On 02-08-98 John Boone wrote to Day Brown... 
 JB>  DB> If one is concerned with minimizing loss of innocent life, then  
 JB>  DB> after conviction for murder, one only has to consider whether the 
 JB>  DB> convict fits the profile of those who try to kill or escape while 
 JB>  DB> in prison, and just execute those.   
 JB>         [snip]  
 JB>   If one is concerned about law and order and the effects of  
 JB> absence of it on society, what should one think?  
 JB>   According to Thomas Sowell, the institution of -law and  
 JB> order- (during colonial times by the evil European countries)  
 JB> significantly increased the standard of living in Africa.   
Well, I guess you might factor in the kind of culture in judging 
capital cases.  If a given community has a lot of murder, there 
is some rationale to suggest that the sanction against murder is 
not stiff enough, and employ execution rather more often. 
 
Africa is a bit of a different problem John.  Savages always have 
problems with drink and intoxicants, property rights, crimes of 
passion, and in illiterate societies, where words aren't recorded 
for posterity, a high degree of expediency with truth- as Julius 
Caesar noted with the Gauls. 
 
Like the Gauls, I expect Africans might need a couple hundred or 
so more years to cull out the trouble makers from the gene pool. 
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