“If They’d Known More…They’d Have Voted Differently”

by Zack Beauchamp

Political theorist Ari Kohen tells the story of his friendship with death row inmate Ronnie Frye on the 10th anniversary of the latter's execution:

Ronnie Frye’s death was meant to bring some measure of comfort to the victims of his crime, the family of Ralph Childress. Perhaps it did; I know Ronnie sincerely hoped that it would. But it also created another innocent, grieving family: Ronnie’s. As I have written a great many times on this blog over the past couple of years in one way or another, the death penalty is not a solution to the problem violence; it is violence. I know this from first-hand experience; it is not theoretical or abstract to me.