Iowans understand folly of death penalty

We are lucky to live in Iowa, a state where people are enlightened enough to have done away with the death penalty.

Troy Davis, of Georgia, is not so lucky. Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row – even though the case against him has fallen apart. On Aug. 17, 2009, the Supreme Court issued an order mandating a new evidentiary hearing for Davis.

This case is a textbook example that shows the death penalty to be a bad idea. Why?

The wrongful execution of even one innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life, largely because of the cost of mandatory appeals

Politics, race, the quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where a crime is committed are more often the determining factors in a death-penalty case than the facts of the crime itself.

Plus, in every state that retains the death penalty, jurors have the option of sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, as it is a violation of basic human rights. Some day, maybe the rest of our country will catch up with Iowa, and most of the developed world, and get on the right side of this issue.

Mike Wyrick

Co-Chair, Amnesty International Group 181

Cedar Rapids