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Show A Letter From Campus ADA If Poulson Dies, We Will Too ' Dear Editor: In the early morning of May 18, 1964 a piece of each of us is scheduled to die. A piece of the American way of justice for all and a piece of our faith in the adult world's sanity is supposed to be executed in the person of Darrell Poulson, emotionally and mentally of the age eight. WHILE DARRELL, as with several of the other 34 executed in Utah, the guilt is not of the convicted but of the morality of public execution of a person no more cognizant of his crime than an eight-year-old in question. How necessary is the death penalty? Great Britain and Canada along with eight states have abolished it and nine more states don't practice it. For fifteen years they have done without the 'need" of execution. ex-ecution. KEEP IN mind that there are 30 crimes punishable by death. Less than one in six governors gover-nors of the states believes in Capital punishment. Utah is in the minority . . . along with five Southern states. How costly cost-ly is the death penalty as opposed op-posed to life imprisonment? Several have been known to cost over one million dollars. The average term served for a life in the state of Utah is nine years and eight months. Isn't this short length of a time worthwhile to make a man of the child Darrell Poulson? Two examples to those who must contend that the Bible dictates unexpected capital punishment: The Bible shows exception when God punishes the adul-tress adul-tress but not the adultor (Levt. 20:10). The New Testament Testa-ment cites Jesus saying of an adultress to be stoned: 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:1-11). THE WORLD gave the most hideous murderer of all, Nathan Nath-an Leopold, the chance to rehabilitate. re-habilitate. Now he is a responsible respon-sible citizen speaking 14 languages lan-guages and doing scientific research for the U.S. Government. Govern-ment. Leopold says that it is hard to imagine the monster that he was as a teen-ager. Leopold was an intelligent man, Darrell Poulson is a retarded re-tarded child. Poulson's act was not malice of forethought but the uncomprehending act of the mentally and emotionally eight year old boy in the physical body of an adolescent HERE IS a boy capable of learning what his crime was, repenting his deed in his own mind and learning a trade and the life of a responsible citizen. citi-zen. We could permit him to die next week or work with him for the next nine years or maybe more which really would cost more? Can any of us ' sleep if we let his crime expand ex-pand to two deaths, the second being his? These next few days are go- ing to be filled with anxiety and endless personal appeals to the Board of Pardons and the Governor by those who wish to see true justice done. We have seen enough of the blood thirsty revenge of the State of Utah. It is time to heal and grow, not time to kill. The Christian's Christ prayed "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This time we can all see the crime of taking a life: we know what to do. I am going to do my share to keep all of me, America, and Darrell Poulson Poul-son alive on the Spring morning morn-ing of May 18, 1964. Raymond B. Pedderson Chairman, Americans For Democratic Action |
