How about the Irish option?

Submitted by Malcolm (Australia), Oct 25, 2011 at 05:15

Ireland had a different method of dealing with terrorists. During their civil war, captured IRA terrorists were routinely sentenced to death. However, the sentence was not carried out at once, but only in response to a fresh IRA atrocity. In effect, they were hostages to their comrades' good behaviour.

So how about a different approach? "Release your prisoner, or we start executing ours. We have lots to draw on."

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