75 Pro Death Penalty Quotes by Victims' Rights Activists
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There is no freedom without justice. |
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A new Knesset lobby was established Monday 28 November 2011, to advocate for imposing the death penalty on terrorist murderers. Professor Avraham Gil, who will coordinate the lobby's activity, said at the session: "We are not thirsty for blood. On the contrary, we are acting for life and for the defense of our rights to live in peace and quiet. The terrorists' cruelty forces us to take preventative steps, and this move is vital for deterrence. This was proven in the U.S.: when the death penalty was abolished in the 70s the murder rate rose, and when in was brought back in the 80s the murder rate went down by more than 50 percent." Wednesday 15 February 2012 - Dr. Abe Gill of the organization “We Value Life” stated that the Israeli government should institute a death penalty for terrorists who carry out attacks against Israeli citizens. Dr. Gill spoke to Israel National Radio's Reality Bytes podcast with investigative journalist Josh Hasten. "They will try and convince us that our view is not moral and it will not motivate them to stop," Dr. Gill stated, "But they say the devil is in the details. We are united. We have over 2,000 members in our group and we are growing all the time. I think this is a matter of justice. The blood of the victims is crying out.” |
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Marc Klaas of Sausalito, whose daughter Polly was murdered by Richard Allen Davis in 1993, said anti-death penalty activists have a troubling effect on the families of the victims and society in general. "It diminishes the victims when people burn candles and mourn someone who has committed a heinous crime," Klaas said. "People on death row are some of the worst individuals that appear on the face of the earth.” "The abolitionists refuse to acknowledge that evil exists and evil has to be put down." The best way to illustrate that is to point out that there are maybe 750 or more individuals on death row in California, a state that's executed 13 people in the last 30 years. That's what I mean. There's various mechanisms to do that. The one that's being utilized right now is the idea that the administration of the lethal cocktail in the execution process may cause pain to the individual being executed. For the life of me, I don't understand why anybody is concerned about the last 10 minutes of a death row inmate's life, about whether that individual is feeling pain or not. It doesn't make any sense to me. These are people who are being executed for having committed absolute atrocities against innocent people. [Interview: Mark Klaas, Father of Murder Victim Polly Klaas, Speaks in Support of Death Penalty Friday 13 January 2012] But we do know that guilty people on death row who have been released back into society have killed again. These individuals on death row have no consideration for other people's humanity. They tend to be psychopathic and show no remorse for the crimes they have committed. I believe that as they walk that last mile and contemplate their own fate, they perhaps do understand better the value of life. I believe that's a hard-earned lesson, but if it's learned, then I think that's added value to the death penalty. [Interview: Mark Klaas, Father of Murder Victim Polly Klaas, Speaks in Support of Death Penalty Friday 13 January 2012] Thursday 1 March 2012 - Victims advocate Marc Klaas is opposed to the measure. His 12-year-old daughter Polly was murdered in 1993. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, confessed and is on death row. "I want the guy that murdered my daughter to be executed and I suspect the majority of Californians would like to see the guy that murdered my daughter executed, as they would so many other of these monsters and goons and creeps that exist on death row," Klaas said. Tuesday 17 April 2012 - Anderson’s primary support came from Marc Klass, a well-known advocate for victims whose daughter, Polly, was kidnapped, assaulted and killed by a parolee who has been sitting on death row for nearly 16 years. Klass’ frustration boiled over after the committee rejected Senate Bill 1514 and was on the verge of voting against Senate Constitutional Amendment 20. “You people don’t care about my daughter, You don’t care about any of the victims,” Klass told the panel. After he was admonished and told part of the solution involved money, Klass demanded: “How much does it cost to do nothing? How much does it cost to let this go on year after year? How much does it cost to have Richard Allen Davis on death row for 30 years?” Davis stole into a bedroom of Klass’ suburban Petaluma home, kidnapping by knife point and later killing the 12-year-old Polly. It took nearly 13 years for his automatic appeal to reach the state Supreme Court, which summarily upheld his conviction. His appeal is now before a federal court. Wednesday 25 April 2012 - "The only reason I think about Richard Allen Davis at