In a message dated 5/11/00 7:45:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Although I support abolition of the death penalty, the statistic you offer
>  is not surprising. The Supreme Court, when it reinstatated the death
penalty
>  in 1976, explicitly said that it's not enough to kill someone to get
>  executed; there have to be sufficient aggravating circumstances, coupled
>  with insufficient mitigating circumstances, to warrant imposition of
capital
>  punishment. Thus, there are explicit legal hurdles to overcome before
>  capital punishment can be imposed. Then there is the legal distinction
>  between premeditatedd murder and other kinds of homicide, which your
>  statistic blurs. Only intentional, premeditated homicides are death
>  penalty-eligible. Your numbers, I think, include all types of homicide.

    Your statement supports my contention that capital punishment in America
is not lightly applied.
Yours,
Issodhos