w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:

"Bentley said to Craig "Let him have it, Chris"
They still don't know today just what he meant by this?
Craig fired the pistol but was too young to swing,
So the police took Bentley and the very next thing let him dangle.

Bentley had surrendered - he was under arrest -
When he gave Chris Craig that fatal request.
Craig shot Sidney Miles - he took Bentley's word -
The prosecution claimed as they charged them with murder
"Let him dangle"

They say Derek Bentley was easily led -
Well what's that to the woman that Sidney Miles wed?
Though guilty was the verdict and Craig had shot him dead
The gallows were for Bentley and still she never said "Let him dangle!"

Not that many people thought that Bentley would hang
But the word never came, the phone never rang
Outside Wandsworth prison there was horror and hate
As the hangman shook Bentley's hand to calculate his weight - Let him dangle!"

Elvis Costello: "Let him dangle"
From the album: "Spike"

I've often averred that, given the opportunity, I'd be prepared to assist in capital punishment if it was absolutely proven beyond any doubt that the accused was guilty. (and I know, saying's one thing, doing's another.)

But listening, really listening, to Costello's damning tirade against "an eye for an eye" in the lyrics above, I wonder whether in those circumstances - unusually an almost public act of murder - I would have been capable of pulling the lever for someone who didn't actually commit the crime but was charged with it?

Anyone else vehemently for or against?