Madam, - I certainly agree with your Editorial "Pointless deaths" (September 9th) and with your statement that "there was no little irony in the State of Florida taking Paul Hill's life by lethal injection". He killed, so, therefore, he is to be killed in turn - to prove what? That killing is wrong?
I am totally opposed to the death penalty and to abortion. As you said, "Hill's death is as pointless and misguided as those of Dr John Britton and James Barrett, whom he killed". More so, I would say. No one has the right to take life, but the taking of life by the State is the most reprehensible of all.
That the custodians of the law seek to enforce the law by violence is counter-productive, as shown by the fact that states without the death penalty in the US have fewer violent crimes. Therefore, the only purpose of the death penalty is revenge. A noble aspiration? - Yours, etc.,
Mrs MARY STEWART, Ardeskin, Donegal Town.