Monday, Feb. 9, 1998
Capital punishment not constitutional act
The recent execution of a woman in Texas, and congressional efforts to increase the number of capital federal offenses and reduce appeals, have made capital punishment a topic of debate. I would like to discuss the futile struggle of Pennsylvania and the United States to use the death penalty within the bounds of the Constitution.
In 1976, in Gregg vs. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the
death penalty constitutional, reinstating it after a four-year
ban. Familiar aspects of capital murder trials today -- lengthy
jury selection periods, separate guilt and penalty phases and
the appeals process -- all reflect the admonition of the court
in 1976 that the death penalty must be applied equally and fairly
or not at all. Evidence shows that the death penalty remains,
as Justice Blackmun stated in 1994, " . . . fraught with
caprice, arbitrariness, discrimination, and mistake."
Caprice: District attorneys are free to seek the death penalty
for eligible offenders as frequently as their viewpoint or public
pressure dictate. Lynn Abraham, the district attorney of Philadelphia,
has been called "America's Deadliest DA," seeking the
death penalty many times more often than officials in similar
cities.
Arbitrariness: Poverty is the greatest single correlate with death
row inmates (Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC). Divorce
and other civil lawyers are sometimes court appointed as defense
counsel and must act without sufficient resources for investigation
and retention of expert witnesses. Because of inexperience, they
often fail to mention factors like mental retardation that could
prevent a death sentence.
Discrimination: Whites and blacks each account for 50 percent
of murder victims, but in 84 percent of homicide cases since 1976
involving a death sentence, the victim was white (DPIC).
Mistake: In 1982 a man was sentenced to death in Texas for murdering
a police officer. In 1992, the actual killer confessed in a sworn
statement and provided an eyewitness. Despite this new evidence,
the Supreme Court upheld the man's sentence because no procedural
errors were made in his trial. On May 12, 1993, the innocent man
was executed by lethal injection.
Are the supposed benefits of the death penalty worth the cost
to society if random, discriminatory and error-prone imposition
of this irrevocable punishment is occurring? Students have a responsibility
to weigh the evidence and to act to abolish capital punishment.
Patrick Moran
graduate-entomology
Death Penalty Abolition Coalition
WWF warrants more credit than given
"The WWF is proof that our society becomes more callous everyday."
Wednesday Gregory Nagurney basically insulted everyone who has
watched professional wrestling. "Now, I can't stop wondering
what inside people makes them want to believe in this inhumane
spectacle." Hey, it's called sports entertainment.
Your comments about wrestling being choreographed were so original
in discussion of the sport. That's right, it's a sport. You don't
think those guys get hurt?
Ask Arn Anderson if it's grueling to be in the ring, night after
night. He's retired now, due to severed vertebrate in his neck.
Tell Stone Cold Steve Austin he's a faker. He suffered a broken
neck in August of the past year in a match against Owen Hart.
After three months of tortuous rehabilitation, he was back in
the squared circle.
Your quick dismissal of the values of wrestling is frightening.
These guys are in better condition than any other pro athletes
in the world. Wrestling has no off-season. These guys are in the
ring 300 out of 365 nights of the year. They have to endure countless
insults from people such as yourself, when in reality, you are
the ones deserving of ridicule.
I have been a wrestling fan for more than 15 years, and despite
what you may think, I am a well adjusted person. I realize these
guys do not hate each other. I realize that a lot of it is not
real. I also realize that some of it is real. Oh, and by the way,
the blood is real. The process is called "blading."
It adds drama and excitement to a match, much like it adds excitement
to any action film. It is done with a razor blade slit on the
forehead, and the last time I checked there wasn't anyone choreographing
that.
Wrestling has the two highest-rated cable shows in the country
and generates more revenue than you could count in your lifetime.
Before you question why everyone else is watching it, why don't
you ask yourself why you aren't.
Bryan Riegel
junior-advertising
WWF simply a form of entertainment
This letter is in response to Gregory Nagurney's opinion of the WWF in Wednesday's edition. No, you will not see me walking around campus with a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin T-Shirt, nor would you have found me at The Bryce Jordan Center the day the big show came to town. However, this column troubled me in the way Nagurney tried to dissect the WWF to make it more then it really is.
Can we not just simply accept the WWF as a form of combat theater
which some people find entertaining? Sure, it looks really fake,
and sometimes you may wonder how they think people would believe
some of those performances. Well guess what! Most people don't
believe it! They know it's fake, who cares!? I know some musicals,
such as The Phantom of the Opera, are fake as well, but it's still
enjoyable!
And give those wrestlers some credit. Combat theater takes a great
deal of skill, and I am sure they have gone through expensive
training to get where they are now. Some of the world's greatest
heroes are boxers such as Muhammad Ali. Is boxing better than
wrestling because it is real violence with real blood?
Perhaps you should analyze what that tells us about society and
its heroes instead of analyzing why people like to go to the theater,
because I think we already know the answer to that.
Jeff Shumas
junior-management science and information systems
