I CAN agree with Jean Taylor in the case of her daughter who was murdered.

These sort of murders are pre-meditated and the people who carry them out deserve to lose their own lives.

But if someone was getting beaten up, fearing for his own life, he might pull out a knife and stab his attacker who might die. So he has murdered someone.

I have met quite a lot of people who got life for killing other people and, believe it or not, most of them were really nice blokes. Their killings were spur of the moment crimes, and most certainly wouldn’t deserve to hang.

Anyone who can plan a murder and carry it through deserves to die.

But then people have been hanged who shouldn’t have been – it’s not as cut-and-dried as it looks.

P HOWARD, Brome Place, Headington