Back Talk 

Your article states "Kenneth Lee Boyd wants to live." I'm certain that the two people he murdered felt the same way. Mr. Boyd denied their requests for clemency as he pulled the trigger to end their lives. Only the most heinous murderers get the death penalty. Any mitigating circumstance will usually produce a lesser sentence. I personally am glad that the criminal justice system did its job in this case. The death penalty is absolutely a deterrent. Mr. Boyd will never harm another person.

I challenge those of you with your mouths taped shut with "LIFE" written on it to show up at an anti-abortion rally or an abortion clinic decorated that way. I'm afraid practically all of you would be on the opposite side of the street on that issue. Thousands of death sentences are handed out every day to the most innocent of all in our society--unborn children. I only wish that there were more vigils held to spare their lives.
W.J. Roberts
Raleigh

Adult supervision needed
Evidently the editors of the Independent endorse the view of high school students in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who would secure their lives by the analysis of different methods of birth control (Front Porch, Nov. 30). Thus you grownups must flunk your vaunted Moral Superiority class, though I see you all can proudly even wear the appropriate T-shirt: "CENSORSHIP MADE ME PREGNANT." That's no "B" in biology, but OK, so we can give them a "C" for Confusion. But you adults are tops in irresponsibility. Grow up.
Sarah Freedman
Durham

Now you care
On the front of your latest Independent (Nov. 30), you give a warning about nuclear power. I found it interesting that you talk about the danger it poses to fetuses. Now, everybody knows that the Independent is for choice when it comes to aborting a fetus. How is a mother deciding to abort a fetus any better or worse than a fetus being affected by radiation? The end is the same for the fetus--death.
Max Greene
Chapel Hill