jmsellens@watmath.UUCP (John M Sellens) (10/06/84)
The Maclean's I got today has a bunch of stuff about capital punishment (as well as a big noose made of cheap rope on the cover). I found the articles interesting - they seemed (to me) reasonably unbiased. They have a collection of quotes from the last couple of centuries concerning capital punishment. One interesting fact that they point out: statistically, a police officer's job is safer than that of a firefighter, a miner or a sailor. (So, next time a miner dies due to negligence, we hang the president of the mining company, right?? :-) and shoot the owners of the Ocean Ranger (that drilling rig) :-) ) It also mentions the case of Donald Johnston (name may be wrong), the indian from the maritimes who was convicted of murder and spent 11 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. I feel that things like this are the best reasons to not have capital punishment. Oh yes, for you net.religion followers, they give several quotes from the bible(s), both advocating and condemming capital punishment/revenge. (Who are we to play God anyway?). John