Death penalty isn't fair or just
On Sept. 22, I attended my first hearing of Maryland's capital punishment commission ("Death penalty on trial," Sept. 23). After hearing testimony from experts and from the public, I am convinced that the death penalty should be abolished.
From what I heard at this hearing, I think capital punishment is not fair or just. Innocent people are put on death row and could be executed.
Until there is no possibility of this happening, our state should not have the power to take lives.
The most compelling and shaking arguments I heard were testimony that suggested that the forensic evidence used in death penalty trials is not 100 percent reliable.
Science may be precise. However, the scientists working with DNA are human, and humans make mistakes and some have even fabricated evidence.
I believe that when we are dealing with someone's life there should be no mistakes and no chance of errors.
Kelly Lynne, Capitol Heights
The writer is an intern for Amnesty International USA.
Optical-scan ballots don't exclude disabled
Alyssa Fieo of the Maryland Disability Law Center writes, "We all support a voting system that is secure and accurate" ("Paper ballots prompt concern for disabled," Sept. 25). She also reminds us that under federal law, the system must be accessible to people with disabilities, including voters who are blind or who have a dexterity disability, and enable them to cast their ballots privately and independently.
After this November, thanks to the unanimous vote of the General Assembly, Maryland voters will once again vote on paper ballots.
Voters who cannot mark their own ballots by hand will have touch-screen machines to help mark their paper ballots.
The only assistance they might require would be in transferring their machine-marked ballots, in privacy sleeves, to the optical scanners that will count them.
Many states already use such systems, which meet federal accessibility requirements and, in fact, accommodate a wider range of physical disabilities than our current touch-screen machines do, while also ensuring secure, accurate elections.
Michael Berla, Columbia