Killing is always the wrong choice.

Killing is always the wrong choice.


Letters to the editor

The current debate of the particulars regarding the pending execution of
Mr. Davis distracts us from the real question confronting Georgians. We
should be re-examining the basis of the death penalty. A fresh debate
opening up the idea of the death penalty to scrutiny would reveal the
death penalty as immoral because killing is always the wrong choice.

We can all agree the person who killed Mr. MacPhail made the wrong choice.
Yet, as citizens of Georgia, we are about to participate in another
equally wrong choice by putting Mr. MacPhail's convicted killer to death.
And yes, killing is our choice.

It is we the people, not the state, or the courts who have decided killing
is an option for some crimes. Admittedly, there are those in our society
who could push the plunger and kill Mr. Davis with the same impunity of
conscience that led to the killing of Mr. MacPhail. Such a terrifying lack
of compunction, the very thing we seek to eliminate, is nurtured by the
actions of the state - you and me.

However, the rude fact of the matter is that, by proxy and in our stead,
we wash our hands of the deed and require a person we employ to kill in
our names. This cowardly behavior should prey upon our consciences. But,
instead, our actions are sanitized and witnessed by proxy. Unlike the
salacious details of the crime and trial, and as if to coddle our civic
conscience, the execution reports appear as briefs well inside the paper
allowing us to easily hide from the fact that we have killed someone.

Our shame reveals the knowledge of a truth established in the study of
both history and current events. Wherever it exists, state-sanctioned
killing is an abhorrent evil. It debases every citizen.

MICHAEL J. JOHNSON

Savannah

(source: Letter to the Editor, Savannah Morning News)