4 Thursday, February 10, 1994 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 1. a. 2000 b. 3000 c. 4000 POINT/COUNTERPOINT Editors' Note: We felt that the best way to serve the KU community was to provide both sides of the divisible capital punishment debate. Death penalty sanctions murder by fallible system Today a bitter battle about the death penalty begins in the Kansas House of Representatives. A capital punishment bill was passed by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee Monday, and legislators will begin debating the bill on the House floor today. Legislators should reject this barbaric legislation. No justice system is infallible, and ours certainly is imperfect. When a prisoner is found to be innocent, he can be freed and even compensated. But an innocent prisoner's death cannot be reversed. The brutal finality of this punishment makes the death penalty so loathsome. The mere possibility of executing one innocent individual should be a sufficient argument against the death penalty. Although proponents of the death penalty assert that life imprisonment is too costly, this is untrue. The death penalty is three times more costly than imprisoning an individual for 40 years. Executing one inmate costs more than $2 million, much of it in court costs. The cost of the death penalty may be overlooked if the penalty proved to be an effective deterrent. However, of the 21 states that have carried out the death penalty, none has found a notable decrease in murder rates. In fact, murder rates in Texas actually increased after the implementation of the death penalty. The death penalty is neither cost-effective nor an effective deterrent. It is not a just punishment but an archaic form of revenge. The death penalty is state-sanctioned murder. Allowing our justice system to determine who lives and who dies is a frightening proposition. COLLEEN McCAIN OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD Capital punishment bill answers calls for justice Capital punishment is once again before the Kansas Legislature. Although the state as a whole supports the death penalty, several legislators oppose it. Unfortunately, the opponents are missing the most basic issue. Critics point out that states with the death penalty generally have higher crime rates than states that do not. They assume that crime will increase as a result of capital punishment. But their thinking is flawed. States do not have high crime rates because of the death penalty; states have the death penalty because they have high crime rates. But crime rate is not the issue. Opponents also argue that jailing someone for 40 years is cheaper than executing them. If this disputed statistic is actually true, why don't we cut costs and parole every murderer, rather than incarcerate them? Ridiculous. But cost is not the issue. The most basic issue is justice,plain and simple. Is justice served by giving a violent mass murderer room service at the taxpayers' expense? Is justice served by seeing Charles Manson come before a parole board every few years? Is justice served by giving Jeffrey Dahmer the same privileges and lifestyle as a thief or someone who didn't pay taxes? The answer is an unequivocal no. With the most heinous crimes committed against society, juries should at least have the option of giving criminals a sentence appropriate to their offense. Fortunately, Kansas is not a violent state. But when those awful crimes do occur, we should be allowed to effectively deliver justice to the worst members of our society. RICHARD BOYD OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD KANSAN STAFF BEN GROVE, Editor LISACOSMILLO, Managing editor TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser BILL SKEET. Systems coordinator Editors JUSTIN GARBERG Business manager JENNIFER BLOWEY Retail sales manager Aest Managing Editor...Dan England Assistant to the editor...J.R. Clairborne News...Kristi Fogler, Katie Greenwald Todd Selfert Editorial...Colleen McCain Nathan Olson Campus...Jess DeHaven Sports...David Dorsey Photo...Doug Hesse Features...Sara Bennett JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser Business Staff Campus sales mgr ... Jason Eberly Regional Sales mgr ... Troy Tiernaver National & Coop sales mgr ... Robin King Production mgr ... Laureth Guath Production mgr ... Laureth Guath Orconne ABtannatha Riehle Montserrat director John Garton Cleaning manager John Garton Classified mgr Kelly Connealy Tearaheats mgr Wing Chan Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the letter's signature, name address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley should use a standard font. Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed. The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. New death penalty legislation prompts memories of murder Reacting to public outrage about Kansas' 160 homicides last year, the Kansas House of Representatives today will begin debate on a capital punishment bill. The bill would put the state back in the business of death. The operative words in this case are reaction and death. When coupled with a powerful notion such as capital punishment, reactionary legislation seeks not deterrence, but revenge. The ultimate question concerning this type of legislation remains: Should the state have among its many powers the ability to kill? For the many survivors of murder victims, revenge is an admittedly tempting option. Unfortunately, I learned of this lurid business of death and revenge at a young age. On Jan. 28, 1983, a man entered an Olathe duplex armed with a "longhandled hammer." Under cover of darkness, he unleashed a fury of violence against an unsuspecting family. When it was over, my friend, Paul, 15, lay critically wounded on the living room couch. His 12-year-old sister, Janelle, had been murdered. His 17-year-old sister, Kelly, was missing — The days following this tragedy were filled with anger and bewilderment. presumed dead. As Paul's condition stabilized, the search for Kelly ended when police found her body dumped in a frozen culvert next to a lake. Vindication became a rallying cry among friends. Had the death penalty been in place at that time, we would have called for it. Because of a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared capital punishment unconstitutional, the likelihood of a death sentence for this perpetrator was nonexistent. Today, Sen. Mark Parkinson, R-Olathe, is a leading proponent of a limited death penalty for murder. It is undoubtedly experiences such as Paul's that have mobilized at least 45 lawmakers to support one of two bills that would reinstate capital punishment. A 21-year-old Olathe man with a history of criminal and emotional problems was eventually arrested and convicted of the 1983 slayings. