Tookie Williams denied clemency

[Alex]

I think it is wrong to say that the death penalty "simply doesn't" make anybody feel better. It most certainly does make some people feel better.

When I was a young boy (I can't remember what summer it was) Wesley Allen Dodd kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and mutilated three younger boys before stringing them up in a local nature preserve. He was captured attempting to abduct a fourth boy. There was now doubt of his guilt (he had documentation in his home) and he was sentenced to death.

He did not appeal his sentence and actually sued to prevent others from appealing for him. This resulted in a relatively quick execution (something like 4 or 5 years from sentencing).

I didn't know any of the boys myself, or their families, but I did know many people who knew one of the boys. There is no denying that when Dodd was executed it made them feel better. They were pleased that his punishment for removing that boy from this life was to be removed himself. They were pleased that there was now zero chance that Dodd would ever be able to do to another person what he had done to those three boys.

I personally don't feel that way about it, but there is no denying that a lot of people do.



[As a gruesome aside. Washington State has two forms of execution (or it did back then): hanging or lethal injection, and the prisoner was allowed to choose which form would be used. Another prisoner on death row selected hanging (as did Dodd) and then intentionally gained a massive amount of weight, only to sue that hanging would be inhumane since his weight would likely cause decapitation. The statute did not allow prison officials to switch him to lethal injection over his objection and the debate over this (not his guilt) successfully delayed his execution for a long time. I don't know how it all resolved.]

[wendybeth]

For some reason, Washington state seems to be a magnet for serial killers. I remember the Dodd case very well, Alex. I've also had two people I know murdered by serial killers- one was my best friend in jr. high, and the other was my sis-in-law'a sister, by Robert Yates. They found her body buried in his flower bed. I don't see the death penalty as anything other than a method for permanent removal of someone who has so broken the social contract that they are no longer trusted to live in society, any society. The latest and saddest case ocurred less than 30 miles from here, near Couer D'Alene, Idaho. Shasta Groening and her brother Dylan were abducted by a very sick man who had a long rap sheet. He murdered their family, took them up in the woods, and then murdered Dylan, who was only ten. He did so in front of the sister, who is nine. He did a lot of other really horrific things that I won't print; suffice it to say that the death penalty is too good for him.

I am still conflicted on the death penalty, but my personal experiences coupled with the knowledge that such animals as the ones listed above even exist tends to color my perspective. It's not about revenge, it's about making sure they can never, ever do this again. Ever.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I think it is wrong to say that the death penalty "simply doesn't" make anybody feel better. It most certainly does make some people feel better.

Fair enough. My statement was a general one based on repeated research that the majority of victims' families have said that they did not feel the closure they expected (and were often lead to expect by prosecuters) after the execution. That case is clearly a rare exception.

It does bring up a slightly murkier area for me. Stripped of the cost of uncertainty (both monetary and moral costs), in a case where the evidence is clear and the defendant admits to everything, would I support the deat penalty? Though I honestly haven't satisfied myself with an answer to that question, I feel I still lean against it. I am not comfortable with empowering the state to take a life in that manner. No matter how heinous the crime and how certain the conviction, human life is not in the purview of government.