Jim ~~ Please read my post 01.39PM in response to yours more carefully, & you will see I am no Defarges, but, I repeat, profoundly ambivalent on the matter of capital punishment: &, tho I would most certainly never wish to see a child punished in such a fashion, am much at a loss as to what would have been the right response in this most distressing instance.

Richie ~ I know we started off on wrong foot: but, bygones? & many thanks for your support in re the foolish & doctrinaire (& smartarse) McCormick.

~Michael~