Letters: Fast track to the execution chamber

Re “Campaign seeks faster route to death chamber,” Feb. 13

On a number of issues California has been a forward-thinking leader. That is why it is most disturbing that three governors who are clearly out of touch with the direction this state is heading are clinging to a death penalty system that is costly, out-dated and broken.

The residents of Los Angeles county voted in 2012 in favor of Proposition 34, which would have replaced the death penalty with life with no chance of parole, used the money saved to fund police investigations and stopped wasting money on a system that is broken beyond repair.

This initiative to speed up the execution process will waste money that could be better spent educating our children.

Jennifer Friedman

Los Angeles

The writer is a Los Angeles County public defender.

A society without a death penalty is an immoral one. To envision Timothy McVeigh playing solitaire until 2043, or Connecticut murderers Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes rehabilitating themselves in 2055, is repugnant to the age-old concept of proportional justice.

The death penalty is not about revenge; it is the thoughtful exercise of weighing the actions of the guilty against their claim to humanity. McVeigh had, and Komisarjevsky and Hayes have, no legitimate claims to humanity.

The Times’ editorial board has supported a sentence of life without possibility of parole. Apparently, the board is as morally squishy as the still-beating hearts of Hayley Petit (17) and Michaela Petit (11) as they were doused with gasoline and set afire by Komisarjevsky and Hayes in 2007 after being raped.

I’m actively searching out the organization that is gathering the signatures to put this measure on the ballot.

David Pohlod

Oak Park

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