I was opposed to the death penalty until I was shook up by the murder of a friend of a friend shortly after I got out of college. But after a time as a newspaper reporter covering courts in Louisiana and East Texas I realized there was no way a black man accused of murder was going to be treated the same as a white man accused of the same sort of murder. For that matter, a poor white man would not be treated as "fairly" as a wealthy white man (or his kids). And considering how the odds are stacked against a condemned prisoner after his conviction, particularly in Texas, the fact that the state of Texas has been forced to admit that more than a half-dozen men sent to death row were innocent should be enough for us to suspend the death penalty if for no other reason than to make sure that an innocent accused would not be put to death due to a judicial error. But then comes a serial killer like Kenneth McDuff, who snatches young women off the street, rapes and kills them, or a racist like William King who's proud of dragging a black man to death behind his pickup truck. They make a pretty persuasive case for putting 'em down ...
I think we're fooling ourselves if we don't admit there is a popular demand for revenge and retribution. But recent polls have shown that even bloodthirsty Texans might support suspension of the death penalty if there were a provision for life without parole in state prisons. (Life in Texas prisons means 40 years, and a convict can get parole after serving one-third of that. In fact, one of the reasons Kenneth McDuff was paroled to kill again was to make room for all those drug offenders that were filling up the prisons. But I digress...) Prosecutors in Texas oppose attempts to legislate life without parole because they think juries would stop sending people to death row if they had that option.
If we did away with capital punishment, we still would see black, Latino and poor white murderers sent away for life while the sons of bankers would get probation for voluntary manslaughter, but that's another thread.
Lastly, I think executions should be televised. If the state is taking lives, then the people have the right, if not the obligation, to observe it. The first few televised executions would attract high ratings, but unfortunately when they became routine the networks would start pressuring the legislatures and Congress to bring back drawing and quartering to get the numbers back up.
-- Jim Cullen
Tom L wrote:
>
>On the death penalty. I don't believe in it; never have never will. Also,
>it's a subject like abortion that I don't take peoples "opinions" on too
>seriously. I mean everybodies against abortion until their "kid" has to have
>one---then all bets are off. The same way with Law&Order everybodies for it
>until their relative, friend or pal is in serious trouble---then again, all
>bets are off.
>
>Your email pal,
>
>Tom L.
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