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility for parole. Poring over the newspaper clips of this terrible crime evoked a tremendous number of memories and emotions. Only now can I begin to comprehend the senselessness of this crime. What deterrent could possibly exist for such a heinous act? What could the state have in its arsenal that would counteract such a vicious attack? But to give the public a sense of hope by proposing the death penalty as a deterrent to murder is misguided Gov. Joan Finney has promised to turn the other way when death penalty legislation crosses her desk this year. Without her signature, the bill would become law in spite of her opposition to capital punishment. and shortsighted. The threat of capital punishment would have done little to deter the attack on Paul's family and will likely have little effect on crime in the future. When considering the number of convictions now in question as the result of genetic testing, the fallibility of our justice system becomes apparent. Given the permanence of capital punishment, we can afford to be wrong even once? Perhaps U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs said it best: "We have no guarantee that the judicial system will always produce the right result." Clearly, a state armed with the death penalty would make us all vulnerable. Eleven years has put considerable distance between me and this incident. Yet after all these years, the headlines are as harrowing as ever: "Girl dead, sister missing as brother clings to life." The new legislative session should act rather than react. As I've said, this is an ugly business, this business of death. ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY Greg Thonen is a Kansas City, Kan. senior in sociology and Journalism. Neighbors predict Kansas weather If you're like most KU students,not only do you receive approximately 2,700 parking tickets each semester,but you probably have trouble deciding how to dress for morning classes because of our "Crazy Kansas Weather." To explain this designation in more technical terms,the National Weather Service issued this statement: "The weather there. It's crazy." What it means is,Kansas residents think nothing of putting snow tires on the car and hamburgers on the grill in the same afternoon. Several people like to flip on the Weather Channel to check out what the day has in store, but because of the amount of "Kenny G" being played in the background, they are forced to change it before all of their brain cells are destroyed. Personally, I think it's hard to beat those light-humored morning shows for weather. WITTY HOST: Okay, thanks to Mrs. Erna Trussel of Caldwell, Idaho, for showing us how to prepare those delightful spinach and wheat germ waffles. Now, for a look at the nation's weather, let's check in with Melvin Throater. Good morning, WEATHER GUY: Well, let me tell you, Jean, they're shaping up nicely! For instance, Wyoming is in the shape of a square, Oklahoma is in the shape of an overused frying pan and Indiana looks like a shoe for someone who was attacked by angry hornets. Also, Jean, allow me to lower my voice almost two full octaves here while I say that it may be hot in a few of these states today, and others will experience coldness, except in Iowa and Maine, where weather recently has been done away with because of a lack of citizen interest. Melvin! How are the states shaping up today? WITTY HOST: I see! And how long WEATHER GUY: Well, I don't know about that, Jean, but as you can see here on this satellite map, complete with Magellan's route to the New Land, we should be having a lot of enormous smiling sun faces or lightning bolts popping up right in the middle of the country, which could destroy tons of property. I mean, just look at the size of this sun face! It's bigger than Massachusetts! can we expect these weather trends to continue. Melvin? Actually, the best method of knowing what to wear is a fairly new way of forecasting that I have been using all year with great success. I'll pass it on to you here. WHAT YOU'LL NEED - an apartment complex - an upstairs neighbor who has huge stereo speakers stereo speakers *e clock *a clock The way this works is, you get into bed at night, which is the upstairs neighbor's cue to set his speakers in front of an open window and start playing some song with so much bass that it sounds like a herd of elephants trying to bust out of a gigantic piece of Tupperware. Now look at the clock. If it's 4 a.m. or later and your neighbor still has his window open, it's a pretty good bet that it's going to be pleasant outside when you have to get up two hours later. If your neighbor has his window closed, this probably means that it was so cold out that he had no choice but to close the window, set the stereo on "Repeat" and lower the volume to a more tolerable 670 decibels. Generally, what you'll want to do in this case is exchange frank insights with your roommate about the virtues of neighbors while you stack so many pillows on your head that you look like a Seally Postepedic display. Several times, my roommate and I have tried to call our neighbor and thank him for providing this service, but for some reason he must not hear the phone. Scott Agn is a Topeka sophomore in journalism. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Kansan editorial board should get facts straight Student Senate has received unfair treatment of late by the editorial board at the Kansan. Under the cheap guise of fiscal responsibility, this board has chosen to attack Senate. Students at the University of Kansas have a responsibility to the community in which they live — namely Lawrence — and in a larger sense, Douglas County. Many students at the University just 'stop in' for four or five years and then move on to other places. Regardless of the length of stay, any students who rent apartments or hold jobs outside the University's borders are members of the Lawrence community. Senate, for the first time, has taken measures to insure a relationship between the city and the University—a relationship badly needed. For years, Senate has financed programs such as Headquarters Inc. Rape Victim Support Service, Women's Transitional Care Service and to a lesser degree, Hilltop Child Development Center. These programs are for use by students as well as the community. The task force is a necessary Senate demonstrated a responsibility to AIDS awareness in the creation of the AIDS Task Force. That organization has been absorbed by the Center for Sexual Health Education at Watkins Memorial Health Center and now is charged with more than AIDS awareness. Entertainment such as the Lied Center, University Theater and University Dance Company also are paid for in part by Senate. Lawrence does its share by allowing the Department of Student Housing free access to the Lawrence Fire Department. The relationship between city and University can be seen in the big green buses that travel around town, paid for mostly by students and used mostly by students who do not live on campus. organization. People must have access to information about a disease that strikes one in 10 in this community. If the editorial board at the Kanson spent more time researching instead of making blanket statements with little information, it may learn a thing or two. The evil monster of Senate is far more misunderstood than ferocious. If the Kanson felt any journalistic responsibility to this campus, it would start by informing students, not just complaining. Ami Hizer Lawrence sophomore