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Where is DeStefano? John DeStefano is running
for governor, but he hasn’t said a word about the burning issue of the day,
the death penalty. CT is about to take
a prisoner out of a cell and inject poison into his veins and DeStefano has
nothing to say. Jodi Rell, John Rowland’s
see no evil hear no evil lieutenant, has now taken over his reins and has
started her gubernatorial career by laying down the gauntlet in typical
George Bush fashion: You’ve got a problem, kill it. Rell says, “Some crimes
are so repugnant as to warrant the death penalty”. She’s so blindly certain about this she
announced if a majority in the legislature votes to end the death penalty
she’ll veto the bill. I agree with Rell that of
all people Michael Ross deserves no sympathy.
He committed terrible crimes.
These are the names of the young women and children he raped and
killed: Robin Stavinsky, 19; Wandy Baribeault, 17; Leslie Shelley, 14; and
April Brunais, 14, Tammy Williams, 17, Debra Smith Taylor, 23, Paula Perrera,
16, Dzung Ngoc Tu, 25. I worked with a woman who
was raped and murdered. The only
person arrested for the crime was acquitted.
I didn’t know her family, but I can imagine that their agony has never
really ended. Obviously we want a
justice system where there’s no chance that captured sociopaths will ever
kill again. Michael Ross fits the
bill. He admitted to multiple
murders. He doesn’t fit the legal
definition of insanity. So why not
execute him? My biggest fear is that
we’ll be opening the door to all the abuses that are occurring in other
states: executing killers too poor to get a decent lawyer, or those slated
for death because of racial profiling, or wretches driven by mental
compulsions rather than malice. Of
course, the worst abuse is carrying out death sentences for those later found
out to be completely innocent. As
we’ve seen in recent years scores of supposed bulletproof convictions have
been overturned and supposed scum of the earth have been found to be
blameless. I also believe that
killing prisoners actually encourages murder.
After all we’re saying that some things make us so full of rage and
disgust that it’s right to kill.
That’s the same excuse murderers use.
I think it’s no coincidence that Texas which executes people right and
left has one of the highest murder rates. Sister Helen Prejean, who
wrote “Dead Man Walking” spoke in New Haven some ten years ago and she
impressed me tremendously. She
ministers to the murderers on death row and the families of their victims. She has witnessed executions and she’s
talked with victims’ family members who gladly observed the death of
killers. Prejean has been in the
trenches and she’s 100% against the death penalty. Scott Turow, one-time
prosecutor and world-famous novelist, wrote a
brilliant book called “Ultimate Punishment” where the describes what
he learned while serving on an Illinois Commission evaluating that state’s
death penalty. He writes that he had
thought that the death penalty should be used in the case of atrocious
crimes, but after serving on the
commission Grisham voted to recommend that Illinois end capital punishment
completely. Why execute when there is
an alternative - 40 or 50 year terms - or in the case of real animals: prison
without release? Maybe the biggest reason
to not execute anybody, even monsters, is that out culture is kill
happy. Our savage foreign policy kills
hundreds of thousands of innocents [Vietnam, Iraq, Guatemala, you name it]
for “FREEDOM”, “DEMOCRACY”, whatever.
We have leaders who do things far more hideous than anything Ross or
any other serial killer has ever committed.
Our government has to get out of the killing business. So DeStefano and the other
politicians should show some guts.
Speak out for a bill to abolish the death penalty, right now, before Michael Ross’ execution. |
