‘Life or Death Confusion’
Lakoff’s apparent difficulty in interpreting the statue is hardly the result of “enigmatic wording” in the law. Most people would have no difficulty in seeing its meaning and intent.
The statute says that “the jury shall impose the death penalty if it finds that aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating ones.”
Somehow, this is twisted to mean that any juror who does not feel that the death penalty is appropriate under all the circumstances need not vote for its application. In short, Lakoff and certain members of the Supreme Court are telling us that members of the jury are free to apply their prejudices against the death penalty should they have them, while the law itself does not take such prejudice into account and no oblique interpretation of the law should allow this to be done.
Lakoff’s meandering explanation of his reasoning is astounding in itself, and his conclusions even more so.
GEORGE D. KRYDER
Palm Desert
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