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Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9 • Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Pa i By llNDSYE FoRSON
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Forensics:
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and Terrorisls
he 2004
Capital punishment
CINDY
MCREYNOLDS
Columnist
I n 1993, John Moreno, a
San Antonio convenience
store clerk, was mur
dered for his car keys and
the $44 in his register.
A security video
clearly showed
him begging for
his life when the
killer, Andrew
Flores, shot him
in the head and
rifled through his
pockets as he lay
dying. Flores was convicted of this crime
and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Now. death penalty opponents are claiming
that this sentence constitutes cruel and unusual
punishment and that lethal injection is a method of
torturing criminals. However, the weak science behind
these claims suggests that criminal rights activists are more
interested in pursuing their goal of banning capital pun
ishment than in evaluating lethal injection on the basis of
available evidence.
Lethal injection is administered in three stages. First, an an
esthetic and a paralyzing agent are administered as in conventional
surgical operations, and then potassium chloride is injected to induce
cardiac arrest. Opponents claim that lethal injection is inhumane because
the anesthetic may not keep an inmate unconscious throughout the pro
cedure. However, the dose administered is more than 10 times greater
than that given to the average patient going into surgery. Anesthesi
ologist and Texas state Sen. Kyle Janek stated in a written testimony
that such a dose guarantees that the inmate is not awake as the other
drugs are administered.
Ifanything, the lethal injection procedure deserves criticism be
cause of its complexity and cost to taxpayers. Since each procedure
costs $86 and takes about 18 minutes from administration of the lethal
drugs for the inmate to be pronounced dead, some have argued that execution by firing squad
orhanging would be faster, simpler and more cost effective.
As cold as these arguments sound, capital punishment is actually a cornerstone of a just so
ciety. Philosopher John Stuart Mill said, “We show an emphatic regard for life by the adoption
ofarulethat he who violates that right (of life) in another forfeits it in himself.” This state-
mi summarizes the moral necessity of capital punishment. Any individual .who chooses to
which bin commit murder forfeits his right to life. More importantly, precluding the possibility'of capital
llayton
punishment actually devalues human life.
Critics of the death penalty argue that executing criminals is unjustifiable because inno-
nctity of human life
cent people may be put to death. While every
precaution should be taken to prevent such
a tragedy, this argument is not tenable. All
justice systems revoke the rights of those
convicted of crimes, with punishments
ranging from fines (right to property), to
imprisonment (right to self-determination) to
execution (right to life). Since no system is
capable of administering justice flawlessly, it
is inevitable that the rights of innocent people
will be violated. For this reason, a good ju
dicial system should make it more difficult to
convict an individual of crimes that carry more
extreme sentences.
In Texas, there are many procedures that must
be followed exactly before a convicted criminal
may be sentenced to death. Jurors must unanimously
agree that the defendant willfully and deliberately acted
to cause death, that he is likely to be dangerous in the future,
that his actions are disproportionate to any possible provo
cation and that there are no other mitigating circumstances.
If even one juror disagrees, the death penalty cannot be
imposed. Furthermore, once sentenced to death, a prisoner
receives an automatic appeal and competent legal council at
public expense. These precautions are all designed to minimize
the possibility of executing an innocent person.
Capital punishment is a means of implementing justice, not retri
bution. It is not any perceived insignificance of the criminal’s life
that motivates a death sentence, but rather the profound worth of
the life he stole from his victim.
Capital punishment, administered by some humane means
to those convicted of atrocious crimes beyond the shadow of a
reasonable doubt, is necessary to uphold justice and to affirm the
sanctity of human life. Courts should not use such an unambigu
ous case as the Andrew Flores murder trial to impose their concept
of reform over the just sentence imposed by a judge and jury.
Cindy McReynolds is a senior
electrical engineering major.
Graphic by Ivan Flores.
from Aggie Hi
Diversity should apply to
both race and academics
ie print.
MI
-/EDS
1-0569
OUR AD
W hen the Texas
Legislature passed
a resolution on
Nov. 1, 1866 to establish
Texas A&M, the state’s first
public university, the legisla
tors had no idea the school
would grow to its size or
prestige. Yet its goal to cre-
J0NATHAN a t e a university to serve all
SMITH Texans is still fundamentally
Columnist t he driving force behind the
academic excellence.
Unfortunately, A&M serves some groups of
Texans more than its serves
others, yet the adminis
tration is working hard
to make sure that A&M
educates every group that
supports the school by pay
ing state taxes.
New successes in
increasing diversity allow
for more Texans to be part
of the A&M tradition, yet
the administration should
set bolder goals to repre
sent types of Texans not
traditionally associated
with the University.
Recently, the admin
istrators at A&M were
pleased to discover that
the enrollment numbers
for entering students bet-
ter represented the diverse
make-up of the state. The Eagle reported that
the University recorded an increase of incom
ing minority freshmen for the first time since
This fall, 2.9 percent of the freshmen
were black, an increase of 35 percent; 12
percent of the freshmen were Hispanic, an in
crease of 26 percent; 3.8 percent of freshmen
were Asian, an increase of 15 percent; and 1
percent of the freshmen were Native Ameri
can, an increase of 41 percent.
The increase of minorities entering the
school should be good news to all Aggies.
Even those who do not appreciate the admin
istration’s efforts to increase minority enroll
ment should applaud the fact that their school
instantly becomes more respectable and
appreciated by Texans who do not have direct
experience with the school. Numbers now
prove that A&M cannot ever again be wrong
fully called a white cult. We will all hear less
of the Aggie jokes now that a more diverse
population defends its good name.
Yet the doubters of plans to increase
minority enrollment do present a good point:
Administrators should do more to attract stu
dents who are different for reasons other than
race alone. Now that the tides are turning, the
administration needs to put more emphasis of
attracting students from parts of Texas society
that the school has never seriously courted.
The most neglected part of A&M currently
is its liberal arts college. The under-funding
of programs and the
lack of strong efforts
to improve the Col
lege of Liberal Arts’
reputation makes it
known that future
artists, journalists,
musicians and other
ultra-creative types
are not welcome
here.
If the administra
tion only wishes
to pay lip service
to diversity, it will
continue to focus
only on race, but one
possible reason it has
taken eight years to
win back the minor-
ity crowd is because
many don’t want to
just be engineers, businessmen, lawyers, doc
tors and scientists.
A&M is changing in ways that couldn’t
have been expected 100 or even 10 years ago.
The administration’s actions toward its goals
have now proved to be a success. The admin
istration needs to set bolder goals that focus
on issues other than race, to continue the
process of changing A&M to better reflect its
original purpose.
New successes in
increasing diversity
allow for more Texans to
be part of the A&M
tradition, yet the
administration should set
bolder goals to
represent types of
Texans not traditionally
associated with the
University.
Jonathan Smith is a junior
history major.
MAIBSCALL
Planned Parenthood’s main
objective is helping women
In response to the 40 Days for Life and anti-
Planned Parenthood movements on campus, I
would like to say that as a woman and a pro-
choice supporter, I feel that the propaganda
displayed on campus is an attempt to unfairly
discredit Planned Parenthood as an organization
that “hurts women." If any of the members of the
anti-choice organizations on campus had visited
a Planned Parenthood clinic, they would know
that Planned Parenthood’s main objective is to
prevent abortion by providing contraceptives and
health information to women as well as providing
health exams for women at low costs.
Ten percent of the patients at Planned Parent-
hoods nationwide actually have abortions; the other
90 percent are there for information, testing and
health services. Now unfortunately, with the protests
surrounding the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, many
women are afraid to have their exams and receive their
contraceptives at the facility, and this is disheartening.
As women, we should not allow the fanatically
conservative few who stand outside of Planned
Parenthood make our decisions for us. Women have
come a long way from the days when social pres
sures forced them into unsafe and illegal abortions.
Let’s not have to revert back to those days.
Marina Corona
Class of 2008
Abortion advocates ignore
unborn child’s right to life
I am not at all surprised at how the Aggie Demo
crats choose to get offended at pro-lifers' efforts in
defending the dignity of human life. Their only argu
ment is a woman’s “right to choose,” but when the
actual facts about abortion are presented, they take
offense and try to turn the issue away from the un
born child’s rights and on to women’s rights.
The president of Aggie Democrats claims no one
should tell a woman what she can or cannot do to
her own body. In the case of a pregnant woman, it
is not only her body. There is a completely separate
human being in the womb that has its own right to
life, just as its mother has a right to life, but yet feels
she has the right to abort it. I commend YCT for
its efforts to proclaim the dignity of every person,
and I hope that pro-choice advocates would take the
responsibility to discuss the actual issue of abortion
instead of running from the facts by taking offense at
things such as chalk hearts on the ground.
Charles Vreeland
Class of 2005
Aggies must register to
vote in upcoming election
There are only about eight more days left to reg
ister to vote in time to receive your registration card
for this November’s Presidential election. It takes
very little time to pick up a registration form at your
local post office, one minute to fill it out and less
than one minute to mail it out. Think about it: only
a few moments and you could help make a deci
sion that will change the course of the world forever.
Take part in our democratic society by simply utiliz
ing the right that so many fought so hard for us to
have today. Say, “Thank you, and I do care about our
future,” by taking a few minutes to register to vote,
but do it soon, or it will be too late.
Miguel Hernandez
Class of2004
On-campus parking poses
problems for students
As a student worker for three years during my time
at Texas A&M, I was forced this summer to purchase
a parking permit to park at my place of employment
on campus. I guess that money was not sufficient
for Transportation Services, because I was ticketed
for parking in my lot when I had to work overtime a
few weeks ago.
Last week, when utilizing the ridiculous football ticket
allocation process, where no parking exists, I was tick
eted yet again for being one minute over in a 30-minute
space. This morning, while using another service on
campus, where once again no parking existed, I was
ticketed. When I tried to pay these unfair tickets on
campus where, no surprise, no parking was available,
I was informed that this facility does not accept Aggie
Bucks. Aggie Bucks are an official form of payment ev
erywhere else on campus and at most prominent local
businesses. So I went to charge the fees and I guess
I should have expected the extra amount they charged
for using a credit card not preferred by this University.
Parking needs improvement at A&M.
Sara Petrzelka
Class of 2005
The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters should
be 200 words or less and include the author’s name, class
and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to
edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be sub
mitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student
ID. Letters also may be mailed to: 015 Reed McDonald, 1111
TAMU, College Station. TX 77843-1111. Fax: (979) 845-
2647 Email: mailcall@thehattalion.net