all is because these people who oppose the death penalty keep throwing this in our faces," said Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly Klaas, was kidnapped from her Petaluma home, then raped and strangled. Her body was discarded near an abandoned lumber mill in Cloverdale. Davis was sentenced to death in 1996. He awaits execution. Klaas criticized the backlog of death penalty appeals cases for causing ballooning costs. He also worries that the system would become more lenient if the death penalty is abolished, eventually allowing some people to eventually be released on parole. "There are no guarantees whatsoever, not even an inkling of a guarantee, that replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole will guarantee these people will stay inside," Klaas said. Klaas said that he will be able to stop thinking about his daughter's killer once the man is executed. "Who the hell do they think Richard Allen Davis is? Don't they get what he did, don't they know that Salcido slit the throats of his own daughters?" Klaas said. "Why are they so hell-bent on protecting these individuals?" Monday 20 August 2012 - Davis is one of over 700 inmates currently awaiting death in California, which hasn’t executed anyone since 2006. That year, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ordered a moratorium on executions in the state, after hearing complaints about how lethal injections were to be administered. Klaas believes the moratorium is an example of a roadblock to execution engineered by death penalty opponents. “Baby killers, cop killers, mass murderers; I mean really the worst people in society have been deemed worthy of the ultimate law of the land, the death penalty,” Klaas said. “But the abolitionists have created barrier after barrier.” When Klaas knocks death penalty opponents, he makes clear that he understands what motivates many victims’ survivors who take the opposite view. “I know that the ones who deal with it best are those who find the will to fight back, whether it’s for the death penalty, against the death penalty or something else” he said. Wednesday 19 September 2012 - Klaas founded the KlaasKids Foundation in 1994 following the murder of his 12-year-old daughter, Polly Klaas. The murderer, Richard Allen Davis, remains on death row in San Quentin. Klaas said in a phone interview that he never intended to be a spokesman for the No on Proposition 34 campaign. But following his numerous appearances on television and radio advocating for his foundation, he’s become a voice for families of child victims and an advocate for increased safety resources for children. Klaas said he agrees that the death penalty is drawn out and costly, but he takes comfort in knowing his daughter’s killer is in isolation on death row, facing a certain fate, and he is not concerned with the murderer’s appeals process. “Let’s be clear here: It’s not like he’s getting a lot of court dates,” Klaas said. “[Richard Allen] Davis has only had one appeal so far. If he has another one, then so be it. You deal with it. “Believe me,” Klaas added, “the sentence handed down is more in the forefront of the victim’s family’s mind than [how much it costs].” Furthermore, Klaas said groups who have dedicated their time to fighting capital punishment have actually created much of the problem, he said, establishing an appeals process that drags on. “These people are beautiful in being able to put something forth on the ballot that uses all of the hindrances they created as justification to get what they want. It’s one of the most cynical things I’ve ever seen,” Klaas said. “Whatever the most extreme form of punishment is, there will always be a lobby of people saying it’s too extreme.” Law enforcement officials and Proposition 34 opponents contend that many of those cases predate DNA evidence, and that technology these days is far more accurate. “If these
guys want to pretend that our prisons are filled with innocent people, they
might as well be selling you the Brooklyn Bridge,” Marc Klaas noted. Sunday 14 October 2012 - Conflicting ideas about justice and public safety, underlined by economic considerations, emerged in a public forum Sunday on two state ballot measures that would abolish the death penalty and amend the three strikes law. “If it's not broken, you don't fix it,” child safety advocate Marc Klaas said, asserting that California's three strikes law has “worked superbly” since voters approved it in 1994, a year after his daughter, Polly, was abducted from her Petaluma home and murdered by a repeat offender. “You have half the chance of being the victim of a violent crime than we did in 1994,” Klaas told about 150 people attending a forum called “Changing Criminal Justice in California” at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. |
