Letter: Death penalty corrodes U.S. value system

Posted Tuesday, May 19, 2015 11:40 am

To the editor:

Purposefully taking the life of another human being is a cruel, inhuman and degrading act. If it were not so, would we have so many men and women returned from war who suffer what we have come to call PTSD? Their nightmares are not only about the horrible dangers they experienced but also about the horrible things they were forced to do.

All of us are damaged when we allow the government to act on our behalf to inflict the death penalty, no matter how terrible the crime committed, no matter how many lives were taken. One hundred forty countries around the world recognize this and have already abolished the death penalty. The United States was one of only nine countries that carried out executions each year between 2009 and 2013.

On the surface vengeance feels good. "I want him to hurt as much as I hurt." But vengeance corrodes inside. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to prevent and deter crime. Life imprisonment with no chance of release accomplishes that without making us a more violent society.

Marilyn Rossier Lee