4/16/2017 Submit a Letter to the Editor | richmond.com
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First Name
Michael
Last Name
Stone
Address
P.O, Box 12222
P.O. Box/Apt #
city
Richmond
State
VA
Zip Code
23241
Email
office@vadp.org,
Phone
(434) 960-7779
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Your letter
Dear Editor, As the former Respect Life Coordinator at the Catholic Diocese of Richmond for 25 years, | strongly dispute the argument made
by Cal Thomas in his recent op-ed, "Executing the guilty and innocent in Arkansas." The legitimacy of capital punishment must be judged
independently of the morality of legal abortion which kills innocent unborn children. Mr. Thomas suggests that "capital punishment is a
matter of justice and just deserts. tis justice for the dead and his or her relatives and it is just deserts for the murderer." He chooses to
ignore the problem that our criminal justice system often gets it wrong. Since 1973 there have been 157 exonerations from death row and
1,448 executions (as of April 15, 2017). That is nine executions for each person found to have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death!
With unintended irony, Keith Harward - exonerate d after 33 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit - was featured on the
front page of the same Times-Dispatch in which the Cal Thomas op-ed appeared. If Harward's death sentence had not been overturned on a
legal technicality, Virginia would have executed him decades ago and we would never have known he was innocent. How many Keith
Harwards has Virginia executed over the years? Only God knows the answer. How many innocents are Cal Thomas and the citizens of Virginia
willing to kill in order to exact "just deserts" through capital punishment? The only morally just answer is none. It's long past time to abolish
the death penalty in Virginia. Sincerely, Michael Stone Executive Director Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
-- Michael E, Stone Execut ive Director Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty P.O. Box 12222
Richmond, VA 23241 (434) 960-7779 michael@vadp.org www.vadp.org
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