Don’t Kill the Death Penalty

In a recent letter to the editor criticizing the implementation of the death penalty the writer asks the rhetorical question “Why do we think that killing people who kill demonstrates that killing is wrong?” What the writer apparently does not understand is that the death penalty is not a demonstration project. I actually partially agree with the ban in the sense that I also think we should eliminate the death penalty……as soon people stop committing acts for which they deserve to die. For example, how should we punish someone who brutally murders a child and then dismembers the body? Or what would we do to a person who is already serving a life sentence without possibility of parole and then commits another murder?

What about the victim’s families who must live in fear for the rest of their lives that the offender is still alive and may even escape from prison?

There is no judicial judgment that is without error, including the death penalty. Therefore, we must be as careful as possible in every sentence. But the fact is that there are some people who commit acts that are so repulsive that they cannot be allowed to live, even behind bars.