Monday, January 16, 2006
Don't be absurd
The Chron is going to complain about absurdities in the execution of some other guy, Clarence Ray Allen. Let's see if they actually score any anti-death penalty points.
Allen, who suffered a heart attack on Sept. 2, would be dead already without the efforts of the prison medical staff to save him.
Thesis? Apparently, they shouldn't have even bothered to save his life. I know The Chron would've cheered that decision in various alternate realities. Actual reality, though? Ha.
Unlike Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who was executed by lethal injection on Dec. 13, Allen has not attracted a phalanx of celebrities to his cause.
This somehow makes Allen's execution more absurd?
There seems to be little doubt about Allen's guilt or the rottenness of his crimes. He was sent to prison for his role in the 1974 killing of his son's 17-year-old girlfriend, a potential witness against Allen in a market burglary. From prison, he was convicted in connection with the 1980 slayings of three people, including a man who had testified against him in the original murder case.
Okay, keep in mind that second crime as you continue.
Clarence Ray Allen is a despicable, barbaric character. He belongs in prison. But Californians will not wait for a natural end to his sorry life.
Remember, he ordered murders from prison. Waiting is definitely the right way to approach this.
Consider this: Allen was responsible for one killing when there was no death penalty in California -- and three more after it was reinstated.
This is supposed to be an argument about deterrence, but if you read it closely, had they executed him quickly and efficiently, those three more folks wouldn't have died. Go deterrence! Instead, in a system where he couldn't be executed, he was allowed to live and kill more people. Absurd indeed.
. . .
|
. . .
|
