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
