Support for Death Penalty

No matter who views the death penalty or how it is viewed, no matter if 99% of Californians were to vote for the death penalty, it still would be wrong. It is still cruel and unusual punishment.

The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to put a person’s life beyond the fickle barometer of a public opinion poll. The death penalty is really legalized murder. Punishment is never ethical when it is vindictive, only when it is rehabilitative. And the death penalty is a most vindictive act. You cannot rehabilitate a corpse.

Most of the Western democracies have abolished capital punishment. And what do we do? We take pride in pointing out that more and more states are using the death penalty. What does this say to the rest of the world?

Who goes to the gas chamber, to the electric chair? Poor whites, blacks, Hispanics and American Indians. In this country not one wealthy white person who murdered has ever been executed. John Spenkelink who was executed a few years ago said this before his death, “Capital punishment means those without capital get the punishment.”

Another person we should remember is Joseph Carl Shaw of South Carolina who was executed this year. He had this to say: “To all those who sought my death and to Gov. Richard Riley (who refused his clemency pleas), I hope you learn from your mistake. Killing was wrong when I did it. It is wrong when you do it.” There you have it. The killing by Shaw was wrong; the killing by the state was wrong. Both are reprehensible acts.

Finally, and above all, we should remember what Donald Wright, former chief justice of the California Supreme Court, said about capital punishment. The death penalty, he said, “degrades and dehumanizes all who participate.”

DON RADEMACHER

Los Angeles