Do serious criminals deserve compassion?

If you have committed a serious crime – say murder, rape, paedophilia – do you deserve any compassion from the criminal justice system?

Should the Lockerbie bomber be freed on compassionate grounds?

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, is expected to be released on compassionate grounds.

Eight and half years ago he was jailed for life for the murders of 270 people but now he is terminally ill.