Today's Harrisburg Patriot-News publishes the editorial, "Inevitable flaws should bring an end to Pa.'s death penalty."
Primitive justice – an eye for an eye – is still imposed in our supposedly enlightened state, the one that gave the country the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution more than two centuries ago.
And:
While the death penalty in Pennsylvania remains an option in theory, in reality, it is a cruel chimera. We simply do not have the stomach to send convicted criminals to the speedy death that survivors of the victims may want.
The extensive legal appeals are essential in a system too easily subject to human error. The long, drawn-out process reflects the ambivalence a civilized society feels about the calculated, premeditating killing of another person in retribution for a crime.
It is time for Pennsylvania to join the other states that have recognized that the death penalty is impossible to administer with the absolute perfection that justice requires.
Earlier coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link. Related posts are in the abolition and editorial category indexes.
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