Watkins: just another politician



Re: "Watkins no longer opposes death penalty -- He denies 'playing politics'
for re-election," last Friday news story.

At long last, District Attorney Craig Watkins openly admits to supporting the
death penalty, a system he knows is inherently flawed with racism and hateful
prejudices.

Watkins has the option in all capital cases to pursue the sentence of life
without parole, knowing full well that people convicted will never be released
into society.

He may be praised for his pursuit to release the many wrongly convicted inmates
in Dallas County jails, but his willingness to embrace an ideology and practice
of human extermination clearly shows his hypocrisy with a willingness to
condemn individuals into a system which is similarly flawed with numerous
innocent people waiting to be and already having been executed.

Watkins should be seen for who he is: just another politician who panders to
the fears and worst emotions in people, and who is unable and/or unwilling to
help lead this state and this nation to a more humane position on a serious
social justice and human rights issue.

Rick Halperin, Amnesty International and Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, Dallas

(source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)