LETTER: It's time to end or reform the death penalty

America’s death penalty systems, regardless of which state, are much more than that ... they are, in fact, varying degrees of torture — lethal injection, hanging, electrocution — all painful and drawn out methods of demise. We have many low cost drugs that simply induce a painless everlasting sleep. For that matter, simple carbon monoxide poisoning is painless and, by now, we all know there is an abundance of that stuff!

Statistically, the ongoing appeals processes that follow most death sentences are more expensive than incarceration for life. Perhaps if we had a remotely humane execution process, fewer convicted would appeal?

Plus, murder is murder — state sponsored or otherwise. It multiplies within our culture. You beat your children and they go on to beat their peers and spouses, and probably their own children as well — generation after generation.

Also, we should consider the discrimination part of the process. When was the last time you saw a wealthy person executed?

There are many reasons why America has the highest crime and incarceration rate in the world. We are a violent nation; we don’t do rehabilitation; we reap violence upon the symptoms while ignoring the root causes that inevitably multiply them. We take competitive sports that throughout history have evolved around courtesy, honor, respect and compassion for one’s opponent, and we inject so much violence that the original version is unrecognizable.

We load our children up with toy weapons and video war games that are scored by number of deaths. And the corporate for-profit mainstream media avoids furnishing worldwide statistics about rehabilitation and/or preventative progress being made in many nations — not including the U.S.A.

So let’s do away with the death penalty, or at least come up with a humane and nondiscriminatory version for a good change. It’s a start.

—John F. Middlemiss Sr., Trout Creek