Arguing capital punishment
Re “A dead-end debate,” editorial, Aug. 21
That capital punishment is cruel and unusual is not the argument that opponents need to make; rather, the argument is that as long as the political state is permitted by its citizens to kill helpless, restrained prisoners as a solution to a problem, the door to state-sponsored genocide, however remote an idea it seems in the United States at the moment, remains open.
Capital punishment is, and always will be, a political power in search of a crime, whether it’s murder, treason, being a member of a hated ethnic group or anything else that inflames public opinion. States, just like their citizens, should only have the legitimate power to kill in immediate self-defense, and never in the service of punishment.
LINDSIE CARLSEN
Los Angeles
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Death penalty opponents have no valid arguments. The latest way they have devised to thwart justice is to claim that execution by lethal injection is cruel and inhumane, though it is the same merciful method by which we dispatch our beloved pets. My only objection is that it is too easy a way out for the most vicious criminals in our society.
ARTHUR HANSL
Santa Monica
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