Execution would save lives

I have a problem with the Dec. 8 column by Leonard Pitts Jr. titled “Where’s line on cruel, unusual” in which he states his opposition to the death penalty. I agree that murder is wrong, but we have laws to protect the citizens of this country and when they are violated by individuals to whom they mean nothing, the law-abiding citizens must be protected.

I moved to Spokane from Arizona and still remember an incident in which an individual named Randy Greenawalt was sentenced to life after killing a trucker at a rest stop. He later confessed to killing two other people. Humanely, his life was spared and he was locked away for life. This was all well and good until he escaped. The next day he killed a young Marine and his wife, their 22-month-old son and their niece. They had stopped to help him in the desert. He took their car and drove to Colorado, where he killed a newlywed couple and took their van. He was later captured and sentenced to death and executed.

The point is if he had been executed for his first murder conviction, six other lives could have been spared. Laws mean nothing to some people, and to protect society these predators must be removed.

Paul Hudson

Mead