Per your Feb. 6 editorial on the death penalty: It does not work as a deterrent because it takes decades to execute the swill, if ever. If more judges were hired and these death penalty cases were placed on a fast track, there is no reason these sentences could not be carried out on a date one year from sentencing, if not sooner.

For cases where convicted individuals were eventually exonerated based on advancements in DNA testing, in what century were they convicted? With forensic science being where it is today, it seems remote that the "innocent" would ever be found guilty. The death penalty is a good tool that is being used improperly; currently it's a wrench being used as a hammer.

Years ago, in the military, if a prisoner escaped while you were escorting him, you served his time. In October 1962, I escorted a prisoner from Hawaii to Treasure Island, Calif. (on his way to the brig at Portsmouth), and therefore got to fly rather than take a slow cruise on a Navy ship as I did upon going there two years earlier. I made it crystal clear to the individual that I was to be discharged upon reaching California, therefore, his escaping was not in my plans.

Perhaps a solution to the Illinois problem of overzealous prosecutors would be to have them serve the remainder of the time of the party found innocent.

DENIS J. O'CONNELL Sr.

Concord