Sir, - Fr Tom Stack is to be congratulated for his article on capital punishment (July 8th). Our politicians, nationalist and unionist, South and North, seem constantly to be visiting the United States. How many of them spare a thought for the wretches living on Death Row for years? Innocence or mental illness is no impediment to brutal execution. A few years ago President Clinton visited this country and was greeted with euphoric rapture. This was the man who was prepared to condemn a mentally ill man to the electric chair. One cannot help but wonder what sort of reception would be given to a British Prime Minister who sent someone to the gallows. The United States has received millions of our emigrants. Its tourists contribute enormously to our economy. Its businessmen invest huge sums here. But this is no excuse for myopia towards the appalling abuse of human rights on America's Death Row. It is too much to hope that some member of the Irish political establishment will convey to America the revulsion that many Irish people feel towards its barbarous American penal system? - Yours, etc., Rev COLIN J. YOUNG, Bangor, Co Down.