But deep in my psyche, logic and reason have little to do with it. It's pure emotion - visceral feeling. I get a horror reaction when educated, enlightened people take a fellow human, bound and defenseless, and deliberately kill him or her. I realize that the condemned person's crime was heinous, the work of a twisted sicko. Every society contains some sociopaths who kill people.
Murderers are loathsome, vile, poisonous people.
When I was young, I didn't really think about these things. I was sent to cover one of West Virginia's last executions, in the ancient stone prison at Moundsville. All through the day, you can't escape the realization that they're going to kill a man. They're going, intentionally and methodically, to kill a man. In the afternoon, the mortician calls and gives you the obituary.