We’re better than this

Thank you so much for your July 20 editorial regarding the death penalty. Reading it, I was reminded of the editorial I read in the Oct. 30, 1977, Arkansas Gazette, “Life and Death.” It was my response to that editorial, which was printed in the paper, that put me in touch with a group which had just been organized in Little Rock to work against the death penalty. Since then, I have been an active member of that organization, which is today the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and we are still working for abolition of the death penalty.

Your eloquent words are much appreciated by all who don’t want to “let death win.”

There are so many reasons to oppose the death penalty. I continue to be inspired by the members of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, who say they do not want the persons who killed their loved ones to be killed, and that this is not what will bring them peace of mind.

I have also come to realize that our state cannot execute the person who committed the crime which resulted in their being on death row. That person does not exist anymore. The persons I have known through the years on death row have all changed, and for the better. Having the death penalty brutalizes everyone associated with it, and when our state kills someone, it does it in our names. I don’t want to be responsible for the death of anyone.

As someone once said in a debate on the death penalty, “It’s tacky!” We can do better as a state than be in the business of killing our own citizens. FRANCES O. “FREDDIE” NIXON

Little Rock