Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Quick solace?

Sunday's Nashua (NH) Telegraph had an article with the headline, "Group gathers for silent vigil against capital punishment." Here's an excerpt:

State Sen. Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, who's also running for governor, spearheaded a bill earlier this year to add multiple killings to the list of crimes for which capital punishment can be a consequence.

He said the Conway shootings last summer, in which three people were killed at a military surplus store, prompted the bill, which is being studied by a judiciary committee.

"The reason why I brought it forward was to give justice to victims' families," Kenney said. "Often, they're overlooked, as far as the perpetrator is suddenly the focus, and the victims' families . . . they've lost loved ones. No justice is brought to them."

Carol Stamatakis, a former state representative from Lempster who stood outside the Statehouse on Friday, seemed to disagree.

"Too often we hear that the death penalty is a quick way to give solace to victims," she said. "But I think the needs of victims are complex and many."

Stamatakis said her father was shot and killed about 10 years ago while he was manning his furniture shop in Canton, Ohio. Authorities never caught the killer, whom they say intended to rob the store.

Even if they'd caught the killer, Stamatakis said, she wouldn't have favored capital punishment. She said what's needed are more resources and support for victims and investigators.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have been trying to form my own opinion on the death penalty ever since my girlfriend wrote an article on it Here This was an interesting read. I suppose that before I make a decision as to what i believe I should pretend I am in the position of the victims family.