People are wrong to claim the recent deaths of two policewomen should bring about the return of the death penalty.

As a former police officer, having served in both Sussex and West Yorkshire, I have been on both sides of the fence.

My career in West Yorkshire was terminated back in 1985 for a crime that I did not commit. It took me nine years to clear my name in an uncontested appeal in 1994. The Argus covered the story at the time (March 12, 1994).

Even as a serving police officer, I was against the death penalty for the simple reason that you can’t put matters right if a mistake is made.

Modern DNA does not make wrongful convictions impossible, as claimed. DNA does nothing more than prove that the accused was at the scene of the crime.

I can think of some 30 or 40 other cases over the years, and in many of these cases innocent men were kept in prison to protect the legal system from admitting its mistakes.

Stuart Bower, Towers Road, Upper Beeding