Join Kentuckians from across the state in writing to elected officials and media outlets in opposition to Gregory Wilson’s execution.
Gov. Steve Beshear can be reached at
http://governor.ky.gov/contact/contact.htm
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
502-564-2611
Here are links to the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier-Journal for submitting letters to the editors:
Of course writing your local newspapers is always an excellent idea because legislators and those running for office pay close attention to the opinions of their constituents.
For talking points, please check out this blog post.
Just today the Lexington Herald-Leader published this letter to the editor by Steve Olshewsky:
Kentucky’s death penalty is killing us in several ways. Aside from the increased financial expense, we suffer an increased murder rate related to our brutal practice of killing criminals.
The high incidence of mistakes (such as the overturned conviction of Larry Osborne in 2002) and racial inequities are well documented.
Deterrence was a justification advanced in the 1970s based on a study by Isaac Ehrlich which has since been disproved for methodological errors. In fact, Ehrlich’s work was also criticized by the National Academy of Sciences, but it is still clung to as the rationale for thinking of capital punishment as deterrence.
Far from reducing crime, data on murder rates suggest capital punishment actually encourages crime.
The South has the greatest number of executions as well as the largest murder rates. In 2007, the average murder rate in states with the death penalty was 5.5 per 100,000 population; the average murder rate of the 14 states without the death penalty was 3. So almost twice as many murders per capita when criminals are executed.
A 1995 survey of police chiefs and county sheriffs found that most ranked the death penalty last in a list of six options that might deter violent crime. Gallup polls show people who know the truth do not support capital punishment.
Only an eye-for-an-eye vengeance is accomplished by killing murderers. Christian beliefs teach this is wrong. Killing for retribution is as cruel and unusual as chopping off a thief’s hand. Yet we allow a punishment system serving no other purpose.
Why abolish the death penalty in Kentucky?
There is strong evidence that Wilson is developmentally disabled and is therefore ineligible for the death penalty.
thank you or his life.
Cumplan las leyes que ustedes mismos legislan . Si esta persona está discapacitada
actúen en consecuencia.
De todas las maneras ¿Quienes son ustedes para aplicar la muerte si no pueden dar la vida? No les parece que actúan con un poder que no les corresponde. Apliquen penas de por vida que impliquen rehabilitación para erl penado y la sociedad.
Do not kill Gregory Wilson
Do not kill anyone
The death penalty is nothing more than an antequated desire for revenge in which society drowns itself in a sea of crass hypocrisy and takes the easy way out, and, in the process passes all it’s own guilt and responsibility over to the person who pulls the switch or operates the machine that dispenses the chemicals. A society that condemns a killer but then kills in return is no better than the person they condemn. Likewise, a state that kills in retaliation is a state that blinds itself to the surrounding picture of why murder occurs in a country like the USA. Is society made any better by operating a policy of Capital punisment? The answer to that has to be no. Give clemency to gregory Wilson.
David Lockhart
Northamptonshire
England
To whom it may concern, Please do not execute Gregory Wilson. He is developmentally disabled and should not be on death row. We are a Christian nation. Jesus stopped an execution by saying ” Let you who have not sinned cast the first stone.” All of the executioners walked away. Who among is so pure that we can judge the soul of another and decide life or death over them. God bless you, Brigitte McCormack
Please, save the life of Gregory Wilson. The Death Penalty Policy in our country is wrong. Sincerely, Kathleen Healy
Governor,
Please intevene in the up coming execution of Gregory Wilson. States all across the US are finding serious problems with the death penalty process. Life is to precious to make an error that is cannot be reversed. Please take action on the sanctity of life principle, I implore you today.
stop all executions !!! only god can take a life
Please, give him an opportunity for a better life. Death Penalty is a cruel punishment and
cabnit be a solution for a better world
Pleasem give him an opportunity as a human being. Death Penalty is a cruel punishment
and cannot be the solution for a better world.
Capital punishment is wrong: it is applied unfairly and is not reversible. Do not kill Gregory Wilson.
Do not execute Greg Wilson! The Supreme Court has ruled that the mentally retarded should not be executed! Please commute his sentence to life in prison. It is wrong to execute anyone, especially someone who can not be held responsible because of lack of mental capacity.
he should have died, like the rest of the pricks who take others out of this world