Pat Buchanan

The decision to execute a murderer is an act of just retribution, not revenge, argues Pat Buchanan in the following viewpoint. If the death penalty were truly vengeful, criminals would be executed by the same means that they used to kill their victims. Through capital punishment, the state impartially “pays back” what a murderer has wrongly taken away, Buchanan contends. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why did Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell urge mercy in the case of convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker, according to Buchanan"
2. In the author’s view, why is the arbitrary application of the death penalty irrelevant"
3. What would have become of Karla Faye Tucker had her death sentence been commuted, in Buchanan’s opinion"

As the lethal injection raced toward the...