Marylee Shrider: Death penalty isn't 'cruel,' it's justice
| Friday, Apr 18 2008 06:31 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 08:29 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court took a long, hard look at death penalty procedures in this country, finally concluding this week that lethal injection is not unconstitutional after all.
Not that it ever was, but the anti-death penalty people are relentless at finding new and duplicitous ways of stopping justice in its tracks.
They were foiled again in a 7-2 decision by the Court, which upheld Kentucky's lethal injection process, a method nearly identical to the one used here in California. The court, apparently weary of the endless and nonsensical legal challenges against execution methods, also adopted stricter standards for challenging them.
In California, executions have been on hold for two years because of such challenges. Now that the land's highest court has spoken, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to defend “the will of the people,” at least when it comes to the death penalty, allowing state executions to take up where they left off.
How appropriate it is that the Court's decision was released in the middle of National Crime Victims' Week, during which thousands of victims' rights supporters voiced their anger over the “unjust and unconscionable” delay in carrying out death sentences.
Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco told several thousand people at a victims' rights rally in Riverside Thursday, it was time to reform California's “dysfunctional” death penalty system.
“Our loss is perverted for the benefit of serial killers, gang members and rapists,” Pacheco said.
Perverted is right, and it's not just California's system that needs an overhaul.
In the Supreme Court case, the justices rejected claims by the two Kentucky killers they might feel some pain if executed via lethal injection, making the process cruel and unusual.
So, where does it say in the Constitution that pain or even the possibility of pain constitutes cruelty?
It doesn't, ruled the court.
The killers and their supporters are actually more concerned about outlawing the death penalty than pain, but will tie up the system with whatever works, prompting Ralph Baze, one of the Kentucky killers, to tell NBC News in September, “if you're going to execute me, do it in a manner that is as humane as possible.”
Humane? Like the way he murdered two deputy sheriff's as they attempted to serve him felony warrants in 1992? Baze was convicted and sentenced for killing Kentucky County Sheriff Steve Bennett with three shots to the back. He then turned and shot Deputy Arthur Briscoe twice in the back, followed up with one shot to the head. You know, just to make sure.
I wonder if those deputies, or their wives, mothers or children, felt any pain.
Recent studies show the death penalty does have a deterrent effect and does save innocent lives. There are more than 660 inmates sitting on death rows in California, where it takes 20 to 25 years for justice to prevail.
Twenty-five years, plus two. Their victims' families have waited long enough.
In my column last Saturday I wrote on Bakersfield High School's JROTC cadets and their effort to raise $5,000 to buy flags for veterans’ graves at Union Cemetery. So far, they've raised $2,000. They must order the flags by April 25 to have them by Memorial Day. Those who wish to honor a veteran with a flag may send donations of any amount to Bakersfield High School JROTC, 1241 G Street, 93301.
Marylee Shrider's column appears Saturdays. Reach her at mshrider@bakersfield.comor 395-7474.
