A PERFECT WORLD

All of us would like to live in a perfect world, while that concept is great to dream about it probably isn’t going to happen. It would be great if people would listen to logic and react in a rational way. If that were the case, there would not be a need for our criminal justice system. The cost to the taxpayers of this country is enormous to fund our court system and maintain the prisons across this nation. Here in Oklahoma our state prisons are bursting at the seams and running out of room. If it weren’t for the county jails across the state there would not be enough room to house them. Recently the State Attorney General asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to stop scheduling executions until the U.S. Supreme Court settles the issue of what is cruel and unusual punishment.

This issue has resurfaced again because of a Kentucky death-row inmate who claims his state's execution process violates the federal constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Oklahoma, like Kentucky, uses lethal injection for executions. I am sure if these inmates who are so concerned about cruelty were really sincere they would not be on death row in the first place. On a daily basis we hear about people killing someone in the most heinous method possible. Among the worst are the ones who molest and murder children. I am sure that their execution is nothing compared to the horror that their victims experienced.

I wish that we could live in a more civilized world where executions were not necessary. Maybe this is the result of mankind being tossed out of the Garden of Eden a long time ago. It is sad we as a civilized society have to execute one of our fellow citizens. Every year or two this debate seems to resurface. It is time that we all come to the conclusion that we humans will never have a perfect world on our own and the only deterrent will be swift and decisive punishment.