[Harry Rex Vonner]

Beetle01 cites a lot of "facts" but offers no authority for any of it. I suspect his information was gleamed from some rather liberal sources.

I am neither completely for or against the death penalty. I am far more concerned with the death penalty practiced daily upon the most innocent of our population- the preborn. Advances in science, such as DNA, have vastly strengthened the argument, indeed destroyed any real doubt, that a preborn is a separate being from the moment of conception. But, I need not digress from the theme of the thread.

I am also more concerned about the rights of the victims and their families than I am about the overstated rights of the perpetrator.

The real problem with the death penalty as practiced in this country and in this commonwealth is that punishment is unduly delayed for years- even decades. A famous jurist stated long ago that justice must be swift. In this area of jurisprudence, it obviously is not swift. For those of you who are concerned about the cost involved, these needless and baseless delays cause the cost to escalate to unreasonable numbers.

The overwhelming number of those on death row, guilt really no issue, die of old age. The old joke often stated among those in the legal profession is that the safest place to be in Kentucky is on death row at Eddyville because it assures a long life with plenty of food, shelter, clothing, and access to medical care. And all this is free, by the way.

For the death penalty to serve its intended purpose, one I do not oppose, it must be carried out within a reasonable period of time. Endless appeals have become worse than ridiculous. After the usual procedural appeals, all of which are reasonable, the process becomes a circus designed solely to delay justice. Appeals are rarely made on the facts of the case but, instead, upon the nuances of the trial. Defense attorneys object to most everything, including ther color of the prosecutors tie, and then glean the record for any alleged error that might be a basis for delay and appeal. Since our legal system is strongly weighted in favor of the accused and since it is carried out by human beings, the process is not difficult for even a novice defense attorney.

By the time the punishment is carried out, if indeed it is ever carried out, years and years have passed. The victims are long forgotten other than by their families. The crime and its details are long forgotten. Only the perpetrator is in the picture and, of course, he (rarely she) has become, often by plan, a sad figure deserving of our compassion. This is ridiculous.

I could mention the burden of proof placed upon the prosecution and the lack thereof placed upon the defense but I have orated far too much. Thus, I will close by asking that you occasionally review the facts and think about the victims and their families. After all, it is more likely that you will be struck by a BMW and a Mercedes on the same day than it is that you will be an innocent victim of the death penalty.