On worse reasoning
Paul Greenberg, as a longtime reader of your editorials and admirer of your journalistic abilities (even when I disagree) I was appalled by your column, "Bad law and worse sense," that castigated Wendell Griffen because he openly lets his faith inform his judicial judgment and vice versa.
In important matters, especially where the imposition of the death penalty is concerned, I admire his willingness to openly let faith inform his jurisprudence and his courage in questioning those who, in the interest of maintaining impartiality or pleasing the electorate, hide their religious preferences and beliefs.
But it isn't Wendell Griffen's prophetic faith or judicial ability that are at issue here. I believe the death penalty is bad law that makes all Arkansans into killers and executioners and condemns all its citizens to practice violence as the only means to peace and justice--as if it were the only alternative.
It is capital punishment that is the problem, not Judge/Pastor Griffen.
For one usually so perceptive, so informed and literate about significant people and matters in our state and society, you seem to have lost your way here. Attacking the professional reputation and witness of one who is attempting to change our state for the better--legally and faithfully--is bad journalism and worse reasoning.
VICTOR H. NIXON
Little Rock
Cannot forgive killers
An individual wrote in the letters column about attending all the prayer vigils for the condemned killers and about how Jesus was waiting for them as they took their last breath. Then she asked what was the accomplished point of putting these murderers to death.
To many of us, what is accomplished is the feeling that "we did the right thing." These killers didn't allow their victims to see any more life, so why should they be allowed to do so? These victims' deaths were so heinous, and some of them were mothers robbed of seeing their children grow up because they had to be horrifyingly killed to feed some unscrupulous man's sexual perversion.
Now Jesus and whoever else can forgive these killers if they wish, but I sure won't forgive them. I don't even know any of these victims, but I think it is insane and truly unscrupulous toward the victims to forgive their killers and allow them to live among us after what they've done. Rationale needs to rule here, and we are giving these killers what they believe in. You sure can't say these killers don't believe in the death penalty since they gave their victims such a brutally cruel one.
What bothers me is our doling out big money for medical professionals to ensure that these killers don't suffer one bit in contrast to how their victims tremendously did.
GARY McLEHANEY
Benton
Good for France, U.S.
I believe France's recent presidential election was a mandate for staying in the European Union. Emmanuel Macron plans to keep France in the EU, which will most likely keep France's economy stable. This will likewise help the U.S. economy. The election is also a rejection of the failed socialist policies of France's current administration.
LESLIE PUTMAN
El Dorado
The mitigating factors
Of every 200 people convicted of murder, only one receives the death penalty. What do death row inmates have in common? First, inadequate legal representation. More commonalities: Most have suffered brain injuries. Many have low IQs, and others are frankly psychotic. By law, mental incompetence should keep them from being executed, but this was never tested or brought before the court. Many were severely abused as children, a mitigating factor usually never considered in their sentencing.
Public defenders in New Orleans recently "went on strike" because they were so overworked and behind on their cases that they could not defend the accused according to professional standards. They refused to be an assembly line for capital cases, which is what happens in many places. Estimates are that one in 25 death row inmates is innocent. When letter-writers say that prisoners have had decades to bring up new information, exactly who do they think would do it?
More common threads: Death row inmates are likely to have spent years in isolation. Solitary confinement worsens mental problems. Some prisoners become morbidly obese on a starchy diet and no exercise. Geography has something to do with the death penalty. Texas, Oklahoma, and the South, with 36 percent of the nation's population, accounted for about 87 percent of all executions since 1976.
It's not so much about justice as it is about revenge by a lottery system. Or sending a scapegoat out into the wilderness with all our sins heaped upon him.
CORALIE KOONCE
Fayetteville
Didn't get that many
There is a factual error in John Pickett's analysis of the early days of the Trump presidency. He says that Trump "carried the election swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan by only about 150,000 votes."
In fact, Trump's margin was about half that, according to the Federal Election Commission: 10,704 in Michigan; 44,292 in Pennsylvania; and 22,748 in Wisconsin; a total margin of 77,744 votes out of 13,940,912 votes cast in those three states, a margin of 0.56 percent.
Over 700,000 votes were cast in those three states that were for neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton.
MIKE WATTS
Little Rock
Hit those books again
We've all been students in school and we know how it works. If you don't get enough answers right, you may fail the test. Also, if you try to blame someone or something else for the failure, you may never get it right. Go home and study some more, do more homework, maybe prepare for the test differently. Be ready for next time, having learned all you can about your subject.
Now, on to the recent election in Little Rock over the issue of improving public schools. The same concepts apply. Back to the drawing board. Learn more. Explore more. Share information and ideas. Blaming will not get anyone anywhere.
Good luck to us.
KAY CARPENTER
Little Rock
Editorial on 05/14/2017