Rod, I think your e-mail correspondent’s argument proves rather too much. I’m not in favor of abolishing the jury system or of taking away from juries the right to impose, say, life sentences–which is where I’d have to go if I took that argument seriously. I’m for getting rid of the tabula rasa model of the juror, whether in product-liability cases or death-penalty ones. This might be a good time to clarify my own position: I’m ambivalent on the death penalty, taking seriously without yet embracing the argument that it is wrong in principle. I just think that a lot of the other arguments against the death penalty are weak, and that the tactics of opponents are dishonest.