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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Letters to the Editor

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    Death Penalty
    Study Misleads
    RE: EDITORIAL on Death Penalty (Telegraph, Dec. 27):
    Sometimes it amazes me the lack of knowledge about a subject that is espoused in editorials. This one is no exception.
    "Based on interviews with more than 1,200 jurors in 354 trials in 14 states, the National Science Foundation study concluded that roughly half of capital-qualified jurors come to the courtroom predisposed toward the death penalty before they even consider the evidence."
    I have read the "study" several times and have commented on it before in various media. There were almost 4,000 other jurors not studied.
    The implication in the statement is very misleading— at best!
    The implication is that the defendant is guilty before the evidence is even presented. As a historian, I have studied well over 1,000 cases in the past 30 years. That implication is not true. All you have to do is look at the total number of capital cases and then the numbers of actual death sentences imposed.
    A very quick check with any lawyer in New Mexico who is involved in criminal cases will reveal the fact that 100 percent of jurors in a capital case have to be willing to impose the death penalty. The statutes have a provision that the death sentence must be unanimous: If a single juror votes "no," then sentence will not be death.
    BILL HAYES
    Formerly of Albuquerque
    Thank You For
    Your Donations
    I JUST WANTED to publicly express my deep gratitude and appreciation for all the companies and individuals who, through their thoughtful and generous donations, made the holiday party for the kids of Mountainair a wonderful experience for all involved.
    A great big THANK YOU to the Toys for Tots Foundation, especially GySgt. William Amass and his wonderful, kind-hearted, hard-working staff.
    The local businesses in town that went out of their way helping to collect donations: b Street Market, Gustin Hardware, Meds and More, My Bank, NM Electric Co-op, Town Hall and Uncle Walter's. Creamland Dairy and B & H Wholesale in Albuquerque, Mr and Mrs. Louis Bottini and Bill Owens Livestock were also very generous in their offerings for the party.
    Many volunteers were needed to make this event possible, and their support and help were greatly appreciated: Deb, Patrick, Alisha, Ashley, Josh, Karl, Jacob, Erich, Bob, Chief vonKutzleben, Isabel, Mark, Jimmy and Santa!
    A very special thank you goes out to all those individuals who gave anonymously, yet so generously.
    Thank you all for caring!
    WHITNEY vonKUTZLEBEN
    Thinning Plans
    Should Be Public
    I WISH TO answer Mr. (David) Cohen's latest Guest View (Telegraph, Dec. 6):
    Firstly, Mr. Cohen tells us that if we give him our trees we won't be in danger of a big fire here in the East Mountains. The growth that replaces the trees, grass, brush and weeds will indeed burn. I can't figure out which fire I would rather have, a forest fire or a range fire. This seems like a scare tactic he uses to promote his commercial project and get money from us, the taxpayers, to help finance his profit-making (for him) venture.
    I understand that in other parts of the country there are biomass plants burning the trash and garbage, therefore making city dumps either a thing of the past or at least greatly reducing the need of landfills. The city of Albuquerque would probably give you all the trash and garbage, maybe even haul it to your plant.
    If, indeed, this is a profit-making business, there should be plenty of venture capital out there to get it up and running. If it is not a legitimate profit-making venture, I believe we (again, us taxpayers) should bow out.
    Secondly, I am in favor of thinning our forests. I burn wood and take advantage of the New Mexico state wood-cutting program that allows us wood burners to get our firewood. This does a little thinning, but not enough. Therefore, a lot of thinning needs to be done. I don't care if it is done by woodcutters (even professional ones) or by a power plant. What I want to know is just EXACTLY how Mr. Cohen's company proposes to do the job.
    I don't think for a minute that the huge amount of burnable material will be cut by men with chain saws and pickup trucks. There has to be some heavy harvesters to do this work. I'd like to see the plan. Also, will it be thinned in strips, or will only the big mature piñon and shaggy bark cedars be taken? What about little trees and brush? Would ANY of the slash be left behind?
    Would there be some kind of enforcement to make sure that the plan is followed?
    The reason I ask all these questions about the thinning is that when the plant is built and running, if there are no checks in place, we, the residents will suffer throughout the life of the plant. We, I, need to know what kind of a hardship the proposed biomass plant will put on us, the residents of the East Mountains and the surrounding prairies and grasslands.
    Thirdly, Mr. Cohen, have you considered doing some REAL electrical generating? Have you looked into Generation 4 nuclear? This is a clean, utterly safe system that will turn out a large amount of power.
    ROGER LONG
    Village of El Cedro