The Dallas Morning News has two more editorial this morning. First, "Death no more: Life without parole should be new standard."
DNA exonerations have raised the specter of executing an innocent man. Questions about lethal injection methodology and mounting evidence exposing the arbitrary application of the death penalty also have helped bolster support for life without parole.
Locking away murderers for life would save states millions of dollars on costly death penalty appeals. And there is growing support for life without parole and putting convicts to work to pay restitution to their victims' families.
Death does not provide an added level of justice. A prison sentence that does not allow for the possibility of parole accomplishes the same objectives: protecting society from violent criminals and ensuring that every day of a murderer's life is a miserable existence.
Our standards of punishment have evolved over time, from the gallows to firing squads, from the electric chair to lethal injection. Life without parole, essentially death by prison, should be the new standard.
The News also has, "Texas' next step."
Texas must begin a rigorous self-examination of its liberal use of the death penalty.
On numerous occasions, this page haswe have called for a moratorium on executions so leaders can study potentially lethal and unmistakable flaws in the criminal justice system.
We recognize, and regret, that the Legislature appears nowhere near ready to engage in serious soul-searching on the subject. Witness the nearly 4-1 vote in the House to expand use of the death penalty so it can be applied to sex offenders against children.
Lawmakers, with the political consideration of nurturing tough-on-crime profiles, seem to want to block out the public's uneasiness with the death penalty. YIt's clear that es, capital punishment enjoys solid majority support in Texas, and support typically tracks higher here than support across the nation. Yet underlying that acceptance is the equally strong conviction, as measured by opinion research, that Texas has probably executed an innocent person.
If lawmakers would only confront that nauseating thought – and it's not a hard conclusion to reach – Texas could inch closer to joining the national debate on whether standards of decency have evolved to where state-sponsored killing is no longer acceptable.
Yesterday's Morning News editorial are here. Also:
Editorial page editor Keven Ann Willey will answer your questions about the editorial board's stance at 2 p.m. today. Send early questions to [email protected] or go to DallasNews.com to participate.
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