To the Editor,

This is in response to the aticle by Tom Joyce titled: No set of statistics can excuse cold-blooded murder.

While I can agree with that to a certain extent, I cannot accept that rationale in all cases. A lot depends on the state of mind of the murderer at the time of the crime. People tend to believe that a killer might be as normal as you or I and that is seldom the case. I agree that crimes committed with horrific cruelty can evoke strong feelings in most people. If a relative of mine were murdered, my first reaction would probably be the desire to go after the perpetrator with an axe, but as we become more civilized we have to operate at a higher level than knee-jerk reactions.

While executing a murdered will certainly stop him from killing, it will not stop others. And killing him in a brutal fashion would be no more effective than it was in medeival England.

Our forefathers, in their wisdom, removed that option from our legal system when our country was founded. And while it may sound clever to show disdain for inconvenient statistics, our nation would not have achieved our level of preeminence in the world without using them. And racial disparity in sentencing in our legal system is a fact. And as far as a time limits for those convicted of a capital crime....There were a number of people exonerated in Texas who would have been executed. It took them an average of ten years to prove their innocence. Wouldn’t you want the same chance if you were on death row and innocent?

Daniel Kroener

Tega Cay, S.C.