'IF PEOPLE WANT THE DEATH PENALTY BACK THEY SHOULD HAVE IT' Judge calls for referendum.

Byline: RORY TEVLIN

THE public should be allowed to decide if the death penalty should be re-introduced, a top judge has insisted.

Former High Court President, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, believes politicians should look again at the possibility of the death penalty for some murders, such as those committed in an armed robbery.

He said: "The Government should look at it - then if people want it they should have it. I am not totally in favour of it, but it should be revisited. It would have to be for specific offences.

"If people arm up and go out to rob and decide to take out anyone who gets in their way, they should pay the price. It should be a matter for each individual case."

The death penalty was effectively banned by its removal from the constitution in a 2001 referendum - and another referendum is needed to bring it back.

Mr Johnson believes that murder does not affect people the way it used to in Ireland.

"When I was growing up if a murder took place there were headlines in the press for a week. Now no one notices. Murder is no longer shocking anybody.

"People have far less respect for each other than they used to."

The former judge said Irish people are no longer shockable and he blames sex and violence in advertising and the media for people's relaxed attitudes.

But he said he would be worried about wrongful convictions and that it is difficult to be absolutely sure that a person is guilty of murder.

He added: "If the death penalty existed in Britain, the Birmingham Six would have been executed."

The abolition of the death penalty is required to get EU membership.

Limerick man Michael Manning, 25, was the last person to be executed in Ireland in 1954 when he was hanged for murder.