The death penalty has failed whenever and wherever it has been tried. Enactment of Proposition 195 would extend this failed policy, draining resources needed for our children's education and for improvement of human life. As voters, we have moral obligations to insist on more effective policies to safeguard the limited public resources needed to enhance our communities. Do not extend use of the death penalty, even in appearance.
For too long, societies have experimented with death as an outlet for vengeance, or as a shortcut solution to difficult social problems. The experiment has failed, and our communities have suffered. The very existence of Proposition 195 attests to this.
History shows that the threat of death, when used as a policy instrument inevitably erodes our collective vision of the dignity of the human person. The death penalty undermines the value of human life on which democracy rests, and tends to increase those same violent attitudes and actions that the policy seeks to prevent.
We must use methods of preventing and penalizing violent crime which do not promote the attitudes underlying the wanton carjackings we abhor. Our policies should instead promote awareness that human life is a priceless gift endowed with inalienable value and dignity.
RABBI LEONARD I. BEERMAN
Los Angeles, CA
JEANETTE G. ARNQUIST
Director of Human Concerns
Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino
SAM REESE SHEPPARD
Director, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation