ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611210067
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: TALKING IT OVER
All in all, a very informative editorial - until you come to the first sentence of the last paragraph, ``We have no sympathy for the monsters on death row.'' It's here where the writer shows his or her lack of understanding. While many of these men have committed terrible crimes (mostly nonpremeditated), they are not monsters. If the writer had visited these ``monsters'' on death row, he or she would realize who these people are that the state deems necessary to extinguish.
I challenge the writer to visit death row and meet with the men who are about to be executed. Talk with Ronnie Bennett, Greg Beaver, Larry Stout, Lem Tuggle, Ronnie Hoke, Joe O'Dell and some of the others, and then write another editorial.
And by the way, Virginians favor the alternative of life, without possibility of parole for at least 25 years, plus restitution to the victims' families.
- Henry Heller
Our Reply: We, too, oppose the death penalty. Besides being barbaric and arbitrary, it constitutes, we believe, cruel and unusual punishment. As citizens, we resent the state's killing in our name. We support the alternative of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
We have a problem, though, with the tactics of death-penalty opponents who try to cast doubt, it seems, on the guilt of every death-row inmate - or, failing that, attempt to orchestrate sympathy for the devils.
Sorry, we have no interest in visiting with the men you mention. Even if we became best friends, that wouldn't change certain facts. Such as:
Ronnie Bennett tortured a Chesterfield County woman before stabbing and strangling her during a 1985 burglary at her apartment.
Greg Beaver shot to death a Virginia state trooper in 1985 after the officer stopped the stolen car Beaver was driving.
Larry Stout used a hunting knife to slit the throat of a dry-cleaning employee during a 1987 robbery.
Lem Tuggle - already convicted on a previous killing - raped, mutilated and murdered a Smith County woman in 1983.
Ronnie Hoke in 1985 abducted, raped, stabbed and suffocated a Petersburg woman.
Joe O'Dell, sodomized, battered, then strangled a Virginia Beach woman in 1985.
Maybe they're nice guys once you get to know them. But do we have to be their buddies to oppose their execution?
- The editors
The last word: No, you don't ``have to'' be their buddies to oppose these men's execution, but you should be aware that the state isn't killing the same person who was sentenced to death years prior.
But you wouldn't know that, since you feel that by visiting death row you might get infected by the ``monsters.'' You are remaining uninformed, as well as instilling hate into the public psyche. Because of your fear of educating yourself to all the facts, you don't know how these men have endured the hell of death row and still seem to manage to go through a transformation without any professional help.
You seem to dwell on what these men have done in another life. You've done some homework and found the reasons why these men were sentenced to death. However, if you had completed the assignment by contacting the lawyers working on the appeals, you would have discovered much more to the stories.
But the point here is that whatever these men did or didn't do, it happened. If you would interview these men, you would find out that if there were any possible way they could reverse their actions, they would. Not only because they're going to lose their lives for it, but because they realize that they took a life and caused ongoing pain to the victims' families.
Time is running out for Bennett, Beaver, Stout, Tuggle, Hoke and O'Dell. Likewise, time is running out for the editorial writer who is fearful of finding out whom we are killing. - H.H.
- Henry Heller, of Faber, is director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
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