Editor,
- According to the Council of State Governments Justice Center, Arkansas leads the nation in prison population growth
- Most women in Arkansas prisons are incarcerated because of drug charges
- It costs approximately $23,000 a year to incarcerate a person; one year at the University of Arkansas is the same (also, our state spends much less on education and more on incarceration)
- One of the fastest growing industries in Arkansas is the building of new prisons
- Arkansas has a rate of 42.5 percent black males in prison, yet black males are only 15.4 percent of the state’s population
- Eight men are to be put to death within a period of ten days in April
- These accelerated executions are due to the fact that the prison’s supply of the drug Midazolam, a sedative, is due to expire the end of April
- Four of the condemned men are black and four are white – all but two were accused of killing women
- Most religions forbid killing
I am against state-sanctioned killing because there is no proof the death penalty stops murders. One hundred and seventeen nations worldwide have stopped the use of capital punishment but the U.S. is one of the leading users of the death penalty, along with Iraq, Iran and China, and other abusers of human rights; the death penalty is applied more to people who kill white people than people who kill black people; life without parole is a worse punishment but gives an inmate a chance to repent and/or get his case appealed; and Buddhism places great emphasis on non-violence, reference for life and compassion.