To the Editor:
Re “Justices Approve Execution Drug in a 5-to-4 Vote” (front page, June 30):
Our system of capital punishment is racist, expensive and geographically inconsistent. And every once in a while, we condemn innocent people to death row.
Yes, the crimes before us are heinous. Yes, we want the perpetrators to suffer in proportion to the suffering they caused—that’s very understandable. The problem is that the system doesn’t work. It never will.
Why? Because human beings make mistakes, and sometimes these mistakes are just as heinous as the original horrors, or even more so because they bear the label of justice.
DAWN O’LEARY
Portland, Ore.
Note from KBJ: Most arguments against capital punishment, including this one, are actually arguments against punishment. Since it's absurd to think that we can (or should) dispense with punishment, the arguments accomplish nothing. Many people who oppose capital punishment say that death, of all punishments, is special. Okay; then you should be willing to support any punishment as long as the perpetrator is allowed to live. This includes life imprisonment in solitary confinement, life imprisonment with hard labor, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, daily torture, and so on. If capital punishment is ever deemed unconstitutional, you can be sure that abolitionists will move on to the next-harshest punishment, such as life imprisonment with hard labor, and then the next, such as life imprisonment without parole, and then the next, such as solitary confinement. What these people really want is not an end to capital punishment, but an end to harsh treatment. It will be the death of us all.
