End the death penalty

As I write this, on Sept. 22, I am ashamed to say I am an American. What has brought about this feeling of distress?

On Sept. 21, President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations in New York, pointing out to the world the progress for which we are striving to make this a world of peace, treating all human beings with equal care and respect, and bringing countries together to settle differences by negotiation, not war.

That same night, we "peaceful" Americans electrocuted Troy Davis, a black man accused of the crime of murder in 1989. For 22 years he had maintained his innocence, as did many who were convinced that he did not commit the crime. The powers that be would not consider overturning their decision.

In the 1900s the great French philosopher Albert Camus wrote: "But what, then, is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared?"

Let us hope that, in our lifetime, the death penalty will become non-existent.

Phyllis Dow, South Paris

What do you think of this story?

Login to post comments

In order to make comments, you must create a subscription.


Login or create an account here.

Our policy prohibits comments that are:

  • Defamatory, abusive, obscene, racist, or otherwise hateful
  • Excessively foul and/or vulgar
  • Inappropriately sexual
  • Baseless personal attacks or otherwise threatening
  • Commercial postings attempting to sell a product/item



Steve  Dosh's picture

End the death penalty

. ...Yes ? End it . Now . Here are the stats - > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_country
Besides Texas , what states still actually use it ?
As for countries , yeah , let's continue to be like communist China , fascist Iraq and Iran and keep it active , huh ? It is foolish , dumb and inhumane . Just have the thugs , murders and rapists stay in jail for a long l o n g time . Their relatives can visit them and reflect about their particular crimes in detail . We wouldn't run the risk of killing innocent women and men , too
/s, a supporter of this letter writer , Steve Dosh , Hawai'i
b t w - We also support the right to arm bears ?
More rejected children's book titles --> " Bambi and the AK-47 " :D

ERNEST LABBE's picture

Getting back to the

subject of the letter. I have never had a friend or relative's life taken by another person. Therefore I have no idea how I would react to the situation. However I tend to believe that a trial would never take place for the murderer if indeed there was no doubt that they were the guilty party. In Maine you can almost get a longer sentence for hitting a deer and failing to report it than you get for murder.


As long as we're off topic

It's interesting to me that the same people who constantly drone on here that the government can't ever do anything right are the same folks who think it's just fine that the government can put an end to someone's life based on the opinion of 12 people who aren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. I know there are folks who deserve to be executed twice over. The problem is figuring out for sure which ones they are. You don't get a do-over on this and it is one time I'm inclined to agree with those guys who distrust the competency of government officials.

Mark Elliott's picture

For many people, serving on a

For many people, serving on a jury is a duty and an honor and they have no interest in "getting out of it".

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

Paint it with any color brush

Paint it with any color brush you want, Claire, but Troy Davis was convicted of heinous crimes by a jury of his peers, convicted, and sentenced to death. That is how our system works. No evidence was ever presented AFTER his conviction, in sufficient quantity to cause anyone to overturn the verdict of his conviction, or sentence. That's the system we have. You can kill someone in Maine and get off with 8 years. How just is that?

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

Ms. Dow. Was there any

Ms. Dow. Was there any evidence submitted to warrant overturning Troy Davis' conviction? (Sound of crickets in background)

Mark Wrenn's picture


You mean like all but two witnesses recanted their testimony, and one of the two who did not was the alternative suspect?

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

Don't know, Lil, I wasn't

Don't know, Lil, I wasn't there. Where you?

Steve Bulger's picture


Ms. Dow, your position and that of your supporters in this comment section would be both credible and laudable if you were to add to your revulsion of taking a convicted murder's life with that of women who take the life of their unborn child through abortion. Of what crime were those fetuses convicted?

KRIS KUCERA's picture

I don't like abortion

But I dislike the sad reality of millions and millions of unwanted children with little to no future.

Now, if you're anti-war, pro-life, and anti-fertility treatment, I cannot argue with you on moral grounds.

The cold, hard fact is, there's 7 million people in the world, going on 9 billion by 2050. The math is not promising, no.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Who the heck ado you think you are, Dan?

Hey, it ain't your job to police the blog. If you have a problem, go and whine to Ms. Reeves -- yet again.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Birth control prevents abortion.

The real crimes are the lack of affordable birth control, education, and better socioeconomics. No unwanted pregnancies, no abortions.

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

They're making birth control

They're making birth control pills available to 14 year olds, and you tell me birth contol is not affordable? They're teaching 3rd graders how to place a condom over a cucumber and you're telling us sex education is lacking? How about responsible sex; does that enter your equation?

