Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania. The Butler Eagle responded with two lengthy editorials (“Governor goes too far with death penalty moratorium,” Feb. 17; “Defense of death penalty should be argued in court,” Feb. 20) decrying the governor’s actions and offering the courts as a more proper place for a debate on the death penalty to take place.

Wolf’s action was not a pardon for any of the 186 people presently on death row; nor was it a commutation of any sentence. It is merely a temporary reprieve during which time some discussion may happen and we await the report of a bipartisan, legislative commission that has been studying the issue.

I wish the governor had gone further and established a goal of abolishing the death penalty.

There are real questions the governor asked when he imposed the moratorium: Is it cost effective? Are we doing the right thing? Is it fair? Is it effective as a deterrent?

Forgetting the moral arguments against the death penalty, as a taxpayer I want us to stop wasting millions of dollars pursuing capital cases. Using a current high profile case in Colorado; it is estimated that it will cost the taxpayers of Colorado $5 million and take eight months to try James Holmes because the prosecution has announced it will ask for the death penalty. If the prosecution were to ask for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, millions of dollars would be saved and the length of time would be greatly reduced.

Holmes is the accused Colorado theater shooter. In the Colorado theater shooting, 12 people were murdered and 70 were injured by gunfire. The carnage from that theater raises another obvious issue. We know that we have potentially violent sociopaths walking among us and we know that ISIL is using social media to recruit lone wolf terrorists. Given that knowledge, why on earth do we continue to make available for their purchase weaponry that will spit hundreds of bullets a minute?

I would like to see the abolishment of the death penalty and I would like to see much stricter gun controls. Perhaps we can work toward a less violent world where the sociopaths are curbed, where we make better use of our resources and where vengeance is reserved for the Almighty.