ng to be more executions in the future as these cases are speeded up,as a result of federal and state laws shortening the appeal process. Iwould now like to direct your attention to the overhead.The following chart shows statistics of the number of executions perstate for the 1997 year. Currently there are only 12 states without thedeath penalty. Those states are Hawaii, Alaska, West Virginia,Washington D.C., Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan,Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota.The U.S. has over 1.5 million incarcerated in prisons, by far thelargest system in the world, and that does not include those in jail.The tough-on-crime politicians, of course, are elected by promisingbigger and better jails for those scum bags. I once heard someone say,Building jails to lessen crime is like building more cemeteries toprevent AIDS. Prison building is the fastest growing industry inAmerica. In fact, prisons can no longer be called prisons. Thepolitically correct term is correction-industrial complexes.Gene Amole is a writer for the New York Times who opposes the deathpenalty. As experiences show, there is no closure, when the one whodid the killing is executed. There is a very real climate of revengeand retribution in this country. What we need is restorative justiceand healing.Mr. Amole comments on the sixth commandment, (it) is so simple, so easyto understand, Thou Shalt Not Kill. There is nothing that I can seethat permits us to commit premeditated institutional murder, which isexactly what capital punishment is.Gene Amole is not the only one against capital punishment. In May of1998, Newsday magazine spoke out against capital punishment, saying thatits only purpose is revenge, that it is not a deterrent to murder, andthe goal of our society should be keeping killers off the streets.[Murder deserves Life In Jail, Not Death Penalty, May 26]. GeraldDeutsh, of Port Washington, speaks out against the article ...
