AS much as there is a sense of anguish and frustration over Indonesia's uncompromising wish to execute Australian drug traffickers there are people who believe these traffickers knew the risks.
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There are people who also believe the death penalty should be revived.
A senior Tasmanian politician once said, many years ago, that governments would never put the death penalty to a referendum - because it might pass, although that would not be the case now.
So who and what to believe? Most Australians don't support the death penalty anymore according to opinion polls. The last poll to reflect majority support was held back in the early 1990s.
If you are unsure, and at the same time angry at how lenient our justice system can be, it is worth reflecting on simple facts. No matter how luxurious it is sometimes portrayed, incarceration is no picnic.
The death penalty is the difference between a civilised society and the primitive world of brutal extremism. It is the difference between humanity and barbarity. If we support the death penalty we have no right to condemn the murderous and perverted system of summary justice practiced by organisations such as Islamic State.
Yes, war involves killing, but then it becomes an issue as to whether a particular "war" is necessary and just.
Tasmania put to death its first felon in 1830 when Mary McLaughlan was hung for infanticide. Our last hanging involved serial killer Frederick Thompson in 1946.
Indonesia is unlikely to bend to the outcry in Australia over the Bali Nine. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will most likely face an Indonesian a firing squad, and soon.
Nevertheless, we should continue trying to convince our good northern neighbours that the death penalty is all that separates a modern civilisation from the past, and medieval barbarity.