'Barbaric Practice' or 'Desired Alternative'?

Readers Sound Off as Legislators Consider Life Without Parole in Lieu of Capital Punishment

It is an explosive issue: Should some criminals be punished by death?

Maryland's General Assembly is again pondering the matter as it weighs a bill that would replace the state's death penalty with life in prison without parole. In recent weeks, legislators have lined up on both sides of the issue, with Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) urging lawmakers to repeal the death penalty.

Montgomery Extra invited readers to share their feelings on what should be done. More than two dozen responded, nearly all in favor of getting rid of the death penalty. Here are some of the letters.

Our Justice System Needs an Overhaul

It is time to join the civilized world. Let's repeal the death penalty in Maryland as part of working toward a system that is as unbiased as possible. It is only the first step. Our criminal justice system needs an overhaul.

Carol Henig

Garrett Park

Leave it on the Books, If Only to Deter Crime

While a death sentence should only be considered in rare cases where the crime is so outrageous and the evidence is clear, I can see why many, because of religious or moral beliefs, are reluctant to have anyone put to death.

However, personally I believe that the death penalty should be left on the books simply to let criminals know that there is a line that cannot be crossed.

While in Montgomery County we rarely have crimes that warrant the death penalty, I am sure that each of us remembers vividly one that did. For that reason, retention of the death penalty is a desired alternative, even if it is rarely, if ever, applied.

Nelson Marans

Silver Spring

Ineffective Law Should Be Eliminated

I applaud Gov. Martin O'Malley for his recent historic testimony regarding Maryland's death penalty. I agree with his views that state execution is clearly ineffective as a deterrent to violent crime and is applied haphazardly with a pronounced socioeconomic and geographic bias, and that society would be better served by redirecting the resources used to pursue the death penalty to rehabilitation and victim compensation.

He is right, and the answer is clear. Maryland is better off sidestepping the issue of lethal injection and just replacing the death penalty with life without parole, once and for all. We know that the death penalty risks executing innocent people, it costs too much, it takes too long and now, on top of everything else, the entire process has to be rewritten. This could take months and will waste countless taxpayer dollars that could be used to prevent crime.

Finally, I am offended that the state is killing people in my name. It is time to eliminate this seriously flawed and unjust law in our state.

David LaRoche

Bethesda

We Don't Have Right To Take a Human Life

I think the death penalty should be repealed in Maryland, not just because statistics nationwide have consistently verified Gov. Martin O'Malley's statements about the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime and the potential for innocent people to be mistakenly executed. These facts alone should make the existence of the death penalty abhorrent to anyone in our state with a sense of justice and a concern for human rights.

But beyond these and all the other arguments against the death penalty is my strong sense that we do not have the right to take the life of another person convicted of a serious crime. For who can say that anyone, given the chance over the course of a lifetime, may not one day achieve an understanding of the insanity of an act or acts and work toward forgiveness and healing with the possibility of helping heal others? What right do we have to say "never" to the possibility of a life redeemed?

John C. Moss

Bethesda

Execution Isn't Justice, It's Barbaric Vengeance

The Maryland General Assembly should do the right thing and repeal the death penalty. Allowing the government to kill criminals isn't justice, it's barbaric vengeance.

We live in a country that values freedom above all. Our Constitution guarantees civil rights and protects minorities. I think capital punishment is wrong and is not what the Founding Fathers stood for. I would rather pay high taxes for more police, courts and jails than live in a country where the government is allowed to legally execute people.

Stephen G. Gunnulfsen

Laytonsville

Certain Conditions Warrant Capital Punishment

I am strongly in favor of the death penalty under appropriate conditions. For the death penalty to apply, the evidence should not be only circumstantial evidence but should include at least some direct evidence of guilt. Also, the death penalty should only be applied in the more aggravated types of first-degree murder, for example a premeditated murder that is a hate crime due to racial, religious or sexual prejudices.

Other examples of cases where the death penalty is proper include treason or terrorist acts that result in the death of an innocent person.

One of the most important reasons that the death penalty should not be eliminated is that a criminal in prison for life without the possibility of parole has a free license to kill and is able to do so without fear of penalty. Thus there would be no penalty if such a criminal should kill a prison guard or should kill someone else who is in prison, or if the criminal should escape from prison and kill someone before he is captured. All of these types of killings have occurred.

I do not buy into the argument that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, even if there is some pain involved. Considering the people to whom the death penalty should apply, they do not deserve sympathy for the short period of pain they might have to endure.

Alvin Guttag

Gaithersburg

Penalty Is Throwback To Slavery, Lynching

It is time for Maryland to repeal its death penalty. Not only is it an ineffective, flawed and expensive penalty, it appears to be a throwback to the days of slavery and lynching.

In Maryland, African Americans charged with killing a white victim are 2 1/2 times more likely to receive a death sentence than whites who kill whites, and 3 1/2 times more likely than blacks who kill blacks. Every person executed or currently on death row in Maryland was convicted of killing a white person, even though about 80 percent of homicide victims in Maryland are African Americans.

When apartheid ended in South Africa, the new government repealed the death penalty as one of its first actions. Most of the developed world has abandoned this kind of punishment and views it as barbaric.

As state legislatures pass resolutions apologizing for the state's role in the slave system, Maryland should take positive action to dismantle slavery's legacy. Repeal of the death penalty is a first step.

Holly Syrrakos

Takoma Park

Life Without Parole Is An Acceptable Alternative

I would love to see Maryland repeal the death penalty. It makes no sense to me to take a life in an attempt to dissuade others from taking a life. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Beyond that, when the state takes a life in my name, it makes me a killer. I resent that. I don't want anyone killing in my name.

It costs so much more to prosecute death penalty cases. Is it worth it? Does the benefit of killing a killer outweigh the mistakes that are made in the process? What does it do to people to be the executioners? What does it do to each of us in whose name the state takes a life?

According to a February survey by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc., 61 percent of Marylanders find life without parole an acceptable alternative to the death penalty. That option protects society but avoids the many shortcomings of the death penalty. May our lawmakers in Annapolis choose it now.

Kathleen Bovello

Chevy Chase

Practice Raises Violence in Society

The death penalty should be abolished. It is a barbaric practice that solves nothing, reeks of vengeance and ratchets up the violence in society. Maryland is better than that.

Peter Jones

Takoma Park