these animals being set free within 15 years!!! (oringinally the judge wished them 8 years in a secure hospital) It solves the problem of these killers being able to kill again, like so many so called lifers HAVE killed again after serving there LIFE sentance.

15 years for taking away 70+ years from a healthy 2 year old boy, and now 2 more heartless killers walk our streets, they could be your neibour (we have no right to know that).. till these bas*ards kill again.

Now how many would rather be alive and blind rather than perfectly sighted and seeing yourself or a loved one snatched, tortured and brutally killed and slung away like garbage on a railway line?

Can anybody forgive those that murder a loved one?

I'm sure they can, I could too,

its just I'd rather do my forgiving for them at there own funeral.
Better late, than never... I'm sure Ghandi said that too

Angiebabe, take an extra dosage, will ya?

They were ten. You want 10-year-olds put to death? :rolleyes:

Yes, killing another human being is going to bring another one back. Justice does not mean "evening the score". You simply don't seem to be mature enough to handle this topic. That's not justice.

pretty much 2 wrongs dont make a right you may feel better for a day or 2 but you still wont have your baby.

That's where I live.

Anyway, I think they should both be tortured.

thats made me feel uncomfortable!
10 or not, how can they even THINK of "KILLING" a person!
i mean they are 10, they must have been possesed or something!

you absolutely right! the mother of the person they killed will wake up in the morning and not be able to say good moring to her kids!

I know its no excuse at all but apprently they had seen a movie that influenced them and when kids are young they take in things like that hence the reason for age restrictions on movies and games.

Don't know how you could still.

How many kids come from broken homes? How many kids have seen a horror movie?.... How many of them enjoy killing a 2year old boy For FUN?!?! Our system is all out the human rights of those that do the crime! Just think if 2 evil thugs take away your loved on! The law protect too much evil while the good have to keep on suffering...

Lol dont shoot the messanger lol.

i was just saying what i knew and like i said its no excuse. Just what i have heard about it

I remember reading that one of Bulgers killers had totally reformed and was now a genuinely upstanding citizen.

It bring back the old question of whether prison exists to punish or to rehabilitate.

The Lynch mob are out in force again I see! It really saddens me that people are talking about hanging ten year olds! Almost as much as it saddened me about that little boy dying the way he did.

Anyone seen Boy A? Its supposed to be based on the bulger case, sad really really sad. You treat people like animals from the day they are born they're gonna behave like animals!

isn't hilarious ... there calling for death penalty for children. Don't dare argue against them or you'll be seen as supporting murders.... It's mind blowing how reductive some of these positions are. Everything is so black and white when you couldn't be a$$ed thinking about it and your motivated more by hate rather than making a difference. They want to copy a US criminal sentencing policy... hard on crime!! rah rah rah!! hehe mean while the US has 1 out of every 130 behind bars....well over 2 milion.. Lol yeah that works.

I think people who scream about harder sentences are motivated more by the prospect of wagging their fingers at the world from the moral high ground rather than doing the hard yards by coming up with a real solution. "Tough on crime" has been tried over and over again.

They were 10!! ... they were idiots and they were damaged. But that's too mush hard work for you to get your head around so you reduce it to "they are evil". This speaks greater about you than it does them. What's the solution andyman... did you want them murdered?...are you hungry for blood? Do you agree with Angiebabe how wants them killed ..."eye for an eye" but on another said that under NO circumstance should anyone ever take another person's life.

Most children who come from broken abusive homes, become criminals, and serial killers. Yes. Equating seeing horror movies, with being abused sadistically by your parents, just shows you're not mature to be discussing this. 10-year-olds do not have the brain of an adult. It's that simple.

Yes. Go torture and abuse them like their parents. Your mentality is the same as those who are serial killers. You don't torture 10-year-olds. Jesus!

I'm with you Ange. I've previously said in this thread that I wouldn't like to be in the position of making the decision on how to punish those boys, because I couldn't do it without letting emotion get involved, and the people who have to make that decision must be able to make it reasonably.

Angiebabe, I can't believe a mother would support killing children - no matter what their crime was.