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“To make justice a right, not a privilege.” "I just think that the Government's reached the pinnacle of stupidity with these insults to all victims of crime and the community at large," he said. "This guy is a convicted drug smuggler and he was going to bring drugs of mass destruction down here. "I mean he's paid his price, fair enough, but why should the Government MPs be there? "I haven't seen them at any... at my daughter's funeral when she was murdered or anyone else's for that matter while I've been around." Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara this morning backed Mr Finn's calls. "I think the death penalty should be brought back for anyone who takes a life or causes a (loss of) life like happens with drug traffickers," Mr McNamara said. "Of course there’s nothing like permanent rehabilitation on the end of a rope." |
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Kenneth Lee Boyd (January 19, 1948 – December 2, 2005) was a murderer who was executed by the U.S. state of North Carolina. He was convicted of the March 4, 1988 murder in Stoneville of his wife, Julie Curry Boyd and her father Thomas Dillard Curry. He was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. EST on December 2, 2005 at the North Carolina Central Prison in Raleigh by lethal injection. Boyd was the 1,000th person executed since the United States Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment in Gregg v. Georgia. Michael Paranzino,
President of the pro-death penalty group Throw Away the Key, agreed. "You'll never stop crimes of passion, but I do believe
the death penalty is a general deterrent, and it expresses society's
outrage," Mr. Paranzino said. On the eve of Boyd's
execution, Paranzino issued a statement urging Americans to remember Boyd's
victims—his wife and father-in-law. On 14 March 2011, Death penalty campaigners in the US are calling for Theresa Riggi’s execution when she returns to the country after her release in Scotland. She will be sentenced on April 26 at the High Court in Edinburgh after admitting killing her three children on a charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility. American-born Riggi, 47, of Skene, near Aberdeen, stabbed her eight-year-old twins Austin and Luke and daughter Cecilia, aged five. They were “repeatedly struck with knives”, according to court evidence. She will be deported at the end of whatever sentence is imposed and, if a legal precedent is set by a continuing case in the United States, she could be tried again for the killings in America. “A child killer should face a jury permitted to impose the death
penalty, if that is what they decide is appropriate. Handing Riggi a custodial
sentence in a cushy Scots jail will anger many Americans who are still appalled
that Scotland freed the Lockerbie bomber.” |
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Death-penalty
opponents have conceded that they cannot win the argument about whether the
death penalty is appropriate in certain circumstances. Despite their best
efforts, the public remains convinced that some crimes are so heinous that no
other punishment will suffice. [The
Guilty Are Being Executed Hence, rather than arguing that capital punishment is immoral, death-penalty opponents have shifted to a utilitarian argument about fairness. Specifically, they have sought to convince people that capital punishment will lead to the execution of many innocents. From a public-relations standpoint, the new tactic makes sense. Arguing
that society must protect the innocent from execution sounds more reasonable
than insisting that it is an inappropriate punishment for the most brutal
crimes. Only diehard opponents of capital punishment and soft-on-crime types
can sympathize with the guilty, whereas nobody wants to see an innocent man put
to death. [The Guilty Are Being
Executed Red herrings from the anti-death-penalty
squad] If DNA evidence can be used to prove that the wrong man was convicted, then it can be used to remove any remaining doubt about a prisoner's guilt. Far from undermining confidence in capital punishment, DNA evidence will only help increase the certainty about the guilt of those sentenced to die. As most law students learn in evidence class, it is normally the job of the defense at a criminal trial to keep evidence away from the jury, since it usually bolsters the prosecution's case. [The Guilty Are Being Executed Red herrings from the anti-death-penalty squad] |
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Thursday 10 November 2011 - Executions have been on hold in NC for the past five years and some new information may further complicate the issue. Central Prison in Raleigh is home to North Carolina's 157 death row inmates. Some of them have been there since 1985. Twenty-eight of them, all convicted of first degree murder, are from Eastern Carolina. But with the death penalty on hold the debate rages about what exactly to do with these killers, and what it means for all involved. Tom Bennett is the Executive Director for the NC Victim Assistance Network. He says, "Crime victims are getting yanked around emotionally and it's despicable. It's a terrible thing to do to people." |
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"When the jury has decided that a person is guilty, and the judge
