An actual matter of life and death

“The mentally handicapped are executed on a regular basis while the politicians all give speeches about being tough on crime.  I’ve never come across a single murderer who possessed the mental faculties required to fully comprehend the horror of what they have done.  They are not emotionally developed enough to feel empathy.  They live lives of nightmare, yet are not even capable of realizing that.  They are the dregs of humanity, both by birth and choice.  Prison and the prison mentality are not what society has been led to believe they are.  These people cannot even take care of themselves, and they suffer from every health problem imaginable.  There are no attractive murderers here.  It’s like the ugliness inside them manages to transform their facial features so that the outside resembles the inside.  There are no conversations here.  There are threats, taunts, and screams, but a conversation is an impossibility.  Concepts such as love, honor, and self-respect are as foreign to this place as French cuisine.” — Damien Echols, Life After Death