I just read a letter from a reader who is whining about the lack of a death penalty as punishment for the man who allegedly raped and murdered Kami King ("Cecil girl's murder shows error of Md.'s decision to abolish capital punishment," June 17), and I couldn't help thinking about Kirk Bloodsworth, the man who was convicted of a similar crime and who spent years on death row before it finally came out that he was not responsible at all, someone else was. Just think, if the state had carried out their unfair and arbitrary death sentence, an innocent man would have been murdered by our state — and by extension, by all of us citizens of Maryland. I thank my lucky stars that I don't have Mr. Bloodsworth's blood on my hands, and I thank the legislature for finally facing the fact that the death penalty is worse than the crimes for it is supposed to be the punishment.

But what I found most asinine was the assumption that Maryland state prisons are somehow a luxury vacation, like a free Club Med. If that's what this dimwit thinks prison is like, then I suggest we lock that cretin up for the next "40 or 60 years," to use his own words.

William Smith, Baltimore