has decided that they will have the death penalty, then we need to enforce that
and we need to implement it as rapidly as possible," contends Barbara Decker of the Eagle Forum
San Diego. [Tuesday 8 November 2011]
The state has not executed inmates since a federal judge halted executions after finding fault with procedures six years ago. But Decker suggests the state has already seen a moratorium on the death penalty. "We seem to care far more about killing somebody who has killed somebody else than the family and the victims," she laments. |
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They say he is defying the will of Oregon voters, who reinstated the death penalty in 1984. "First of all, it says we don't respect Oregon voters. We don't respect their views when they say they want something," said Steve Doell, president of Crime Victims United. "If we don't like it, we're not going to do it." [Saturday 26 November 2011] By granting a temporary reprieve for Haugen, and by placing a temporary moratorium on all executions, lasting for the remainder of his term, Kitzhaber is failing to uphold the justice system's central pledge to victims, Doell said. "Victims are made a promise in the courtroom, whether it's a sentence of 10 years for a crime or a death sentence," he said. "They're made a promise that the sentence will be carried out. I think to renege on that promise is a travesty. It's a revictimization, and it's wrong." Doell said he concurs with Kitzhaber's assertion that the death penalty system is broken in Oregon. But he calls for fixing the system by streamlining the appeals process for death row inmates. As it stands, appeals can drag out for decades, driving up costs. "We have 37 people who sit on death row in Oregon who are factually guilty, and what keeps them there? These lengthy appeals," he said. "The opponents have built a system that is basically collapsing under its own weight because of the appellate process. "It seems to me that if you've got somebody that is factually guilty, you should be able to execute that person, in all fairness, between four and seven years and be done with it. And that's not to be callous. If that's the law, then we need to carry out the law." |
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“We are happy that Mr. Evangelista is pro-death penalty. We will push for Congress to immediately come up with a bill imposing the death penalty on heinous crimes.”
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Norman Brennan, founder of the Victims of Crime Trust, said that if Huntley won his claim, his victims' families should sue him. Mr Brennan said: "If Huntley had the slightest remorse for the terrible murder of these two girls he would drop the case immediately and get on with serving his sentence, and just be thankful it's not pre-1967 when he may well have been sentenced to the hangman's noose.” |
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On Thursday 7 July 2011, Victims’ rights groups are upset about the possibility of changing the sentences of death-row inmates to something they consider lighter. "How do we go to them and say that 'Although you thought you received justice, sorry, we're going to take that away now,” said Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for Crime Victims United. "It's unfair to victims to retroactively apply such abolishment to victims who believe their offender was justly sentenced to death," said Dawn Sanders-Koepke, a lobbyist for Crime Victims United of California. "We would argue we need to fix the system, not throw it away." She said even the study cited by Hancock included steps that could be taken to make capital punishment more efficient and less costly. [Thursday 25 August 2011] |
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"The Nagayama case became the standard -- if you're a minor and kill four people, you could face death, but with fewer victims, you could avoid it," Motomura said. "That is precisely why the perpetrator assumed he would not be put to death, but he is wrong." |
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He has just had a run of stickers printed that say- "MAKE NEW ZEALAND A SAFER PLACE KILL VIOLENT PEOPLE! BRING BACK CAPITAL PUNISHMENT". Mr. McPhee is sick and tired of what he calls "lily-livered libertarians" taking over this country and he is prepared to take a more conservative public line on crime and punishment. He says he realizes the contradiction in the statement 'kill violent people", but he believes capital punishment in New Zealand for "serious repeat violent offenders" would be for the wider public good. He would be prepared to take responsibility for another person's death if it made the community a better place. "We
shouldn't have to build more prisons. There's something inherently wrong with
the way society works at the moment." |
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Foes argued that postponing executions would be unfair to relatives of murder victims, who already wait an average of 15 years as the condemned seek review of their cases in state and federal courts.
