Readers React: Putting an intellectually disabled man to death

To the editor: Your editorial opposing the impending execution of Warren Lee Hill Jr. — an intellectually disabled Georgia inmate — depicts the only scenario under which I could support the death penalty, namely for a murder committed by someone already serving a life sentence, since the threat of a further life sentence would only seem to deter those who believe in reincarnation. (“Executing prisoner in Georgia would be a travesty of justice,” Editorial, Jan. 22)

Assuming that Hill was competent at the time of both the commission of his crime and his trial — big assumptions, to be sure — it strikes me that by exempting those who don’t fully comprehend their impending fate society declares: “We get no satisfaction from executing you if you don’t fully appreciate our terrible vengeance.”

Is that not even crueler and more unusual?

David Nagy, Burbank

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To the editor: Hill should absolutely not be executed, nor should any other human being.

If an action is deemed wrong in a society — in this case, murder — it should be deemed wrong for all in that society. Capital punishment allows the state to hypocritically commit the very same wrong it purports to correct.

Of course, murderers should be taken out of society as a way to protect the people, but not by giving society the right to commit the very same crime.

Louis Cimino, Santa Monica

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