Last night, just before the sun was ready to set, you struck once again and killed another one of my friends. In fact, you killed two. And with those deaths I began to think and wonder about you. You, Mr. Executioner, you as a person.

Many do not think of you as a person, Mr. Executioner. For when someone is executed, murdered by the state, in the name of the state, we tend to simply think of the killers as a body of those in power. But that is not the true case, Mr. Executioner, and I know that you, above anyone else, know this all to well. Oh, those who send us to you - judges, politicians, prosecutors, prison guards, juries (who are not fully informed), witnesses (who knowingly lie), and in a great number of cases lawyers for the defense as well - yes, they may get their hands a little stained. But they are nothing more than your helpers, tools, hurdles that must be crossed so that you may act in your perfected art of murder. They will be judged in the end for the part that they played, but it is your hands that are stained with the blood of many.

So I thought of you, Mr. Executioner, and I wondered at how you are, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I wondered at how you live with the knowledge from day to day that you've murdered someone. I wondered at how you sleep at night. Are you haunted by nightmares of the many faces that I'm sure you never knew the names of? Truly, I would like to know how your conscience is. Do you find comfort in the idea that you are "just doing your job"? If so, then you must be a very rich hitman.

I wonder, do your friends know what you do? Do they know that they are living around a trained murderer who seems to really enjoy his work? Have you become addicted to it? What happens if you have no one else to murder? When punishment by death will no longer be around, will you seek out your art still?

Do you feel that you are doing right with the idea that you are killing killers, and that you may be saving lives in that? Have you ever given thought to the possibility that this person, or the next one you will kill, might be actually innocent? I've often heard it said that they might rather murder ten innocent than to allow one guilty to escape what you all call "justice". Or is it that you do not care about that part of the deal, since your job calls for you to act and not care?

So if that is your "justice", the killing of killers, could you tell me then who kills the killer who killed the killer? I suggest that would only lead to a world without people. Or as Ghandi said: "An eye for an eye only leads to a blind world."

I have also wondered if you have ever thought of the families you hurt. I understand I have heard people say that those have hurt families, too. But your work lets the cycle of pain continue. And your killing is not like most cases on death row - where the act was very spontaneous, a spur of the moment, or even an accident. No, I am not trying to justify any murder but you plan and practice your trade years before you actually act. You even tell them that you are going to kill them on a certain day and time.

Do you feel free and happy with yourself and with the deeds you carry out? How do you think God sees you and the murders you commit? Most Americans (67%) agree with the work that you do. Or so they think they do because it makes them feel safe. (Why, I do not understand. Polls show that capital punishment has not been a deterrent. In fact, in states that abolished the death penalty, crime has decreased continuously.) So tell me, do you believe that God will overlook the stains on your hands because others agree with what you do? Because they, in their ignorance cheered you on with their hatefulness and thirst for revenge? Yes, that's what it's all about, revenge, isn't it? "Revenge", God said, "is mine." But yet you act in his place.

Or could it be that you think your acts are not yours because you do so in the name of the state? That it's not your deed because it's "just your job"? And not something you like or enjoy doing? If so, I'd suggest you better leave that "job"-idea behind because you'd be awfully wrong in those thoughts.

Mr. Executioner, the mind in most cases controls the body (the physical state of the body). So, how is your body at night when you go home from another killing? Do you have to drink yourself to sleep? When you look in the mirror, Mr. Executioner, are you happy with what you see? Are you happy with yourself in the knowledge that you are killing my friends daily?

Yes, I called them my friends. Or did you not think that a man on death row could be a friend to anyone? He is also someone's child, brother, and father as well. And in most cases he doesn't even belong on death row (besides the fact that no one does since the death penalty is wrong in general), maybe in prison, but surely not death row. When those who support the death penalty say they do, they have on their minds the "heartless killer". Someone with a history of murders and assaults. Mr. Executioner, I tell you that most of the men and women who are on death row in this great country of America today are first-time offenders. And most of those have not done anything but a little time for something like petty theft, drugs, or some type of shame to get some money - surely not murder.

And that is if even they are the ones (in some cases strong doubt was raised) who committed the terrible death they were sent to death row for. And to further prove my point to you, most were no more than twenty-two years old when they got in the trouble that placed them there. Surely a twenty-two year old could not have been hardened beyond change. Must you take what God has given to him?

The death penalty was never meant to be sought out in every capital case that came along. And as I understand it, you are not done, not by a long shot. I hear that you are even seeking to lower the age limit so that you might place children under the machine of murder. Oh, you say that they are not children when you put them to death. That's only because you know it will not be accepted by your supporters - the American people. So you shut them away until they are older. So that by the time you take them out the back door, they are far away from the child they were when they caused the deaths. And you refuse to let it be known that they have changed, and if anyone gets past you, the light you shed on them is that it's a con. People really can change, if only you'd give them a chance.

Mr. Executioner, I really do not understand it, but I wish you would give them more thought to your killings and show some type of restraint. Life without parole, capital life which means just that (something many do not understand). With a capital life sentence there is no way a person would make parole and be released. But you don't want this to be known. For a capital life sentence is 40 day-for-day years before a person is even considered for release. And most likely will be turned down and therefore wind up either dying of old age in prison, or leaving unable to do anything for themselves. So why kill them? Let them stay in prison, they'll die of old age, rather than with your needles in their arms.

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