"Above all," said Harriet Salarno of Crime Victims United of California, the moratorium "is an insult to the victims who have been tortured to their death and are unable to come here to speak to you today." Saturday
16 July 2011 - Only 13
inmates have been executed since the death penalty was restored in the Golden
State in 1978, but supporters of the death penalty say commuting the sentence
of 714 condemned inmates to life in prison without parole would be a travesty
of justice. They argue that rather than abolish it, fix the capital punishment system so condemned prisoners don't spend as much time on death row and cost taxpayers as much money. "The people that want to abolish it are the ones who would raise the cost," said Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United of California, whose daughter was murdered in 1979 in a case that led to a life sentence for the man convicted. "You're telling me that life without parole is not going to be costly?"
“For too long, criminals have been given more 'rights' than victims - putting justice and public safety at risk. As the voice for victims, our goal is to make 'public safety' California's biggest priority." Monday 10 October 2011 - Woodford said costs are an important element of the debate because taxpayer money can be better spent on improving schools and law enforcement investigations. Life sentences without parole, she said, are a safe, cheaper alternative. Death penalty supporters, however, blame opponents for driving up the costs with excessive appeals. "They’re using the excuse that it costs so much," said Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United of California. "They’re the ones that raise the costs," Salarno said California should limit the appeals process. Actually executing people, she said, would be a lot cheaper. To many advocates for victims, the initiatives are an insult. “You can’t take justice away from the victims’ families, not after everything they’ve gone through,” contends Harriet Salarno, the president of Crime Victims United of California, which she founded after her daughter’s murder. “No-parole life sentences will never give them the closure they seek. Sure, the death penalty is costly, but that’s because it’s not executed efficiently. Look at Texas and Virginia. They limit the years of appeals. We should copy them.” Tuesday 24 April 2012 – There were hundreds of photos displayed for all to see and emotional outcries from murder victims’ families gathering from across the state at the Capitol on Tuesday to speak up for those they’ve lost. Supporters of the 23rd annual Victims March stood side by side, many fighting to uphold the death penalty a day after it was announced that California voters will decide its fate in the November election. Tuesday march was part of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. “What’s wrong with the death penalty is not the budget, it’s not the cost,” said Harriet Salarno, founder of Crime Victims United of California. “That’s all they’re going to do and hammer that. It’s because we’re not implementing it.” Deldelp Medina was one of a group of loved ones of murder victims fighting for alternatives to the death penalty. “We hope that life without parole would be the best thing for us,” she said. But so many others Tuesday disagreed with that alternative. “Look at these people here. Look at the suffering they’ve gone through. Why are you going to do this to them?” Salarno asked. A few hours later, speakers at a Crime Victims United rally on the Capitol's west steps took turns blasting the initiative. "Don't let people tell you life without parole is just as good as the death penalty," said Nina Salarno Ashford, who sits on the board of the non-profit victims advocacy group. The death penalty has cost California taxpayers $4 billion since 1978, or $308 million for each of the 13 executions in that time span, according to a recent study authored by Judge Arthur Alarcon, a senior judge with the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit. The study found that California's more than 700 prisoners have waited 20 years or more on average for their cases to be concluded. But death penalty supporters disagree with the costs discovered in the study. They insist that abolishing the death penalty will be even more costly. "You know they want life without the possibility of parole," said Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United. "Did they ever stop to think how much that's going to cost? With the health care they get in prison, they'll live to be 100 years old." California voters will decide the fate of the death penalty this November. |
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"I don't care how much it costs to execute someone, we need the death penalty," she said. "The death penalty opponents want to argue that it is cruel and unusual punishment. My daughter was abducted, then raped for hours and shot repeatedly. Was that not cruel and unusual punishment? The punishment needs to fit the crimes and for some murders, the death penalty is the only appropriate punishment." Shehane's daughter Quenette was kidnapped and killed in Birmingham in 1976. Three men were
