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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993                   TAG: 9301180353
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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VIRGINIA NOT TO BLAME FOR MURDER RATE

AGAIN the Roanoke Times & World-News has attempted to stampede the ignorant and utopian into supporting the very vocal social meddlers.

You launched it with typical emotionalism: a photograph of a lovely lady dressed in the attire of the peaceful past, circa 1950s, holding a picture of the infant victim of a heinous crime.

The clear intention behind your news article ("A deadly export," Jan. 9) is to tamper with the rights of law-abiding citizens in Virginia through meddling laws. Writing from a statist view of government, you accordingly ignore facts.

First, the high murder-rate areas you mention in the article are New York City and the District of Columbia, neither of which has the death penalty.

Second, you included on the back page near the end of the article the fact that the perpetrator of this killing was given only seven to 21 years. When a society signals such a low value upon human life by not having and swiftly using the ultimate penalty of capital punishment for the wrongful taking of life, it reaps the consequences.

But don't then come to Virginians whining about the murder problems in other states, which they refuse to penalize by sure death, in an attempt to tamper with our legitimate, Creator-endowed rights. Remember, the same Creator who endowed us with rights also ordained the death penalty. GLENN E. SALISBURY COPPER HILL

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