Dear Editor:

I have given a lot of thought to what I feel I want to say and how to express it.

After the outright slaying of five people, I have cried for three days. As a 56-year-old man with six children, I'm not ashamed that my heart was so ripped apart as a 15-year-old girl I didn't know but could have been my daughter was laid to rest.

I realize there are many ideas about the death penalty and in a free society everyone's entitled to their own. But there is a blunt reality — that there is evil in our society. Evil such as in the case of Mr. Burris. he got exactly what he deserved.

Recently another parolee from North Carolina, a former death row inmate, shot at police officers and was shot several times. Unfortunately he lived (my opinion). It amazes me that we can't hang people who bring such heartache on others.

No, the death penalty as an example doesn't carry the weight it once did. But in the case of Burris, it does, while in the case of Mr. Case some lawyers somewhere will get to cry we can't violate his rights!

I suppose the only thing to do is go back to the days of the Old West when everyone wore a gun.

That's truly sad. Sincerely, Steve Dowdle Gaffney, S.C.