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People who are potentially dangerous to society, if it can be proven that their actions beyond any reasonable doubt could have potentially killed other individuals, are many times a lot more dangerous than a single individual that has commited a murder. It should not be the ultimate decision of a politician to prolong a sentence. Judges and jurors are the professionals, who should handle these matters. I believe that life under all circumstances should mean life.
H Ahll UK

No, Killers should not be returned to society. The question is, after a decade or more is the convict still a killer? Some undoubtedly are. Some not. The Home Secretary cannot possibly have the experience to make the decisions he does - he must rely on reports and on politics. What is really deciding Myra Hindley's fate? I suspect it is some briefing somewhere full of cleverness and devoid of love.
Spring Roberts, UK

The case of Myra Hindley is special, as she cannot be released for her own safety. It has been stated on many occasions that if she were ever released, the families of the dead children will see her off. Keeping her in prison gets round any messy murder charges for them. Generally though, if we cannot have the death penalty, life should mean life.
Ian Mellors, England

I agree that if prison is punishment then at the end of a sentence an offender should be free to go, unless they can be shown to be a threat to society. In the case of Myra Hindley I'm afraid that the question of her release is a moot point. Where would she go? Because of the enormous emotional response to her case it is unlikely she would be allowed to live anywhere if she was released.
Julia Knight, UK

Redemption is a possibility which should not be withheld. The victim or the victim's family may never forgive, but perhaps society can if there is reason to believe that one who commits such an atrocity may regain his humanity.
Anon, USA

Once sentenced to life, the onus should on the criminal to prove that they no longer represent a danger to the public. The cases must be treated on an individual basis, not as the sweeping generalization represented by this question. However, a guiding principle must be to ensure that murder remains treated as a uniquely vile offense and to ensure that taking somebody's life remains sharply distinct from taking their property.
Stuart Slade, USA

If murderers have served their sentences and have paid the price of years in prison then they should be given councelling and slowly reintroduced into society. We all have only one life and so giving someone else another chance is something in which we should invest carefully.
Lorna Matthews, Ireland

If a convicted killer is to spend the rest of his/her life in jail, what does it matter whether that period is 30 days or 30 years ? We should re-introduce the death penalty for extreme cases, such as Hindley, Sutcliffe and Rosemary West.
Eric Mayne, UK

If a prisoner is no longer a threat to society and has paid their debt, they should be freed. The judge in sentencing the offender will take into account the circumstances of the crime.
J.D.Fitz-Patrick, UK

It's impossible to generalise because the circumstances surrounding any given killing vary so much. In many ways I feel that judges should have a great deal more discretion in sentencing than they currently do, from letting the murderer go, to imposing a genuinely life sentence.
Therion Ware, Malaysia

If you pre-meditate and take a life then you yourself should serve life! It is easy for alot of us to comment on wether people should or should not stay in prison for murder, most of us are not and will never be in the position of the vistim, victim's family or the murderer. Each case is different, however for the start it should be stated - LIFE MEANS LIFE - and not change in anyway until the sentence is served.
Mrs Brown, England

Being from a country and a state that still seeks an eye for an eye, a live broadcast of the execution should be shown on television but only if preceded by police video of the crime scene and of the victim, thus reminding all of the murder and the consequences that follow.
Larry C. Cook, U.S.A.

Killers should not be let back into society, their victims don't have another chance at life, why should they. They know the old saying, "Don't do the crime if, you can't do the time!!"
R A Nunn, USA

By wilfully taking the life of someone else, killers have forfeited their rights to live amongst decent human beings. What guarantees are there, that such barbaric behaviour will not resurface, when killers are let out.
Eric Allen, Jamaica

When is it right for politics to rule above the law, by now she must have been rehabiliated or what use is prison .If you are not going to have death as a punishment then we as a society must expect killers to can change as can anybody.
Winston, UK

Convicted prisoners - even murders must have hope of release if they will have nothing to lose and the prison system will be convulsed with violence. Its foolish to be led by the mob who don't understand the ramifications of the "life means life" school of thought.
Jim Cinespie, USA

Whether an individual should be released depends on the circumstances in which the death occurs. Surely, someone who unintentionally causes a death by negligence should be treated more leniently than someone who tortures and kills children? There can be no one rule which says that ALL killers should be treated in a particular way as it would inevitably cause injustices by being unduly harsh or lenient in some cases.
The other point is that the time a person spends in jail should be set by the courts and not, as in the case of Hindley, by a politician. Britain is one of the few non-totalitarian countries in the world where a person's prison term is decided by a politician, in our case the Home Secretary. This leads to a suspicion that some people are, in effect, political prisoners and this is not a good thing in a democratic country.
Neil Tonks, UK

Pre-meditated murderers should know that the consequences for their actions will be severe and those consequences should mean LIFE in prison.
Raymond Doyle, USA

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