Choose life

"Que dit la loi? Tu ne tueras pas! Comment le dit-elle? En tuant!" -- Victor Hugo

My aversion to the death penalty is no secret, primarily because of the very real possibility of an innocent man being put to death. Since 1973, 119 death row inmates in the US have been found innocent. Some would say it's worth killing an innocent person or hundred to 'teach a lesson', but I'm not one of them. I'm much more in favor of locking these people up and throwing away the key. In fact, I'm very happy Scott Peterson will be spending the rest of his natural life in prison, so he can never, ever be free to forget what he did to his wife and child.

The US is one of only a handful of countries that still has legal executions. In 2004, the US ranked fourth in the number of executions -- behind China (3,400), Iran (159) and Vietnam (64). The US at 59 was still considerably ahead of Saudi Arabia (33) in number of executions and until recently, the US was one of only six countries, including Yemen and our good friend Saudia Arabia, that executed juveniles. These are not facts -- or company -- to be proud of.