Death penalty is anti-crime tool
Re "Another nail in death penalty's coffin" (Viewpoints, Jan. 8): Bruce Maiman's article supports the American Law Institute's recent decision to abandon its support of the death penalty. It's an interesting article, but leaves unanswered a terribly important question. "Does the death penalty, with all of its alleged imperfections, nevertheless continue to serve as a deterrent to some homicides?"
If you bother to ask any of us who have spent our adult lives in and around the criminal justice system, the answer would be a resounding "You're damned right it does!"
As a young detective sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, I interrogated a number of robbery suspects who admitted to robbing a commercial establishment armed with an unloaded firearm or toy gun. When asked, they rationalized that if they had been armed with a loaded firearm, in the heat of the moment they may have been compelled to shoot and kill the robbery victim, and subsequently be sentenced to death.
There are any number of former retail store clerks out there who are alive and well today, only because the death penalty was in place. A very real deterrent.
– Albert E. Le Bas, Cameron Park
Death penalty is about revenge
Re "Another nail in death penalty's coffin" (Viewpoints, Jan. 8): Thank you for printing Bruce Maiman's explanation of why Californians need to abolish the death penalty. If we are really concerned about victims of violent crime, then we should start using our limited resources in ways that can actually reduce violent crime.
The death penalty has repeatedly been shown not to be a deterrent; it's all about revenge. That may make us feel better, but don't we owe it to ourselves to find real solutions to violent crime? Other countries are way ahead of us on this score. We stand with China, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran in executions worldwide. All other Western democracies, besides us, abolished the death penalty decades ago.
The death penalty may look "tough on crime," but only to the uninformed (and politicians who count on them). It's time to get smart on crime and abolish this outdated, and some would say barbaric, waste of scarce resources.
– Ellen Eggers, Sacramento
Better use for death row dollars
Re "Another nail in death penalty's coffin" (Viewpoints, Jan. 8): I am in complete agreement with the comments made by Bruce Maiman. He could have also stated that ending the death penalty now would save the state $1 billion over five years. The savings would be better spent on education or investigating hundreds of unsolved homicides.
– Greg Wolfe, Sacramento
Another death row perspective
Re "Another nail in death penalty's coffin" (Viewpoints, Jan. 8): I read with interest Bruce Maiman's commentary describing the flaws in the death penalty in California. I would like to point out one other perspective. Family members of a murder victim whose whose [sic] killer was never arrested are haunted by recurring images of death row inmates.
When my brother, Robert Kerr, was killed in 2003 I expected swift justice. I am still waiting for an arrest in my brother's murder, and I am pained beyond words with press coverage of death row appeal trials that plod on indefinitely.
Getting tough on crime might one day mean changing our notion of vengeance to something a little wiser. Getting tough on crime could mean spending limited resources on solving and preventing crime. Get the killers of the streets. Death in prison for the worst of the worst is justice enough for me.
– Judy Kerr, Albany
California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Time to close the coffin
Re "Another nail in death penalty's coffin" (Viewpoints, Jan. 8): After reading the flaws of the California death penalty system listed by Bruce Maiman, I say there are enough nails in the coffin to now bury this failed public policy.
– Nancy Oliveira, San Francisco
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 