Court on Capital Punishment

“The Ultimate Outrage” is not the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold executions of teen-age killers. The ultimate outrage is that these murderers have deprived their victims of their ultimate right: life.

A friend of mine was raped, her throat slit ear to ear, her face slashed, and her skull crushed. Her attacker was a 16-year-old would-be murderer. He left her for dead after ransacking her home for valuables, stole her car and was picked up by the police for auto theft. A neighbor found my friend, or she would have died.

My friend does not have access to his medical records to ascertain if he is HIV-positive (he is an IV drug-user) because it would be “an invasion of his privacy.”

COLLEEN M. McHALE

Los Angeles