To the editor:

This is a full rebuttal to John L. Micek’s column, “It’s time for all states to abolish the death penalty,” published in the Feb. 26 Great Bend Tribune (posted online Feb. 25.)

Research, with fact checking, vetting and critical thinking (with all sources listed below), shows Micek got, everything, wrong: 

It has been well known, since 2000, that the fraud rate, in the claims of the factually “innocent”/”exonerated” from death row, ranges from 71-83%, depending upon review, meaning that in 50 years of intense scrutiny, we have a 99.6% accuracy rate in factually guilty findings, with the 0.4% factually innocent released, likely, the most accurate of sanctions, as we would expect with super due process. 

Inmates claims of “significant vulnerabilities” all failed within appeals, which is why those murderers were executed.  

Micek is blind to the fact that the judges are acting as dictators in robes, unconstitutionally killing the death penalty, regardless of the law.

Pennsylvania overturns 97% of death penalty cases and only allows “volunteers” to be executed, while in Virginia, 75%, or 113, of their death row inmates have been executed, within 7 years of appeals, on average, and 18% were removed by appeals or commutation. If judges had to approve or reject requests for abortions in Pa. and judges rejected 97% of them, would you blame the judges or abortions?

With responsible protocols and judges, as in Virginia, all would save money over LWOP, which can have 40-60 years of maximum security cells, at up to $171,000/inmate/yr, with 20-40 years of medical, geriatric care, with an average of $80,000/inmate/yr (both California). Fact checking/vetting the cost studies reveals huge errors and deceptions, dramatically increasing death penalty costs and dramatically lowering LWOP costs. 

Anti-death penalty folks claim a 7% “botched” execution rate with lethal injections, when it is only 1%. They call normal side effects “botched,” as is easily discovered. 

Gov. Shapiro accepts an idiotic anti-death penalty staple: “Why do we think that its OK to kill someone as a punishment for killing someone?” He believes that there is no moral difference between crime, the rape and murder of children, and legal punishment for that crime, execution, which means he equates kidnapping and incarceration, theft and fines, slavery and community service. 

Yep, that’s your governor and Micek.

Research, with sources, fact checking/vetting and critical thinking, as should be required of everyone: 

The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents

https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-death-penalty-justice-saving-more.html

Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research

https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2022/01/students-death-penalty-research.html

Partial CV, Dudley Sharp

https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2021/08/partial-cv-dudley-sharp-independent.html

Dudley Sharp

Houston, Texas