Sentencing in Officer Slaying

* “Trial Will Reopen Question of Sentence for Officer’s Killer,” Sept. 12.

How comforting for society to read that actor Ed Asner stands ready to testify on behalf of this fine officer’s [LAPD Officer Paul Verna] killer. As if the killer’s foray into screenwriting is justifiable evidence to overturn the death conviction.

Perhaps if Officer Verna had been given the opportunity in the only life he was given, he might have written a screenplay that would have won an award by the Writer’s Workshop. But he was never given that chance, was he Mr. Asner?

Convict [Kenneth Earl] Gay made sure of that on June 2, 1983, when he pumped the bullets into Officer Verna’s body. And now you stand at the ready, willing to offer that Gay has something to contribute to me in society? Let the jury make the decision based on what he did do that day, not what he has done since locked up in prison.

DAVID HOGAN

Santa Clarita