Criminals no model for decent society

Re: “Letter: Trust our voters, juries regarding death penalty” (Mercurynews.com, Jan. 8):

Letter-writer John Haggerty hoped Gov. Jerry Brown would not abolish the death penalty before he left office, because “many criminals themselves clearly believe in the deterrent effect of the death penalty every time they ‘execute’ the violators of their ‘rules.’ They do not give rule breakers ‘ three hots and a cot’ for life as you now propose.”

This begs the question: Should our voters and jurors look to criminals and murderers as examples of how a decent society is to behave or can we be better?

— Richard Doberstein, Fremont