convicted of her murder. One was executed, another was sentenced to life in
prison without parole and the other sentenced to life with the possibility of
parole. [Wednesday 30 May 2012] |
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"The death penalty is merited in very rare cases. That revolves around my feeling that there are some situations that exist where the crime is so atrocious and the ability to rehabilitate is nonexistent that the system of justice demands the death penalty.” |
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Dennis Schulz, founder of the Amy
Center for Abused Children in Mt. Vernon, says twice-convicted murderer Cecil
Sutherland deserves the sentence he received for the 1987 murder. "They're not allowing justice to be carried out the way
I feel it should be carried out ... and that's what the court ordered -
twice," he says. "He is an evil
person... What he did to my daughter should not ever happen, but it did happen
and he needs to serve his sentence." |
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"Life in prison is more expensive than the death penalty when you're paying for health care for aging life-with-parolers," said Diane Clemence, spokeswoman for Texas pro-death penalty group Justice for All. Clemence said death row inmates wouldn't cost states as much, since they shouldn't be staying in the prisons into old age. "It's not an apples-to-apples cost issue," she said. "It's a moral issue and it's an issue about justice and safety."
On 14 March 2011, Death penalty campaigners in the US are calling for Theresa Riggi’s execution when she returns to the country after her release in Scotland. She will be sentenced on April 26 at the High Court in Edinburgh after admitting killing her three children on a charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility. American-born Riggi, 47, of Skene, near Aberdeen, stabbed her eight-year-old twins Austin and Luke and daughter Cecilia, aged five. They were “repeatedly struck with knives”, according to court evidence. She will be deported at the end of whatever sentence is imposed and, if a legal precedent is set by a continuing case in the United States, she could be tried again for the killings in America. “I don’t see why Riggi should not be sent to Death Row on her return here. It’s a moral response to a horrible act. It’s retribution, which is very different from revenge.”
“I don’t have any thoughts for the convicted killers—none whatsoever,” she says over a chicken salad at an Italian restaurant in an upscale Houston suburb. “Any thoughts I’d have would be for the victims’ families.”
“We need the death penalty because evil exists. Every execution represents an innocent person who lost their life — the victim. But capital punishment helps deter such crimes. It’s a moral response to a horrible act. It’s retribution, which is very different from revenge.”
“Executions are not something to celebrate,” Clements says. “We should just respect the fact that this difficult process is working.” Meanwhile, the two mid-November executions went off as scheduled, bringing Texas’ total to 19 for the year (2006). For Clements, this was satisfying news. Referring to the execution of Javier Suarez Medina in Texas on 14 August 2002 - Diane Clements, who heads Justice for All, a Texas-based victims-rights group, said Fox's priorities are not on binational harmony. "For President Fox to hold a convicted murderer and drug dealer in a higher standing than promoting economic stability between our two countries is just mind-boggling," she said. It was obvious a week before the execution that Mexican politicians also had high hopes for the visit. But Thursday, political leaders said the statement Fox made by canceling his visit was far stronger than any diplomatic gains he could have made in Texas so soon after the controversial execution. |
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“I’m all in favour of the death penalty. We have campaigned for life to mean life in prison, as we knew we had no chance of restoring the death penalty. But now there is a chance it could be debated and voted on. It is something I believe should happen. There are murderers in prison afforded every luxury going, including access to a lawyer to fight for compensation at a cost to the taxpayer. A lot of people are fed up with the sentencing being dished out in this country, which is why so many want the death penalty brought back.” [Monday 8 August 2011] |
