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Some newspapers recently ran an interesting story a few days ago about the punishment that is life-in-prison without any chance of parole. It isn't a picnic.
It's harsh. Each and every day, prisoners with that sentence wake up behind bars, knowing that is where they will go asleep that night.
Every day, they hear the sounds and feel the discipline of the jailblock.
At night, they hear the noises and smell the odors of the jail house, all night, every night.
They don't see another sunset. They don't see another sunrise. They never go to the beach again, or drive a car, or visit their family home. This is it.
Life in prison without any chance of parole until death IS a death sentence. It is the ultimate death penalty.
To fight crime and to be tough on crime means to support our law enforcement offices in ways that will prevent crime: support them with the best of training, the best of equipment, and the best of laws. Then support them with the excellent pay that their service deserves, and with a quality retirement plan, as well as quality health care.
But to blindly say that having a death penalty of execution means anything more than taking another life isn't being tough on crime. It recreates the cycle of violence, affecting yet another family, And it does no good.
Right now, New Hampshire is in league with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and North Korea in having a death penalty by execution.
Instead, we should join most of the world, including most of the nations of this hemisphere and all of Europe, in having a death penalty of life in prison without any chance of parole until death, in God's time. Most religions oppose execution for that very reason.
Legislation is going to have a public hearing shortly at the State House in Concord. It is sponsored by Representatives Jim Pilliod, Tony DiFrusia, Gail Morrison, Paul McEachern, and myself. Similar legislation passed the House and Senate in 2000, but was vetoed by then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen.
But the discussion has to continue. It's the right thing to do.
Your thoughts?
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