Inbox

[January 30th, 2008]

Paying the Piper

As a Multnomah County prosecutor of capital cases, I personally agree that our death penalty scheme needs a major overhaul [“Killing Time,” Jan. 23]; however, the alternative of abolishing the death penalty may not be the cost-saving solution that your article suggests.

Consider this: In 2002, a beautiful 30-year-old Portland native named Alexandra Zapp was brutally stabbed to death by a convicted sex offender named Paul Leahy in Massachusetts, a state with no death penalty. The savageness of the crime, coupled with Leahy’s violent criminal past, made it impossible for the district attorney’s office to offer a plea bargain of a sentence less than true life (which was the maximum possible sentence). As a result, Leahy demanded a trial despite the fact that he was caught in the act, covered in Alexandra’s blood, and confessed to the crime. He is currently appealing his conviction. If the death penalty had been an option, the state of Massachusetts may have chosen to offer a true life sentence as we frequently do here in Oregon. This would have prevented the emotional pain of trial for Alexandra’s family as well as the expense of the trial itself and subsequent appeals.

While your article may correctly note the cost of defendants who appeal their death sentences, it is misleading not to also consider the concomitant cost savings for the hundreds of death-penalty eligible murderers in Oregon who instead plead guilty to avoid the risk of spending the rest of their lives on death row.

Kirsten M. Snowden
Deputy District Attorney, Multnomah County

Include Us Out

I play guitar in the Decemberists. I just wanted to state for the record that we were never “on the table” as participants for the Portland Music Awards. The way in which Mr. [Craig] Marquardo throws our name into his interview [Hotseat, Jan. 23] is completely misleading. On Thursday [Jan. 24, the day after the interview appeared], we were made aware that he had contacted our management with an invite, to which we declined.

Chris Funk
Via wweek.com

Check Your own Rose-Colored Asses

Last week, you brought up “issues” that have “failed to galvanize locals” in your cover story [“Welcome to Pleasantville,” Jan. 16]. Yet you forget that, as the local media, you are partially responsible for galvanizing the voting public.

Let’s take a look at WW’ s track record regarding the specific issues listed in the “Rose Colored” article.

Although very few “affordable housing” options are listed in WW’ s classifieds, finding an inexpensive escort to accompany me to a hotel room at 4 am is easy.

If the “eroding manufacturing base” is such a concern of WW , maybe you should stop utilizing soy-based ink, recycled paper, and other products associated with decreasing industrial zones.

If the government is looking for more of the “growing minority population,” they sure as hell won’t approach any WW staff. Reading the list of staff, it appears that not one has a Hispanic or Asian last name...and since WW doesn’t capitalize the word Black, I doubt they have any (whisper) black people aside from token-rocker-chick-with-dreds.

“Humiliation of being out-weirded by Seattle” is only a crime if you covet the whiter, more industrial neighbors to the North, who pay roughly two grand for a one-bedroom apartment.

Finally, “mushrooming industry” and “Thursdays at Goodfoot” don’t seem to go together.... The only “quirky singer-songwriters” I know came down from Seattle.

In conclusion, it is customary in our culture to check one’s self before potentially wrecking one’s self. I’m guessing those rose-colored glasses are non-prescription?

Statutory Ray
Quirky singer-songwriter
Southeast Portland

Correction

The Master Plastics ReCYCLE Ride (see last week’s Outdoors listings) is run by ride leader Lisa Gorlin, not the Portland Office of Sustainable Development. WW regrets the error.