ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
A KILLING spree is being planned in Virginia. The lives of at least seven men will probably be snuffed out in one day, on Dec. 18.
Concern about these killings won't interrupt most Virginians' preparations for the holidays. The slayings, after all, won't be carried out by some serial killer, but by the state - in our names, at our behest.
Virginia, which has performed three executions so far this year, has 11 more scheduled. Five of these may be postponed because the death-row inmates' federal appeals have not been exhausted. But the seven set for Dec. 18 are almost sure to take place.
That means Virginia will have executed nearly a third as many people this year as in all the years since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Many Virginians, of course, have no problem with that. They believe legal killings are necessary to get convicted murderers, perpetrators of monstrous deeds, out of our midst - to make sure they'll never kill again. They believe the death penalty helps deter violent crime. They believe it is necessary as retribution for the ultimate crime of taking another's life. They believe it helps define and protect the moral order.
But life in prison with no chance of parole also serves the purpose of protecting society. Under strict new sentencing laws installed by Gov. George Allen and the General Assembly, this is a real alternative to capital punishment today. Meantime, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters - just look at the rate of violent crime in America compared to countries (including all the other industrialized nations) that don't have capital punishment. Retribution is not far removed from vengeance. And it is hard to understand how killing someone supports intolerance of killing.
Capital punishment in America is like a lottery, where often arbitrary factors decide who will be executed and who will not - though murderers do stand a better chance of surviving if their victims' skin is one color rather than another. Statistics show that killers of whites incur the death penalty four times more often than do murderers of blacks.
We have no sympathy for the monsters on death row. But we wonder when it will be time to stop the violence by all those whose needs are somehow satisfied by killing, the state included.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB