Life

Though we have abolished the death penalty, we have done next to nothing about developing a rational alternative method for dealing with the crime of murder. Life imprisonment, as such, is no better than a makeshift substitute, for it is based on precisely the same legal rationale: namely, that because murderers are, by definition, extremely culpable and extremely dangerous, they deserve to be punished as severely as the law allows and must be put out of the way for ever. A life sentence, however, unli^ a death sentence, is modifiable, andso far as one can tell, it is bein^ and will continue to be, more less modified in the majority cases. The author of this book, wh^ writes under the pseudonym ot 'Zeno', pleaded guilty in 1958 10 what was then classed under tbe Homicide Act as a non-capit3 murder. He served nine years of 3 A