Executions don’t reduce crime

Lyle Olson (Letters, Jan. 19) asks, “How is capital punishment worse than the horror of hundreds of (sex crime) victims being scarred for life?”

I will try to get beyond, “Capital punishment scars its victims for death.”

Executions are deliberate, planned, extravagantly funded and final. If we kill the wrong person, after years of psychological torture and dehumanization, no one is accountable – not the prosecutor, governor or executioner, not taxpayers who pay for the killing.

Executions are tough on the condemned and those who love them, not on crime, which grows increasingly violent in executing jurisdictions. There’s no correction, rehabilitation or forgiveness.

Capital punishment is a perversion of justice and sends the message to sex offenders, thieves, terrorists, children and law enforcement that violence is often the best solution. Support for state killing makes our communities more dangerous and makes killers of us all.

Mr. Olson might find more satisfaction advocating for us to rape the rapist, abuse the abuser, than defending the tried-and-failed system of killing the killer. The energy and money devoted to executing the sickest or unluckiest offenders could help protect and heal those scarred and threatened by sex crimes.

Rusty Nelson

Rockford