Bob Woodbury's picture

Who are they...

...and where are "they" doing this?

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

Martians...you didn't know?

Martians...you didn't know?

KRIS KUCERA's picture

I'm all for responsible sex.

But it often doesn't work out that way. You're right, better to not talk about it or educate the kids, and the problem will just disappear.

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

I agree with what you're

I agree with what you're saying, but teaching them a little self-control and abstinence would be nice. After all, they're kids not hamsters or rabbits.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Ah, but we are indeed animals.

And the one thing all species are programmed to do in their DNA is to try and produce viable young. We may arguably be the pinnacle of evolution, but we still like, nay, need to, ah, er . . . Turn On Our Lovelights.

Abstinence, as prescribed by Steve and the Religious Wrong, is denying human reality -- sex is normal and healthy, no matter what the Bible, Torah, Koran or other blood-drenched fables tries to lie about otherwise. Sure, kids do it too early in many cases with dire consequences. But they always have and always will -- unless they're educated and armed with protection. You simply can't pray away raging hormones.

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

First of all, I didn't make

First of all, I didn't make abstinence into a religious thing; you did. The word abstinence has no religious connotions to it unless someone chooses to apply it towards sex to make a counterpoint. Abstinence is self-control, nothing more. Hamsters and rabbits have no self control when it comes to sex. Some of us have higher expectations for the human species, who, contrary to populist belief, were not put here to amuse themselves to death. Secondly, educating them and arming them with protection won't (isn't)do squat for them if they don't have any value forces beyond their genitalia.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Simmah down, now!

I didn't say you brought up abstinence. Quite clear in my text, I think. Anyhow, my point is our animal instincts are much harder to be dealt with than most people would like to beleive. Even Al Gore wanted a happy ending with his massage! *shudder*

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

Is that what he uttered to

Is that what he uttered to "Flipper", or whatever the hell her name was, before the reading light went out?

Steve Bulger's picture

Illuminate me, please Kris

If these are the "real crimes", what part did the fetus play? Except in cases of rape, the only "real" prevention is abstinence. Everything else is some living person's personal agenda...or excuse.

KRIS KUCERA's picture


See above.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Tory Davis . . .

. . . shot a man in the face at a pool party, then beat a homeless man right before the policeman was killed, most probably by Davis. I agree that too many people have been executed in this country without absolute certainty of their guilt (and most of them have been black); however, Troy Davis is a lousy cause célèbre -- he may have "looked" innocent in the ubiquitous photo, but he was basically scum of the earth. A very liberal Charles Lane came to this unpopular conclusion -- Davis got what he deserved, justice: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/troy-davis-guilty...

This is a far better anti-death-penalty cause célèbre that the mass media missed: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

You and I haven't agreed much

You and I haven't agreed much on sex, hamsters, rabbits and children, but I sure agree with you on this one.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

How do you feel about . . .

. . . chinchillas? Hate to cause another dust-up. (Pun intended.)

PAUL ST JEAN's picture

I'm thinking there are far

I'm thinking there are far more people who deserved the death penalty and walked than there are that got it, died, and didn't deserve it. It's barbarism at best, but we are a nation of laws, and laws must be obeyed; except if you're a Pirate.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Ginsberg, Kagan, Sotomayor, & Breyer?!?

They're sanguinary? And John Paul Stevens, who just retired last year? Give me a break, Dan. They're card-carrying liberals with big hearts, albeit Breyer is more of a centrist.

I'm no fan of the Roberts' Court, but we are one Scalia or Thomas heart attack away from having the court go the other way if Obama can win in '12.

Jim Cyr's picture

Was it Sir Winston Churchill

who once said "If your not a Liberal before the age of 35, you have no heart. And if your not a Conservative after 35 you have no brain" ? We need Constitutionalist on the court, not Anti-Constitutionalists !!!!

Mark Wrenn's picture


Maybe they can find where it says "lethal injection" in the constitution.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

So blacks should only be 3/5 of a person?

'Cause that's the way it's written in the Constitution, the three-fifths compromise. Maybe all the Amendments should be scrapped, such as the 13th? We're in 2011, not 1787. Originalism is just another Constitutional interpretation, and often a dangerous one. (See; Thomas, Clarence.)

Have you actually read the Constitution? It is anything but a concise and fully understandable document. It was written rather vaguely, in parts, on purpose -- because most states didn't want to pass it; and, as a matter of fact, it passed by the narrowest of margins. (Rhode Island rejected it outright.)

