THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607120008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 42 lines
It has been recently reported that a man in California was freed from jail after 17 years following the presentation of new evidence linking another man to the rape and murder for which he was jailed. Kevin Lee Green was released from the California penal system with an apology and wish of good luck from the judge. This is horrific enough, but had he been sentenced to death, it would have been simply ``too little, too late.''
If this man had been put to death in the state of California, then the state of California, in my opinion, would be guilty of murder. This does happen in our society, yet we hear our politicians and much of the public calling for more capital punishment and fewer appeals for those on death row.
The argument for the death penalty as a deterrent to crime was long ago put to rest. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in Gregg vs. Georgia that capital punishment was not in violation of the 8th Amendment. Executions had begun again by 1980. Yet capital-crime rates continued to go up, not down.
The death penalty is a curious thing in our society. Oftentimes, the very loudest voices for the cause of the pro-life movement are the very quietest when asked about their opposition to capital punishment. This concerns me, as it presents a double-standard of the highest order.
I am not opposed at all to life imprisonment (full life, not 20 years) without possibility of parole. This incapacitates the criminal just as well as capital punishment. Additionally, if new evidence is found exonerating the convicted, as was done in the recent case, at least the innocent can be released. But if an innocent, nonetheless convicted, person has been put to death, the situation becomes two murders rather than one.
Our system, as well-planned as it is, does present the possibility of the conviction and incarceration of innocent people - a risk with which we all live as Americans. Why must we also live with the risk of wrongful execution?
Tragic as his case is, at least Mr. Green can still go back into the world and try to make something of his life. I cannot help but wonder whether we would have heard about the new evidence in his case had Mr. Green in fact been put to death. My guess is, probably not.
SCOTT D. HENRICHSEN
Virginia Beach, June 24, 1996 by CNB