Death Penalty in California

I had no sooner finished reading the July 16 article on condemned killer Bill Bradford’s attorney stating that Bradford had chosen lethal injection over cyanide gas, as the latter is “torture,” than I turned to the Commentary page and saw Michael Ramirez’s brooding cartoon, showing a torture-murderer advising his victim about the lack of a right to appeal “out here.” Frankly, the juxtaposition of the two was calculated to make me remember, vividly, that Bradford’s victims died in terror, with absolutely no choice over whether the mode of death was “torture” or not.

I admire the quality of Ramirez’s art as a political cartoonist; he frequently provokes worthwhile reflection.

W.R. TERRY

Los Angeles

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What is the difference between Corcoran State Prison and death row? Death row is safer. Corcoran’s guards killed seven inmates in seven years. With a population of 1,500 in the Security Housing Unit, your chance of being killed in any year is 1 in 1,500. There are about 500 people on death row and there have been five killings in the 21 years since the return of the death penalty. Therefore, your chance of being killed by the state is 1 in 2,100 per year of exposure.

Although Corcoran kills more inmates than San Quentin, it receives a tiny fraction of the media attention and pro bono legal hours.

TOM HYNES

San Pedro

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Thomas Thompson’s July 14 execution was the fifth execution in California this decade--the fifth day of shame in California. We do not honor victims, or their families, or ourselves, when we commit the deliberate act of putting a person to death, whether we call it “justice” or its real name, “revenge.”

The mother of a murdered child said, “Killing my child’s killer does not honor my child at all.”

I have not had a loved one murdered. But if that horror should ever occur, I hope I would respond as this mother has. Killing the killer has to do with us, not with him. How does it make us, the executioners, any better than the executed?

TOBI DRAGERT

Winnetka