Praise for Rodriguez.

• Author: Margoles, Jonathan
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

I would like to thank you for having the moral courage to publish Luis Rodriguez's article in the October issue ("Don't Throw Away the Key"). This is an issue that is not given its due, in my opinion. I am a life-without-parole prisoner.

Needless to say, I have thought long and hard on this. I disagree with Rodriguez on one thing: Since commutations in this state are an unattainable joke for most of us, I feel death is more merciful than life without parole. When you receive life without parole, they throw you away in these gulags, and no one gives a shift If you have the death penalty, everyone jumps on your case, the spotlight shines, and rigorous review occurs, and your chances of true justice mightily increase. Spending an additional twenty years-plus in here frightens me much more than dying.

The sad fact is, for most of us, the appellate courts do not follow their own laws and case precedents. Many appellate opinions are nothing more than intellectual dishonesty and would not even hold up in a first-year law school class. Also, restrictive laws, such as Clinton's 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, limit our ability to even go back into the courts.

In my trial, after I was convicted and before sentencing, I asked my judge to give me the death penalty. He told me to shut up and then gave me life without parole. He very well knew what he was doing in giving me life without parole, and it was not to be merciful, I assure you.

Jonathan Margoles

Graterford, Pennsylvania

There are very few generalizations that are valid for all those locked up in our prison...