Where does “Lilith” get off on issuing flip, obviously sarcastic remarks about the Levitican code? The purpose of severe punishment for those who offend and violate society in the most degrading and violent of ways is to exert a lot of deterrence. Granted, not everyone is susceptible to deterrence. We know that. The purpose of the law is not revenge. It is to be punitive and we the people can make the laws which effect that. The Court has no right to usurp the powers which belong to legislatures and voters. The threat of violence to those who commit certain crimes is like the homeowner who hears his home being broken into, grabs his gun, confronts the intruder and tells him that to come any further into the house will result in being shot. Society has a right to such defense.

My ONLY hangup about the death penalty – and it drives my fellow conservatives crazy, since they wonder if I am still a Leftist when I voice it – is the very real risk and the proven fact that innocent people have been executed. I don’t think it has been a large number, but it isn’t insignificant. And I truly do not want to execute innocent people. I just don’t want to see it happen. I had an experience many years ago of having been unjustly treated by the legal system. Fortunately, the judge saw the situation for what it was and threw out the false charges against me, but I had to sit in a courtroom and listen to perjury being uttered of the most fiendish kind. Mistakes and malice happen. It forever changed my view of the justice system. I still respect it, but I know it’s not infallible. And a sentence of death is about as final as it gets. And I want no mistakes.