"It's time to abolish the death penalty," by Fred Williams appears in today's San Antonio Express-News.
Last week, Connecticut joined with 16 other states and with the rest of the civilized world when it abolished the death penalty. But the very next day, Texas chose to remain in darkness when it executed Beunka Adams, making him the fifth victim this year of the state's anachronistic practice of killing people. If not for a last-minute stay, on Wednesday Texas would have put another human being to death.
Since the death penalty was re-instated in the United States, 1,295 human beings have walked that cruel corridor to the death chamber. Our country ranks number five among nations willing to kill people, surpassed only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. What is almost as disturbing as the killing is the fact that 61 percent of the American population approves of this barbaric practice.
Many of the country's God-fearing Christians believe that killing someone who has been convicted of murder is a proper means to achieve justice. They incorrectly equate death with justice. Killing a human being is more tantamount to revenge.
And:
The late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a conservative judge when appointed by President Richard Nixon, changed his mind about capital punishment. “I can no longer tinker with the machinery of death,” he wrote. “We are just not equipped to get this right.” It is time for Texas to join with Justice Blackmun and the rest of the civilized world and do away with the bloody practice of killing people.
Justice Blackmun wrote those words in February 1994 in a Texas death penalty case, Callins v. Collins; more via the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law.
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