In the HBO Sopranos' community forum for Episode 84 hundreds of commenters were divided over whether Silvio in the preview for Episode 85 - The Blue Comet (right click to download) said, "He's playing both sides of the fence" or "You've been playing both sides of the fence."

Amazingly both groups think they hear different things even though some have listened to the previews numerous times.

I bring this up because of the insanity of a Louisana Law allowing the death penalty for pedophiles who rape a child under the age of 12 even if there is no murder. I have no problem with whipping a paedophile senseless and pulling out all his teeth, as a start. But killing a human being when there is no murder is an abomination to civilized culture. Even more egregious is the fact that the word of a child may be enough to snuff out the life of an innocent man. At least if we whip him and pull out all his teeth and then later find we made a mistake, the wounds heal and there's always dental implants. But we cannot as yet restore life to those from whom we have stolen it.

Some of us recall the McMartin day care case where false memories were planted in children based entirely on the deranged fantasies of a hysterical and mentally unbalanced mother that turned into a modern American Witch Hunt and the longest trial in American history. Imagine if you will, had this poor fellow Ray Buckey lived in present day Louisiana and been executed before it was determined that the entire case against him was orchestrated by a crazed woman, a inexperienced intern, and prosecutors who only care about convictions. The Duke Lacrosse case comes to mind.

Pedophiles deserve the death penalty more than anyone, but sadly we cannot accept the word of adults let alone children to know what they hear or see as being true. We should abolish the death penalty not because the criminals do not deserve it, most do, but because it is more barbaric than the act of criminals. Criminals murder, rape, and torture because they are subhuman, abnormal, uncivilized brutes. What is our excuse when we take a human life?

Four countries account for 94 per cent of all executions: China, the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Is this the company we want to keep? By the way, Iran executed 8 alleged child offenders in 2005.

Newsvine,
28 May 2007,
Proposals to execute pedophiles make headway in US

The idea of executing child rapists, even when there in no loss of life, is making headway in the United States.

The Louisiana Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentence for a pedophile, and the governor of Texas is soon to sign into law legislation to that effect.

In 1995, Louisiana was the first state to adopt legislation authorizing the death penalty for child rapists.

Ten years later, the movement to make pedophilia punishable by death really picked up steam after nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was raped and buried alive in Florida by a man with a prior conviction for sex crimes.

Various versions of the "Jessica Law" sprang up all over in the country, imposing in most cases a minimum 25 year jail sentence and the wearing of an ankle bracelet for life for raping a child aged 12 or younger.

But in some states, elected officials amended their versions of the "Jessica Law" by adding the possibility of condemning a pedophile to death.

They include Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Georgia and Montana.