They published my letter in the paper today

[denton]

Well, hanging does cure the recidivism part, but you're right: We need to be looking to prevention, rather than punishment after the fact. I just don't have a clue about how to do that, other than the obvious statement that it helps kids to grow up in a stable, two parent home, with responsible parents, who really care about their kids. My sister is a professional counselor, and one day when we were comparing notes, we concluded that we were extremely lucky to have had that. Some of the kids a grew up with didn't, and I couldn't understand why they acted the way they did. It just never occurred to me what kind of troubles they had at home.

We are also far, far too litigous a society. We hire legislators to get together every year, and work to make some more things illegal. And if there is some especially picked-on group behind the law, they'll try to make it double, triple, or octuple illegal, as though that will do any good.

And being a judge is a no-win proposition. Whatever you decide, someone is going to be disappointed.