Death penalty

Despite the changes that Montana State Prison is making in their death penalty protocol, it will not help the victims who have already lived through the torment of having a loved one taken from them.

Killing the two men on death row only answers violence with violence. It doesn't make the surviving family whole. It will not ease their pain. And it will not do anything to protect society.

States without the death penalty actually have significantly lower average murder rates than those with the death penalty. There is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to future crime.

So we can either continue to throw away scarce tax dollars on a broken system, or we can replace it with life without parole. As a taxpayer and a Christian, I choose the latter.

Rev. Edward Folkwein, retired

Columbia Falls