From: fschw@global.co.za

Dear Sir Madam

The abolishment of the death penalty could sound very reasonable. But should one of your friends , wife be raped and murdered I wander what your true feelings woud be.

I live in a country ( South Africa ) where the Law i.e.. hand are bound. Our judicial system is incompetent , the Government of the day even allow prisoners in jail to vote. I am sure that you have good aspirations by stating the fact to abolish the death penalty in the USA.

Our Police are at present in a dilemma , the government of the day is implementing a new law Article 49 should a person be killed infront of you tos the weapon away and try to escape the police are not allowed to fire on the suspect although they have just witnessed a murder.

Unfortunately in our country jail is not that un-appealing as you have chance to study, pay, food etc. and the right to vote.

The death penalty has been abolished for a number of years and murder , robberies, rape has increasedby an average of 80%.

In South Africa corruption is at the forefront and you can be released for murder within hours of being arrested. By the way we do not even have an influxce ontroll law so any one of the African Countries can just walk in.

To give you an example one our formost leaders in government's body guard killed a person and most problem a supporter on Old Years 1998 eve for urinating against his wall.

He paid bail of about +/- 330.00 US$ the next day and did not even report to any magistrate and carried on with his New Years Party. Because of the high profile of his boss this was swept under the carpet.

I am of the opinion that the death penalty by the state is of utmost importance to act as a deterrent in our situation.

As I mentioned earlier wilst the death penalty was in force incidence of murder was low now it is the opposite.

Yours faithfully

Fritz Schwarz