There's that. Similarly when people say it should be the death penalty for the murderers of children. Why is a child's life 'worth' more than anyone else's? What age would be the cut off, so to speak, for a murderer to be executed? And so on.

But more widely, if the taking of life is morally and ethically wrong, then why does it become right if the state does it?

A good comment made on TV this morning was to compare the UK to the USA, even taking into account the huge population numerical difference you still can't get around the fact that in a country where the police are armed as a matter of course, and several states have the death penalty, you still see on average 160 police murders each year.

So of course, it fixes everything.

From your wording and avatar can we assume your not a fan of Norm

Apparently a recent survey of 50,000 police officers revealed that over 80% did NOT want to be routinely armed on duty, I think we should leave it to those that have to do the job to have a final say on it.

No. Nothing I have ever seen, heard or read about will convince me that state-sponsored murder is justified in any way.

Nor does this case support the routine arming of police officers, just to head that one off before we get there.

I agree. It doesn't mean the state should kill people when it has another option. If this guy was killed by police during a shootout believe me I wouldn't shed a tear and would probably feel a little better that scum like him is out of this world. But when someone is in the custody of the state and we have another option, then the state shouldn't kill people.

For morale reasons and also in case the state gets the wrong person.

For me absolutely no, for the reasons that others have put quite eloquently on here.

So, does the panel think that cop killer Harry Roberts, still in chokey since 1966, has had a better or worse punishment than being snuffed out? He was sentenced to life a fe w months after the suspension of the death penalty. His "minimum term" of 30 years was actually up in 1996, but repeated attempts at parole since then have fallen on stony ground.

In jail since Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup, think about that. Hard to say without being actually in his predicament; and presumably he always has had the option of topping himself as his own alternative; but I think being a prisoner for 46 years and counting is, from my perspective, a fate much worse than death.

Especially when compared to the eight British police officers murdered on-duty since 1990

The death penalty proves nothing. It does not act as a deterrent as can clearly be seen by the murder rates in the good ol US of A.
Indeed in Victorian Britain when we did hang for trivial offenses it hardly acted as a deterrent. For example we used to hang for pick pocketing. Crowds would gather to see the condemned be hung. Whilst the crowds watched on as the pick pockets were hung, the new generation of pick pockets would be hard at work in the crowd. Futile business and as has been said a state that resorts to murder in this way is not civilised.
What happened yesterday was awful and amounted to simple slaughter of two innocent women regardless of the profession they chose. We must never resort to capital punishment again. I solves and prevents nothing.

We can't have the death penalty here ( thank goodness ) because we are in the EU and all countries ( unless I am wrong ) in the EU don't have it.