okay so what are what are your views on on capital punishment
 	
 	
 		
 
 		i have ambivalent feelings because i don't think it serves as a kind of deterrent we would like to think it is
 		but on the other hand it is very very expensive to maintain you know Texas has one of the biggest criminal justice systems in the country
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		and it's eating us alive budget wise
 		and um
 	
 	
 		so are they currently practicing capital punishment in your state
 	
 	
 		yes we do practice capital punishment but the nature of the uh courts and the appeals and the stays and all that means that it's a very long haul before anybody's ever executed
 	
 	
 		yes that's similar to Georgia
 	
 	
 		yeah and then i was reading in the paper just this morning it's interesting because i had forgotten i guess that i wrote this little topic down that it costs more to execute somebody than than it does to keep them
 	
 	
 		that's probably true considering
 	
 	
 		because of all the costs of the appeals and all that you know
 	
 	
 		yes yes um i guess in a way that it it kind of defeats the purpose of having capital punishment if
 	
 	
 		well i think capital punishment is supposed to be
 		primarily a deterrent to other people
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		you know who would see it
 	
 	
 		right that would be the intent of it
 	
 	
 		yeah but i'm not sure
 		how successful that is
 	
 	
 		well i think it would be more successful if it was applied
 		in a more expedient manner if there weren't so many appeals yeah if if the person who's gonna commit the crime knew that they were gonna be punished severely possibly capital punishment
 	
 	
 		quicker maybe yeah
 		um-hum
 		what what kind of work do you do
 	
 	
 		uh i'm a research engineer i work uh for with Georgia Tech
 	
 	
 		hum well see i'm a school principal
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		elementary school
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		and in a very poor section of town with predominantly predominantly Anglo kids
 		and i see kids already that are gonna be criminals
 	
 	
 		hum
 	
 	
 		in spite of everything we can do
 		and see i'm afraid i think if we would take the equivalent amount of money and invest it in young people
 		that i mean course you couldn't do that because you got to do something with the ones that are already there
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		but i think if we would make a bigger investment in kids
 		we'd have fewer decisions to make
 	
 	
 		um that's probably true but i guess
 	
 	
 		down the road you know
 	
 	
 		there's other factors that but pumping pumping pumping more money into the school system is a good thing but it's not gonna
 	
 	
 		oh yeah
 		well i'm not talking about just in the school system
 	
 	
 		oh i see
 	
 	
 		see i'm talking about like in in uh
 		i'm afraid i think that there are kids who just ought to be taken out of their homes
 		and
 		reared
 		uh i know institutions don't work that well but it's a bad day because because i have all these kids through my office i have a school of five hundred and thirty seven kids
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		five hundred of them are good solid kids and i have the same thirty seven in my office every day
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		and a lot of their parents are totally irresponsible
 		some of them in the penal system
 	
 	
 		so that's a difficult situation
 	
 	
 		and you know you just see those kids going down the road now not all of them will commit offenses that have to do with capital punishment but some of them have already been in youth centers
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		and that kind of thing and if we had something to do before they get to be full blown adult criminals
 		and i'm not talking about necessarily in the school system i'm not sure that the school system should be the agent of all the social action
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		i think that's one reason we have problems in school systems
 		uh and some of them are our problems but a lot of it's because everything society wants we're supposed to do
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		but that's another subject but
 	
 	
 		well that's probably true what
 	
 	
 		anyway i dealt with two or three kids today that are gonna end up
 		where somebody has to make a decision what to do with them
 	
 	
 		hum
 		yeah i guess that's not an easy solution there's there's no easy solution for that
 	
 	
 		um-hum i don't i don't know that there is an easy solution but
 		if you could find a way to prevent some of it and i'm not sure what it would be
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		it would be money better spent
 		than do you know it costs more to keep an inmate on death row than it does to send a kid to Harvard
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		that's true
 	
 	
 		i'm sure it is yeah
 	
 	
 		statistically that's true
 	
 	
 		hum yeah i don't i don't certainly capital punishment isn't gonna solve a lot of problems but
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		are you for it
 	
 	
 		uh
 	
 	
 		i'm for it in in some cases yeah
 	
 	
 		i guess i am for certain crimes yeah in certain crimes
 	
 	
 		what kind of crimes would you do use it for
 	
 	
 		um premeditated murder
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		crimes of that nature i think should definitely any mass murderer type individual
 	
 	
 		i i would consider it for sexual abuse of children
 		on going
 		you know not one instance but perpetual abusers of children
 	
 	
 		hum
 		um-hum
 		well you always have castration
 	
 	
 		well you know somebody elected that recently
 	
 	
 		yes i read about that
 		
 
 	
 	
 		and all the civil rights people are up in arms about it you know
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		but uh