The press isn't always good at complex issues with lots of social, legal and moral ramifications. But give us a nice, round, easily grasped number, and we will go to town, as in all the hype surrounding Kenneth Lee Boyd, set to be "the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977." That's about 36 a year, my rusty math tells me, or fewer than one a week. Here's another number for you -- 100,000 murders since 1999. That's more than 16,000 a year.
