Editor, The Transcript:
This past December we had the good fortune to attend a seminar in the Senate Chambers of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Sen. Connie Johnson chaired the afternoon session, most of which was dedicated to abolishing the death penalty in Oklahoma. Needless to say, it is long overdue that someone in our Legislature has the courage to come forward and introduce a bill to get rid of this barbaric killing process. Oklahoma has already made too many mistakes with death penalty convictions.
Our state government has forecast giant shortfalls in revenue to operate almost every segment of state and local departments. Just this past week Oklahoma City and Tulsa were having ongoing discussions with police and fire department officials. There is simply not enough money to pay salaries or hire and train additional personnel in these vital areas. This is true in town after town in our state. What better time to take a hard look at the death penalty and the horrendous costs of prosecuting a death penalty case. They take years and years of man hours and as much as $2 million in the appeals process.
We have in Oklahoma a severe alternative to the death penalty. It is life without parole. This means exactly what it says. Those convicted of a capital crime will spend the remainder of their lives behind bars. This process costs you, the taxpayers, about one third the cost of a death penalty conviction. Think of that. Wouldn't it be wonderful to divert these tax dollars to better use, such as, schools, roads, bridges, police and fire protection to name a few? The best part of it all, we are taken out of the killing process and remove the terrible risk of killing an innocent human being.
Tell our legislators to get rid of the death penalty in Oklahoma and make better use of the tax dollars we waste on killing people.
JIM AND ANN FOWLER
OKC
Letters
Wasted tax money
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Homosexuals must convince themselves, God
Editor, The Transcript: I am not one of those in favor of same-sex anything. According to the Bible, homesexuality is a sin. Now maybe there is a new Bible out there — the homosexual Bible. I will check at Barnes & Noble....
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Occupy movement built on principle
Editor, The Transcript: We the People Stand Tall! Bruce Kessler ends his letter to the editor “We the people must stand up — 8 May, 2012,” with a strong message: We the people — the very words that begin our Constitution — must work ...
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Parents proud of two schools’ rankings
Editor, The Transcript: Norman parents are justifiably proud that U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Norman High School as No. 6 in our state and No. 862 in the nation and Norman North as No. 9 in the state and 1,096 in the nation ...
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Reducing state rates would be of minor help
Editor, The Transcript: A Transcript editorial (May 22), in discussing the proposed reduction in income tax rates in HB 3061, states that the “trigger” mechanism is a good thing, citing the rate cut from 5.5 to 5.25 because of the 4 ...
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Sykes trying to secure seat
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Corporate deception rules
Editor, The Transcript: Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase’s chief executive, said he does not know how the bank lost $3 billion (originally estimated at $2 billion) in a trading scheme. He called the trades “sloppy” and “stupid” but could not ...
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Bike racks should be available
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Bold reform needed in DHS
Editor, The Transcript: Serenity Deal, a five-year-old girl, was brutally beaten and died at the hands of her father while in the custody of DHS. Serenity is only one of the nearly 50 children who have died while in foster care over the ...
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Milbank’s partisan attack
Editor, The Transcript: The column on your editorial page on Monday, May 14, by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post Writers Group calling Mitt Romney “the cowardly candidate” must be answered....
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Biking to work doesn’t need to be difficult
Editor, The Transcript: I am disappointed that the Norman Transcript chose to focus on an extreme for the Bike to Work article. While I don’t discredit Stephen Swanson and his cycle commute, I feel that highlighting a 22-mile bike commute ...
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Homosexuals must convince themselves, God