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Lethal injection is a humane judicial sentence Thursday 3 February 2011 - The current legal debate of whether lethal injection protocol causes cruel and painful death for convicted killers is ridiculous. Personally, I don't think the concern is really about pain for the condemned, I think this is just another thinly veiled attempt to derail or stall capital punishment, and our courts seem to be cooperating. The argument makes no sense on so many levels. Anti-death penalty supporters claim that even veterinarians, when euthanizing animals, are prohibited from using the paralyzing agent used in human lethal injection because it may cause or mask pain to the animals. They also claim that vets are prohibited from using potassium chloride, the heart-stopping drug used in the three-drug human lethal injection protocol. Lethal injection is a humane judicial sentence Thursday 3 February 2011 - Lethal injection is not a medical procedure. It is a judicial sentence and the intended outcome is death. Death in general, is not an easy process for anyone. Even in the most caring, supportive environment, when someone dies, it is an effort. In most cases, it is not a fast process and it is rarely a painless one. Lethal injection is a humane judicial sentence Thursday 3 February 2011 - It is offensive and extremely disrespectful to death row murder victims and their families to have this charade validated in court about whether lethal injection causes pain during an execution. These family members know all too well about cruel and horrific death, because that is exactly what these killers gave their loved ones. The courts must stop allowing this re-victimization of victims. It's disgraceful. Let's be honest about what the real agenda is — stopping capital punishment. Victims can handle that debate. |
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"We demand the government abide by the law and enforce capital punishment to maintain law and order in our society. We oppose abolishing the death penalty." [Thursday 6 December 2012] |
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Thursday
10 October 2002 - Several members of victim's rights groups
have also found the web pages for prisoners unsettling. "These people (Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty) are bad
dudes," Frank Parish, a board member of the National Organization
of Parents of Murdered Children, whose stepdaughter was abducted from the
parking lot of a Houston grocery store and murdered, told Wired News. "It doesn't bother me at all that they don't have their
Bill of Rights. They forfeited those when they made the deliberate choice to
violate the law." |
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"On the death penalty: Don't forget the victim." |
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Floyd Allen Medlock was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on 16 January 2001. On 19 December 1990, Riding her bike in apt. complex, 7 yr old, Katherine Busch went to apt. she used to live in, where defendant now lived, and said she was hungry. She was choked and beaten, then had her head held in a toilet bowl, then was stabbed repeatedly, then sexually molested. Her body was later taken to nearby dumpster. For the grandmothers,
Kathy's death and Medlock's sentence helped crystallize their thinking on the
death penalty. A former stockbroker and longtime single mother, Ms. Busch, 58,
said she already knew she supported capital punishment after serving on a jury
in 1988 that sentenced two men to death. But Kathy's death steeled her resolve,
especially, she said, when she discovered that victims' families often were the
last to know anything about the investigation or prosecution. On the advice of
her counselor, Ms. Busch searched for a support group for families of homicide
victims. To her surprise, she said, there wasn't one in the Oklahoma City area.
So she decided to start her own. Now, she said, her mailing list includes about
500 families affected by murder. Her group travels to the state prison in
McAlester for each execution to hold a vigil for the victims. She also joined
the Oklahoma City Police Department in 1993 to serve as its homicide victim
liaison. "People who have had the death penalty
imposed upon them are the worst of murderers," Ms. Busch said,
noting that the law requires "aggravating" circumstances before
capital punishment can be applied. "Some people
just need to be out of society and need to just not live," she said. "Just because you leave them locked up doesn't mean
they won't kill again." Both grandmothers
said they plan to continue their crusades after Medlock's execution - Ms. Busch
helping victims' families, Ms. Cabrera fighting to abolish the death penalty.
And neither said they expect any fireworks, should their paths cross inside the
state penitentiary on Tuesday. "I don't anticipate
anything bad happening," Ms. Busch said. "It's
not going to be comfortable. But there's nothing she can say that will change
my feelings. And I can probably never change her feelings." Ms.
