"Time for death penalty in North Carolina to fade into the past," is Mia Harrison White's OpEd in the Greensboro News-Record on North Carolina.
Your May 4 editorial, “Justice botched,” is a perfect example of why we should replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.
As a conservative Republican and former member of the General Assembly, I strongly believe in tough punishment for people like Clayton Lockett. However, as the distinguished columnist George Will once said, “Conservatives, especially, should draw this lesson. ... Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.”
The botched execution of Lockett by lethal injection in Oklahoma graphically illustrates Will’s point.
And:
As a conservative seeking to find the best way to protect the citizens of this great state from crime, I believe the death penalty has had its day in North Carolina. It is time to begin the debate on replacing it with life in prison without parole.
"Shoot down death penalty," is by Rodger McDaniel for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
"Let's do it!"
Those were Gary Gilmore's final words before the last state-organized firing squad executed him in 1967.
"Let's do it!"
Those are the words of state Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, who proposed returning to firing squads for executions.
Wyoming, like other states, is having a hard time finding the drugs necessary to mix a prisoner's final cocktail.
We saw what happened when Oklahoma experimented on an inmate last month. No one wants that repeated here.
And there is a man on death row awaiting the outcome of his appeals. Legislators and the Department of Corrections feel a sense of urgency about finding an alternative.
One option apparently not on the table is abolishing the death penalty. There are good reasons to do so, but not good politics. It's easier to tell the voters how to kill someone than it is to explain why the state should not do so.
Earlier coverage from North Carolina and Wyoming, at the links. Also available, more on conservative opposition to capital punishment.
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