Death Penalty Unfair, Unjust And Must be Abolished

To the editors:

Noah Oppenheim's "Execute the Cop Killer" (Column, Feb. 5) represents everything that is wrong with the death penalty. The editorial illustrates the savage, barbaric nature of the death penalty and the totally unacceptable justifications used to defend it.

Although the article concerns the case of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, currently on death row in Pennsylvania, the real argument here is about the death penalty. The phrase "Mumia should fry" illustrates unadulterated, bloodthirsty vengeance, based on the Old Testament law of an "eye for an eye."

Gandhi clearly refutes this philosophy with his statement: "an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." The desire for vengeance should be overcome by civilized humanity and is no basis for the death penalty. Executing a person for committing a crime is morally wrong.

There are also concrete, practical arguments against the death penalty and its application. Of the six countries that execute people for crimes committed as children--Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and the United States--the U.S. has executed more children than any of the others: 160 since 1973. This monstrosity occurs despite the fact that every major international human rights treaty expressly prohibits executing people for committing crimes before the age of 18.

There are also currently over 300 mentally retarded people on death row.

The death penalty is also racist. Nearly 90 percent of persons executed were convicted of killing whites, although people of color make up over half of all homicide victims in the United States.

Finally, the death sentence is not infallible. Since 1972, 69 wrongfully-convicted people have been released from death row. In some terrible cases the accused have not been vindicated in time: At least 23 innocent people (based on later evidence) have been executed during this century.

It is natural to desire the death penalty, but humane and just to abolish it. ERIK A. BEACH '02   JOEL G. THOMAS '02   Feb. 10, 1999