If not Death, then what?
By John David Powell (12/13/05)
A personal look at capital crime and punishment
If not Death, then what? Thoughtful individuals
across the social and political spectra ponder this
question today as they search for a suitable
punishment for history’s longest-running crime.
Capital crime and punishment is not a subject I enjoy.
It became personal on Oct. 26, 1981. Don’t let
anyone tell you time heals all wounds. It does not.
And the recent debate over whether a state should
execute a convicted murdering thug just keeps open the
wound.
Sometimes I bring it upon myself. Back in February, I
received an email from Karen in Indiana. Karen wrote,
in part: “What can you tell me about William Minnick?
I am writing to him from an anti death penalty web
site. I have not asked him, ‘Did you do it.’ I do
have many pages of court papers he has sent to me. I
cannot find info about Martha Payne on the web. I can
only find info to help Minnick. My search found your
article (Death Penalty Over Coffee at Sparky’s).’
What really happened? Was he the killer? Is he a
sociopath?”
So many questions, and so little reason to answer.
My brother-in-law came home from work and found
Martha’s body on the bedroom floor of their
Greencastle, Ind., home. She had been raped, anally
sodomized, and stabbed in the upper back. The knifing
killed her. Her body also bore ligature marks on the
neck and burn marks on the ankles, which indicated her
killer tried to electrocute her. Minnick told his
girlfriend that he raped Martha, but that “Ace” killed
her. He never gave up his phantom accomplice.
A jury found him guilty, and on June 10, 1982, two and
a half months after the birth of my first daughter, a
judge sentenced Minnick to death
An appeals court overturned the conviction on
technicalities.
A second jury found him guilty, but did not recommend
death, because they did not have access to all of the
evidence from the first trial. The judge did,
however, and sentenced Minnick to death on Oct. 16,
1985, nearly four years from the day he murdered
Martha.
The judge wrote in his order of execution: “. . . The
court further finds as an aggravating circumstance
that the crime mutilated her body and defiled her even
after death, that the crime was the kind of horrendous
crime that the legislature anticipated when it listed
rape or robbery as aggravating circumstances and,
therefore, the court specifically finds that the
circumstances of the crime, the violence of the
attempted electrocution, the strangling and the
knifing are those kinds of aggravating circumstances.”
Other “aggravating” circumstances turned up beyond the
crime scene. They turned up when the courts
overturned his first conviction. They turned up when
my in-laws returned to court to relive the horrific
details. They turned up each time Minnick filed
briefs and appeals. They turned up when the Indiana
Supreme Court set aside the death sentence of another
murderer [Saylor v. State, 808 N.E. 2nd 646 (Ind.
2004)], because the trial judge overruled the jury’s
recommendation against a death sentence. They turned
up when the court agreed a year ago that he is
incompetent, then delayed his sentencing until the
State of Indiana determines he is competent to stand
before a judge and face a maximum of 160 years in
prison.
They continue turning up when an email prompts me to
do a web search and I discover dozens of sites devoted
to a vicious killer. The aggravation transcends
believability when a smirking Minnick, a crucifix
around his neck and another on the wall behind him,
mocks me from my computer screen.
He asks for “correspondence and support from all (both
men and women), from all professions examples
journalists, United Nations Personnel, Foreign
Government-officials, United States Supreme Court’s
law clerks, and citizens from all across the nations.”
He concludes with “Hopefully we’ll help expose the
corruption inside the judiciary and bring end to death
penalty in U.S.A.”
The latest aggravation occurs when I realize we have
something in common: An end to the death penalty.
Except, I don’t think he would like my suggestion.
It’s real simple. If not Death, then the closest
thing to it.
Martha will never have children, will never see her
nieces and nephews, will never open presents at
birthdays and Christmas. She will never see a sunrise
or feel a cool breeze blow across her brow.
Her family will never speak to her. They will never
share the dramas and traumas of every-day life. They
will never share cards and letters. They will never
experience the joy of her company.
So it should be for Minnick and for everyone convicted
of a capital crime. If not Death, then the closest
thing to it, which would be total removal from
society, where they will never open presents at
birthdays and Christmas, never see a sunrise, never
speak to a family member or friend or another living
soul, and never share cards or letters. Or emails.
Or their ramblings on personal web pages.
If not Death, then the closest thing to it.
Otherwise, we show distain for the victim, the
victim’s family, and a system that demands justice for
all.
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