And for its first 100 years, the Constitution was nearly forgotten about, as well. In 1875 it resided in a tin box at the bottom of a closet in the building that housed the Departments of State, War, and Navy. It didn't even go on display until 1924, in the Library of Congress.

I know, I know, facts -- who needs 'em?


Without the 3/5s compromise ...

... slavery would have lasted much longer than it did. Without the compromise, the slave states would have had a stranglehold on the House from the very beginning and it would have taken much more than a civil war to get rid of it.

The libs like to parade their moral outrage about "fairness" to mask their real intention: to keep the black population shackled on the Democrat plantation.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

My and the liberals' real intention? Wow.

You've been listening to Herman Cain too much. (And Godfather's pizza sucks.) I want equality for all, thank you. Too bad it will never happen with ignorance being a constant pox on the human species.


I guess you have added him ...

... to your Uncle-Tom list. There will never be equality for all as long as liberals battle against it every inch of the way. They are trying to elevate ignorance to a height it could never attain without their diligent help. The human species would do just fine if liberals would get off its back and stop dragging it down to their sub-species level. What do like, gavone? GodPapa Ginos?

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Not a fan of chain pizza.

Give me Nirchi's or Mario's in (poor, terribly flooded) Binghamton, NY, any day.

Herman's Not Able is against abortion in the case of rape and incest. That's enough for me to say: "crazy."

KRIS KUCERA's picture

I'm embarrassed to say . . .

. . . that to this day, even though I grew up in upstate NY and visit regularly, I've never been to Cooperstown. When I do, Sal's will be my lunch stop for sure! (But I have read Cooper's "The Leatherstocking Tales," which take place in and around that area in the early to mid-18th century. Natty Bumppo lives!)

Jim Cyr's picture

Ms. Kucera you

either "Spin" the facts or are mistaken. The Constitution does not make any reference to any one individual as 3/5 of a person. " 3/5's of ALL Other Persons. And it your fact findings, do you know of any other document that has kept a "Free Society" for such a long period of time? Has there ever been a better or ever near document that has withstood this length of time? Basic Human Rights have never changed and neither has the Founders will of LIMITED Government !! Constitutional "interpretation" can only twisted and spin added by the "Progressives">

KRIS KUCERA's picture

And just who are those "persons"?

Slaves, Native Americans, and all other non-free peoples. Nice try though, you apologist.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

I'm a fan of the Constitution

First off, nice to know Veritas is here in the sewer with me fighting the right-wing C.H.U.D.s.

Secondly, I don't trash the Constitution, it is a triumph of (selective, i.e., white male) democracy But the 3/5 issue was a huge part of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. If was one of the prefaces for the document. (And notice "women"get no mention either, but I digress.)

Simply put, the document is historic, hugely important, yet not infallible. For instance, Article III, Section 3. What an earth does "Corruption of Blood" definitively mean? Many contemporary books on the Constitution don't even attempt to explain that one. You try, or at least quote some Glenn Beck madness. (But stock up on his Beck-endorsed food supplies for the Apocalypse first. And if the Apocalypse is nigh, why fight it? Just let it roll, Glenn.)

RONALD RIML's picture


"Spin Doctor" Cyr has obviously never heard of (or chosen to ignore) the 'Magna Carta' - clauses of which are still on the statutes of England and Wales, and formed the foundation of our Constitution; especially protections of due process and the Bill of Rights.

But what the hell - Jim makes stuff up on the fly merely to serve his own purposes. And I've caught him at it numerous times.

Jim Cyr's picture

The subject at hand

was the Constitution (THE Law of the Land) as the "document" of discussion. I apologize for "assuming" we were on the same page. There has never been any "document" that is the "LAW" to with stand the test of time as has the "Constitution". And for all the "Pinko's" to attempt to tear it down with their divisive and racist remarks just promotes the Big Government, anti-Constitution agenda. To turn this country around, we need a cohesive positive agenda and promote our Founders ideals of limited government.

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Oh . . .

. . . you're referring to the Magna Carta and Veritas' point.

What about Magnum condoms? Puts a lot of pressure on us men, don't you think. Who orders the "petite"? Not me.

"Pinko's"? Is that a copy center for Commies, Sen. McCarthy?

KRIS KUCERA's picture

Me confused.

I do not follow your post.

RONALD RIML's picture

You don't have to.....

Jim gets to change his points at whim; whatever adheres to his agenda of the minute.



I'm interested in ...