Columbia, SC — After a visit to the Scott Langley photography exhibit at the Tapp’s Art Center depicting Troy Davis’ execution and a meeting about abolishing the death penalty, I am more convinced than ever that South Carolina has to repeal this law. Not only for a moral and religious reasons, but for economic reasons.

Amnesty International has exposed the actual monetary costs of capital punishment, which range from three to 10 times the cost of life imprisonment, due to legal and judicial costs associated with the appeals process. Never mind the possibility that the accused might be innocent, as was almost surely the case with Davis, who was executed Sept. 21, 2011, in Georgia despite the recantation of testimony of nine of the 11 witnesses.

In spite of our notion that we are the most civilized nation in the history of the world, we are not. We are keeping company with Afghanistan, the Bahamas, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, North Korea, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam in allowing executions. What does that say about our nation?

Galen S. McWilliams

Columbia