Alec Baldwin has poured his outrage over the recent execution of a Death Row prisoner into an article for a U.S. publication, rallying against capital punishment.
The actor was among a number of stars, including Mia Farrow and Kim Kardashian, who spoke out against plans to execute Troy Davis, who was convicted in 1991 of killing an off-duty police officer.
Davis protested his innocence right up until his death by lethal injection last Wednesday (21Sep11) and his execution sparked outrage among those who believe he was wrongly convicted, including filmmaker Michael Moore who has since called for a mass boycott of Georgia, where Davis was put to death.
Baldwin, who vented his anger on Twitter.com after Davis' execution, has now written about his concerns over capital punishment in an article for the Huffington Post.
He writes, "Supporters of the death penalty often seem to me like the opposite side of a coin. Where they contend that death penalty opponents are soft on crime and coddle the murderers of police officers, their opposites see them as those supporting a system that they largely have faith in, yet if a few innocent convicts get put to death?... Well... nothing's perfect. I'll make a deal with you. You don't imply that I'm indifferent to the murder of a police officer and I won't imply that you're willing to kill innocent men by way of a racially tainted legal system."
The 30 Rock star goes on to insist the death penalty should be abolished, adding, "It's justice we're after. So, if you take away the death penalty, there's justice all around. Because life in prison without parole is the worst possible sentence. Have you ever visited a prison? Ever been escorted around and spoken to inmates about what goes on there? How they feel? I have...
"The death penalty costs us more money than it costs to house an inmate for life. We don't want to kill innocent people. And we don't need to kill the guilty ones either. Prison itself is the death penalty. In the slowest of slow motion."