Dear Editor,
I was dismayed by the recent Campus Times editorial “Rehabilitation not worthwhile” [April 24] arguing in favor of the execution of Horace Kelly who, if California succeeds as it intends, will be the fifth man executed recently in the State. While I am personally opposed to capital punishment in all its forms, as I believe it breeds violence in a society that already has too much violence, I was more dismayed by the confusing and contradictory tone of the editorial.
The editorial points out that Kelly’s story “is a sad one” as he is a “full-blown schizophrenic” (who, incidentally, has never really been able to participate in his own defense), and the editorial further states that “it appears unethical to execute an insane man.” But then, incredibly, the editorial goes on to advocate Kelly’s execution! Is the argument here that ethics do not matter, that it does not matter if we as a supposedly free and democratic people act without ethics, without morality? If that is the case, then what in the world does matter? Only revenge? Only vengeance? Only hatred?
The article further states that “by no means is this a black and white issue,” and then, again, incredibly argues in favor of execution. Horace Kelly is a poor, uneducated Black man, himself a victim of horrific parental abuse. Why did the Campus Times not care about that abuse: why does the Campus Times not write editorials condemning the epidemic of child abuse of future Horace Kellys going on right now?
Horace Kelly is a poor, uneducated Black man, a victim of a generation of abuse. But White society is content to put him to death. Why does the Campus Times not write editorials condemning the endemic racism in the United States that still makes a Black man who kills a White man seven times more likely to be executed than a White man who kills a Black man?
If the Campus Times is going to venture into the area writing editorials on political issues, I wish it would write about substantive issues that require thought and investigation and leave the fear-mongering to the Star and National Enquirer.
David Werner,
Associate Professor of English
Director, Educational Programs in Corrections
