Capital punishment questions
With no state-committed homicides since 2019, this is the year for our Ohio General Assembly to codify Gov. DeWine’s de facto ban on capital punishment. The law change should also convert current death sentences to life without parole for the 106 men (no women) now condemned to die at Lucasville.
There are worse things we can do to a man than strapping him to a gurney, sticking him with a needle and squirting poison into his veins.
A sentence to a life wasted in prison without parole can be a living death, damned to a hopeless, pallid existence with nothing to look forward to but turkey at Thanksgiving and the next inmate assault. It is made worse when seeing others released on parole while knowing you will not be until your remains are released to your next of kin (if they still want you).
“The death penalty deters crime,” some legislators argue. Why can they not accept as a deterrent life without parole being a daily death of mind, hope and spirit, if not body? The threat of being entombed alive in a windowless solitary confinement cell can be a deterrent to further crime while in prison.
“Let the punishment fit the crime” is their rationalization for taking a life for a life. Why do they insist on punishing taxpayers by wasting $3-5 million for each death penalty case? That estimate is from the non-partisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
How can some legislators posit being “pro-life” while at the same time being “pro-death penalty?” Why the duplicity? When is a life not a life?
James Weyrick, Akron
Flying pages
Does anyone else hate as much as I do the loose, single BJ pages flying around the living room while trying to turn the pages?
Janet Evans, Cuyahoga Falls
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Life in prison without parole is worse than death sentence | Letters
Reporting by Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
