Security at Last
We can finally feel safe. Thanks to the Terminator and governor of California this man is no longer living. That’s right, a 76 year-old man. In fact, his birthday was the day before his execution. Forget the fact that he was so old and that he was partially deaf and that he was blind and that he was in a wheelchair, he’d been sentenced to death some 23 years ago and, damnit, we kill those who we’re supposed to kill...for the protection of the public, of course. This is almost enough to replace the sickening feeling I have in my stomach from my trip to the oral surgeon a couple of hours ago. Have you ever heard your wisdom teeth being ripped out? It was gross. The blood in my mouth is almost worse. But state-sanctioned murder doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t protect anyone. This guy has been on death row since I was 10. That’s a long time. Did the murder rate go down when he was sentenced and locked away? No. Was the country a better place? No. Is it possible to answer either of these two questions positively now that he’s dead? No. I don’t get it.
On the bright side, to make myself feel better, after going to the dentist I walked across the street and bought myself a couple of snails. They’re cool. Big and bright yellow. I’m hoping they’ll help me keep the tank clean. I know what you’re thinking, but yes, that was very exciting for me and it did make me feel better. I also got to see some rabbits that were born yesterday. They were certainly very cute.
Well, it’s off to the sofa I go. It’s time to read. Birds, ecotoxicology, or fish? Which would you start with.
On the bright side, to make myself feel better, after going to the dentist I walked across the street and bought myself a couple of snails. They’re cool. Big and bright yellow. I’m hoping they’ll help me keep the tank clean. I know what you’re thinking, but yes, that was very exciting for me and it did make me feel better. I also got to see some rabbits that were born yesterday. They were certainly very cute.
Well, it’s off to the sofa I go. It’s time to read. Birds, ecotoxicology, or fish? Which would you start with.
posted by Our Hero, at 1:17 PM
3 Comments:
“Allen went to prison for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary. While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders”
-DON THOMPSON, Associated Press
Myself, I tend to go back and forth on the issue of the death penalty. Part of me says that it is morally wrong to take a life even if it’s the life of a murder. However, when I hear of a nasty crime I often think “that guy really deserves to die”. This is just such a case. This guy killed three people so that he could avoid going to jail for six months to a year (face it, in America that is about all he would have gotten for armed robbery). I say drag his weak crippled old body out of that wheelchair strap him in and fry his ***.
The family of one of Allen's victims, Josephine Rocha, issued a statement saying that "justice has prevailed today. Mr. Allen abused the justice system with endless appeals until he lived longer in prison than the short 17 years of Josephine's life."
I understand what you say. I tend to lean more toward punishment the way it was in the old days: cruel and unusual. I don't think there should be a tv in the prison. I don't think prisoners wh have been sentenced to life should have any rights. Tht's the point of prison, afterall. Nope, give me the old days where prisoners were thrown into a cell and forgotten about until the cell waas needed again. That doesn't mean that's my opinion regardless of the crime. A guy who gets caught with a gram of weed in his pocket can be rehabilitated. A woman who drives a car full of small children into a lake to make her life easier cannot. This man was not a good guy by any strech of the imagination. He did play the system. And although I am against the death penalty, I guess I feel that if it's in place, executions should happen within a week of the verdict, period.
I think that solitary would have stopped the deaths of the hits that he ordered from inside.
I agree that a long life of suffering is better than putting a person to death, but unfortunately we can not punish people in a way that is “cruel or unusual.” I actually went on a tour of a new prison before it opened and I got to tell you, the cell was better then our dorm room in college. Lots of space, comfortable beds, cable TV. That isn’t punishment. It’s no wonder this guy was fighting so hard to live. I guess what I’m saying is that I would rather see him fry than have him leading a life of comfort and leisure.
I also agree with you that sentenced should be carried out right away. All I can say on that account is: better late then never.
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