Rose Bird
How dare we continue to ridicule and chastise someone who has so bravely and unselfishly stood against this barbarous and criminal form of revenge.
Californians must move beyond their emotional disgust and hate for capital offenders to the reason and logic that guides us to value all human life. Do I as a taxpayer wish to pay some astronomical sum to keep a murderer in prison for the rest of his/her life? No. But rather than be a murderer myself, I would like our prisons to be more self-sufficient. This, however will only happen if we first value the lives of those in prison. The death penalty issue continues to pinpoint in the most extreme way state-sanctioned murder, and our society’s contempt for those at the bottom.
Perhaps, years from now, when the U.S. is the last democracy to ban the death penalty, Bird will gain her rightful place in history as a champion of justice. The death penalty is not a punishment, it’s a crime.
STEVEN J. CARRILLO
Los Angeles
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