What about the death penalty?

When Lay was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud, [Jan Molinell, a former Enron Corp. employee] cheered. Then, last Wednesday, before Lay could be sentenced to prison, he died.

"I feel cheated that he didn't have to do some sort of suffering," said Molinell, 63, of Longwood, Fla....

Controlled studies show that when victims make an active attempt to forgive -- by recognizing that anger is eating away at them, by trying to see the inherent worth of the people who hurt them and by extracting positive lessons from the experience -- they fare better on various measures of psychological well-being.

One [single! and uncontrolled?--ed.] 2003 study by Dutch researchers, however, found that the positive benefits of forgiveness disappeared when people did not have a close relationship with the wrongdoer, suggesting that forgiveness may not be a one-size-fits-all response to unresolved conflict.

Lois Black, 66, of Houston, a legal secretary at Enron who lost $150,000 when the company's stock collapsed, is among those still angry at Lay. Every time she lifts heavy furniture for the parties she now organizes to make ends meet, she is reminded of her pain. She is constantly worried that her body will give out.

"He got off easy by dying," she said. "You are gone, boom! You die and you are out of here.

"Of course," she reminded herself thoughtfully, "who knows what is on the other side?"

I'm wondering what people like these employees would think about the death penalty. Is it "getting off too easy?"

For my part, I try to keep this quotation from Epictetus in mind when angry:

If a person had delivered up your body to some passer-by, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in delivering up your own mind to any reviler, to be disconcerted and confounded?