'LIFE IN PRISON' SENTENCE SHOULD MEAN JUST THAT

To the Editor:

The disappearance of Dru Sjodin, a young college student in North Dakota,
illustrates why most people still support the death penalty for violent
criminals.

Alfonso Rodriguez, a three-time convicted sex offender, is charged with her
abduction and, with her DNA-matched blood in his car, almost certainly her
death.

Those who oppose capital punishment say incarcerate such a violent offender
for the rest of his life. That would be a viable alternative to a death
sentence if it were done, but it is not, as the case of Mr. Rodriguez
illustrates.

After three convictions he was still on the street to the consternation of
his own family members. One report says that we must let prisoners out
because we incarcerate over 3 million inmates in the United States. Many of
these inmates are non-violent offenders convicted of buying relatively
innocuous drugs such as marijuana.

We must find a way to open prison cells for violent offenders by setting up
alternative rehabilitation programs for non-violent offenders and
decriminalizing some of the lesser offenses.

That is, we must make a sentence of "life in prison" mean what it says or
we must retain and use the death penalty to protect law-abiding citizens.

Gus Tomlinson

Nashville 37215