There is evidence to suggest that in recent times people in our society increasingly allow their emotions rather than rational thinking to regulate their behaviour on matters of criminal justice. For example, some lawyers conducted a public agitation in court to prevent counsel being made available to the accused in the Justice Ambepitya murder trial. The denial of counsel is totally against the principles of natural justice, and it was totally against the ethics of lawyering to conduct such a campaign, said Presidential Counsel Vijaya Wickramaratne when he recently addressed a seminar in Kandy on “Crime and Justice.” The present popular demand for the reintroduction of the death penalty as a solution to control murder too was not a very reasoned response, he noted. He pointed out that there was no evidence from countries such as US where the death penalty was used to suggest that capital punishment caused the murder rate to fall. Read More>>