Death penalty

(Hartford-WABC, December 6, 2004) — Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell says the state's first execution since 1960 will go on as scheduled. Convicted serial killer Michael Ross is due to be executed on January 26th.

The 45-year-old Ross, who admitted killing eight women in Connecticut and New York, is on death row for killing four young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s.

He reportedly wrote to the governor last week asking his death sentence be carried out as scheduled.

Now, unlike many lefties, I got no problems with the death penalty itself. I got problems with the implementation.

1.) The death penalty is supposedly a deterrent. It's not. When you hear they're gonna put somebody down, do you know what their crime was? Do you remember just what they did, ususally over a decade ago, to deserve this punishment? No. Where's the linkage? At what point does someone make the connection between the crime and the punishment?

2.) Mostly minorities get put to death, as it is in Bush's Texas, where Wetbacks, Niggas, and Retards are the only ones who get hung. There is a direct correlation between the type of legal aid you can afford and your chances of getting the death penalty. Until more white folks start sitting on Ol' Sparky's lap, I'll be against it.

There should be a national standard for the death penalty (killing a cop, premeditated murder, murder in commission of a felony, etc.).

There should be a determinite amount of time between the date of convition and the coup de grace.

There should be only one appeal. Each case reviewed by a panel of judges to assure that justice was meted out correctly (unlike Texas now, and Illinois in the past), and then a 'retrial' if you will, just to be sure we got it right. After that, off to get your needle. Only a year or so should elapse between conviction and implementation, so the crime is still fresh in people's minds.

Executions should be televised. On prime time, on every network, once a month. Now there's a deterrent. Ever watch someone die from 'other than natural causes'? You don't forget, trust me. Ever kill anyone? For that's what we are doing. If you've ever looked at an indictment it says, 'The People vs. Joe Mass Murderer. Remember 'We the People, in order to form a more perfect yadda, yadda, yadda'? With it televised, we will all collectively flip the switch. It won't be hidden by the dark of night in some obscure death chamber with 10 witnesses. I ask again. Ever kill anyone? You don't forget, trust me.

So yes, I am against the death penalty, until it can be used fairly and equitably.

As for the case above, however. If the guy wants to go that badly, I say we oblige him. He's a waste of my good air anyway.