We Lower Ourselves

Last Friday, victims' family members were among those urging New Hampshire's death penalty study commission to consider repealing the state's death penalty law.

Here's an excerpt from Saturday's article in the Union Leader:

Andrea Leblanc, whose husband, a UNH professor, was killed on a jet flown into the World Trade Center on 9/11, called for repeal of the capital punishment.

"The death penalty is not about justice, it's about revenge," she said. "Violence begets violence."

Anne Lyczak of West Lebanon, whose husband was murdered in a random shooting in Portsmouth 16 years ago, also urged repeal.

"It is my belief that it is never right to take anyone's life. By using the death penalty we lower ourselves to the level of the person guilty of murder," she said, noting she too was shot at the night of the murder.

She said reliance on the death penalty would "distract attention from the social conditions that contribute to crime."