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Show Editorial Society Seeks Bloody Revenge The tragic murders in Salt Lake City during the holidays have set back the abolition of capital punishment punish-ment in Utah for some years to come. The downtown papers carry several-letters each day crying for the blood of whoever committed the crimes. They demand that judges who will not convict easily and sentence harshly be dismissed and replaced by hanging judges willing to rubberstamp the wishes of law enforcement agencies. In a more specific case, the reaction to the murders mur-ders virtually guarantees that convicted murderer Dar-1 Dar-1 ell Poulscn will be executed on schedule. , The Utah State Board of Pardons, after hearing lengthy testimony testi-mony wholly in favor of commuting Poulsen's sentence, voted to let the execution be carried out. And Governor Gover-nor Ramption, who had already given notice he would not overrule the board's action, will hardly change his mind in the face of the public blood-lust resulting from the most recent scries of crimes. Despite emotional demands for public vengeance, the holiday blood-bath was a grisly refutation of the reasoning behind capital punishment. The six murders appear to have been committee in cold blood over a period of several days during a time when it was becoming be-coming obvious that the only thing between Darrell ' Poulsen and a firing squad was the lonesome figure of Amnion Hennacy marching in front of the State Capitol. Capi-tol. The murderers, whoever they were, were not deterred de-terred by the capital punishment statute. In fact, after the first murder was committed, others might have followed fol-lowed in the spirit of "they can only hang me once." And if the real reason for capital punishment is to follow the biblical dictum of a life for a life, it fails. Unless the state is able to round up those persons in society responsible for the forming of the character that resulted in the six slayings, it's not likely six executions can be held. As the dead Karen Ann Mechling cannot be brought to life through destroying Darrell Poulsen, the six dead people will stay dead long after the state next takes its vengeance against a grey concrete wall at Utah State Prison. We insist society must ultimately find itself re-sonsible re-sonsible for murder. Whether the cause is crowded slums, lousy schools for the mental incompetents among us, lax juvenile courts, over-commercialization of life or "a collapse in the state of American morals," society is guilty, and must cure itself. The boot hills of the Old West are full of people who "paid the price" for murder. The potters fields of many state prisons are loaded with the forerunners of Darrell Poulsen. But murders continue and this state continues to bloody itself with senseless vengeance. We must place ourselves firmly in the camp of the "would-be do gooders", the "bleeding hearts", the "so-called "so-called humane persons" and all other such "pinks." It is wholly wrong for the state to continue to destroy murderers as an excuse for ignoring the social ills that lead to murder. Sometime after the passage of "an eye for an eye", etc.'' a young Rabbi near Jerusalem suggested sug-gested a better way for people to react. Too bad nobody paid much attention. |