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| Executions don't deter criminals |
| By pennlive.com |
| Published: 11/16/2009 |
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Before his execution by lethal injection last week, John Allen Muhammad was given one last chance by prison officials to make amends for the 2002 shooting rampage that killed 10 and terrorized a nation. The D.C. sniper said nothing, remaining emotionless throughout the 13-minute procedure. If relatives of Muhammad's victims hoped to find solace in some death-bed contrition from the killer, they left empty-handed. Compared to his victims, Muhammad died peacefully. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 45 convicted murderers have been executed this year, mostly in Texas. Pennsylvania soon could carry out its first execution in 10 years. Susan McNaughton, state Corrections Department spokeswoman, said back-to-back executions are scheduled for Dec. 16 and 17, pending any stays. Gov. Ed Rendell has signed 99 death warrants, but no one has died by lethal injection since July 6, 1999, when Gary Heidnik died for savagely killing two women he had imprisoned in his Philadelphia home. Heidnik's execution should be Pennsylvania's last. Capital punishment is expensive, archaic and questionable as a deterrent to violent crime. Taxpayers pay more to confine inmates on death row than to house them in a maximum-security prison. Capital punishment trials and their subsequent appeals also cost all of us substantially more. Supporters of the death penalty say it serves as a deterrent. But somehow I doubt monsters like Heidnik and serial killer Ted Bundy worried about being put to death while they committed their heinous crimes. Besides, it won't deter crime if you don't use it. The primary cause of death on death row is hardening of the arteries. Our death-row population in Pennsylvania is 221. One inmate has been awaiting execution since 1981. They stay, we pay. Relatives of victims sometimes attend executions, hoping to find closure in watching the man die who killed their loved one. That might be the only compelling justification for the death penalty. But I wonder how often that really happens, especially in cases like Muhammad's, where there's no remorse. Bob Meyers, whose brother Dean, 53, was killed while pumping gas in Virginia, witnessed Muhammad's execution. He told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he may have attained some closure, "but I would say that pretty much was overcome just by the sadness that the whole situation generates in my heart." And then there's this: Sometimes we are wrong. Since 1973, 139 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Read More. |
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