“This execution was so unnecessary , and because it was unnecessary, it was simply and completely wrong,” writes Joseph Bottum in today’s “On the Square” essay, They Did It . He is writing of the execution in the middle of the night of Ronnie Lee Gardner.
Calling the usual arguments for the death penalty “risible,” he argues that “They shouldn’t have done it—because they didn’t have to do it.” For his reasons, see the article. (And Monday’s as well, which is linked within the article.)