Cabrera expressed sadness over the conflict. "She's still so angry,"
she said. "The hate is just consuming her. You cannot go on with your life
with hate in your life. It will eat you up. There'll never be a closure,
because Kathy's not here. Executing him is not going to close this thing. What
does it accomplish? All you're doing is making another family suffer
grief." Ms. Busch, though, said she expects Medlock's death to provide "a certain amount of peace. Since March of 1991, I have
dealt with the possibility that some court or some judge or someone would
overturn this sentence and he would be out," she said. "I anguished over every appeal. It's horrible, waiting
to see that decision upheld, because I feel he would do it again if he had that
opportunity. "When he's executed Tuesday night, I won't have that
worry."
Medlock's execution is marked by a more private dispute between the grandmothers of his victim, Johnnie Cabrera and Judy Busch, who are on opposite sides of the death penalty issue. Judy Busch is an ardent death penalty advocate who founded a support group for homicide survivors, and plans to watch Medlock's execution with other members of her family who want him dead. Cabrera is chairwoman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and considers execution murder. "We're doing the same thing he (Medlock) did," Cabrera said of his scheduled execution. She plans to watch the execution as a guest of Medlock, with whom she exchanged letters while he was in prison so she could get answers about the crime. Such actions by Cabrera are offensive to Judy Busch, who hasn't spoken to Cabrera since confronting her at an anti-death penalty rally years ago. "It really appalls me that she fights for this person's life, that did all the horrible things he did to Kathy," Busch said.
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Opponents of the death penalty rarely want to talk about the crimes of
those sentenced to death. One commentator has observed that this is "a bit
like playing Hamlet without the ghost, reviewing the merits of capital
punishment without revealing just what a capital crime is really like and how
the victims have been brutalized." [Remembering
victims key to death penalty Executing justice: Arizona's moral dilemma 20 May 2007]
Those who agitate to
abolish the death penalty for these killers say the killers don't deserve to
die because no crime justifies death. Another issue the
abolitionists like to avoid is deterrence, which is of two kinds, specific and
general. Specific deterrence is the measure of the penalty's effectiveness in
deterring the sentenced murderer from ever killing again. [Remembering
victims key to death penalty Executing justice: Arizona's moral dilemma 20 May
2007] This is such an
"inconvenient truth" for the abolitionists that they prefer to ignore
it. Professing to revere life so dearly as to oppose even the taking of
depraved life, they nonetheless seem to care little that their advocacy would
result, if successful, in the slaughter of more innocents. [Remembering
victims key to death penalty Executing justice: Arizona's moral dilemma 20 May
2007] In those memories, let
us offer prayers for their families and a steady, steel-eyed resolve that we
will value their innocent lives so dearly that we are willing to exact the
ultimate punishment for their murders, in order that we might preserve justice
and protect others from becoming victims. In the wake of these decades-long
delays to justice, let us finally resolve to demand of our courts that they
become more respectful of the victims' constitutional rights to a "prompt
and final conclusion of the case." [Remembering
victims key to death penalty Executing justice: Arizona's moral dilemma 20 May
2007] Phoenix lawyer Steve Twist is a longtime advocate for victims' rights nationwide. He takes care to point out that advocates like himself don't want to just speed up executions; legitimate cases of innocence should always be given consideration. What he wants is to eliminate unnecessary delays. "The effect may be the same but that's really what we're trying to do," he said. "It's not a matter of getting people into the death chamber faster. It's a matter of doing it in a way that protects everyone's rights, including the victims'." Twist attributed the delay in executions to anti-death penalty advocates, who he said turn to judges rather than the polls or lawmakers and use the law in an obstructionist way. "Ultimately their hope is, through a manipulation of the legal process for so long, that the public will grow weary of the length of time and the cost and not see any alternative and simply throw up their hands and abolish the death penalty," he said. "That's what they want." |