Posted by Helen Baumann, a resident of another community, on May 17, 2008 at 11:06 pm

Thank you for this thoughtful article. My only disagreement is with your comment about not being able to end the death penalty....WE WILL END THE DEATH PENALTY because it doesn't work as a deterrent, it is unjustly applied, and it costs way too much money. One day we will look back and wonder why it took us so long to see the light on this issue. Working to elect a D.A. like Kamala Harris of San Francisco, who will not ask for the death penalty, is a great idea...one that leaves the issue in local control. Let's do it!

Posted by Save the Humanoids, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on May 22, 2008 at 11:32 am

Why do we kill people who kill people to teach them that killing people is wrong?

Posted by Sigh, a resident of the Portola Valley: Ladera neighborhood, on May 22, 2008 at 12:34 pm

You two are mush heads who have clearly never been, or known, a victim of a heinous crime. Some people need to be removed from the gene pool forcibly. Jail just gives them an opportunity to poison other minds and teach. Some, not all, murderers, deserve death. I think we should add rapists and child molestors. If used as intended, it would be a deterent, but with the average death row inmate in CA dying of old age instead of lethal injection, of course it is not a deterent. The mush heads of California will defend the worst criminals we have and plead for their lives...but couldn't care less about the victims, their families, or society. Ok, that is a long enough rant I suppose.

Posted by Simple, a resident of the Woodside: Woodside Glens neighborhood, on May 22, 2008 at 1:17 pm

The point of the Death Penalty is Death.

The Dead cannot kill again, they cannot escape from confinement and they no longer cost the taxpayers money.

Death is good it will come to us all and the sooner the better for the likes of the evil people that would harm innocent life.

Posted by StH, a resident of the Atherton: Lindenwood neighborhood, on May 22, 2008 at 1:55 pm

Killing a killer doesn't bring a victim back, or fill the void in the hearts of the bereaved family and friends.

It's not a deterrent, it's a legal form of revenge. A civilized society should be more enlightened than to accept state-sponsored vendetta killings.

Posted by Joanna, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on May 23, 2008 at 2:59 pm

Anyone convicted of a murder case should be jailed for life without possibility of parole. Capital punishment is my second choice because it is the closest thing.

We really need more life sentences and less killing. Oh yeah, and no more prisons that resemble camp cupcake.

Posted by Judith LoVuolo-Bhushan, a resident of another community, on Jun 2, 2008 at 8:42 am

The Death Penalty brutalizes all of us. Two wrongs will never make a right, and the fact that the State sanctions the taking of a life (even in an antiseptic, sic. legal, setting), only serves to demonstrate that it is ok to take a human life. If we want to stop the heneous crime of murder, we should get out of the business (and it is a businesss) of Capital Punishment now.

Posted by bwc, a resident of another community, on Jun 27, 2008 at 10:39 am

Pure retalliation has always been a basic component of justice in serious crimes against persons. The implied equation in some posts between the lives of perpetrators and the lives of victims would be offensive to many who have suffered violent crime.