Playing with Death

All those vengeful citizens itching to see serious criminals get their just deserts will soon be able to impose Capital Punishment. Not via the chair, the chamber or the firing squad -- but in the board game. In Capital Punishment, say Co-Inventors Bob Johnson and Ronald Pramschufer of Baltimore, the object is to put a murderer, a kidnaper, an arsonist or a rapist into the electric chair be fore an opponent's "liberals" can set him free by landing on the same square as the criminal. Not surprisingly, the game has outraged more than a few opponents of capital punishment. "Treating the entire subject of killing as entertainment is a sickness that could very well destroy our civilization," says Michael A. Kroll, spokesman for the D.C. Coalition Against the Death Penalty. "The game adds yet another element to our society's growing tendency to trivialize violence and death." Johnson, a writer, and Pramschufer, a printer, are no strangers to trivializing. Their previous board game, Public Assistance: Why Bother Working for a Living, was denounced by various public officials and turned down by several New York City department stores. Thirty thousand games were sold.

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