Not Cruel, But Most Unusual
By Bonnie Chernin Rogoff (12/15/04)
I was 18 years old in 1972. That was the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was unconstitutional. Death penalties across the country were vacated at once. The Manson family, responsible for the butchery that included the horrific stabbing of a beautiful, nine-month pregnant Sharon Tate, saw their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. For all those murders, the killers are still alive.
More recently, we’ve seen moms like Susan Smith and Andrea Yates drown their children in lakes and tubs. We’ve seen the Green River killer plead guilty to his murders – all 48 of them – then provided authorities with the locations of his victims’ bodies in exchange for a life sentence without parole. For those brutal serial slayings of young women Gary Leon Ridgeway will not die. If there were ever a case where the death penalty should be applied, it would be for a vicious serial killer like Ridgeway.
There were the Menendez brothers. The California teens shot their parents for an inheritance, then confessed but testified that their parents abused them for years. They were spared the death penalty and sentenced to life without parole. O.J.’s trial ensued, and he was found not guilty despite all the DNA evidence to convict. Until recently, a website showed photos of his bedroom with his wife’s blood splattered over the walls.
The Manson family, the Menendez brothers and O.J. Today, it’s Scott Peterson. Same state, different fates.
The jury’s foreman Steve Cardosi spoke with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News explaining their recommendation for the death penalty. He and other jurors were disappointed that Scott did not display emotions or remorse. It’s not unusual for a cold-blooded killer to demonstrate ice and detachment. What is unusual is that emotions should play such a large part in a jury’s decision to convict and return a death sentence. A conviction should be based solely on the evidence.
Meanwhile, Peterson’s pretense of innocence was in contrast to his big ego throughout the trial proceedings. It shows how low our judicial system has sunk when a defendant is so certain a jury will acquit him that he actually acts guilty without a care for the world.
This trial raised public awareness about violence against unborn children. Not once did I hear a newscaster refer to Connor as a clinically-correct “fetus.” Further, the capital phase of the trial only happened because Connor’s murder qualified as a special circumstance punishable by death. The death merchants at Planned Parenthood and NARAL must be squirming today.
In conclusion, I am pleased that our courts finally did something right and delivered justice for Laci. Unfortunately, there will be years of appeals, but there is a chance that Scott Peterson may pay the ultimate price for the murders of his wife and unborn son.
However, death penalty opponents who say the punishment is cruel and unusual are only half right. It is not cruel to execute murderers. It is unusual that when it comes to actual executions of death row inmates, capital cases ultimately discriminate against non-white victims.
According to The Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976, 34% of defendants executed in the U.S. were black, 6.3 percent were Hispanic and 57.5% were white. However, what is most important is the race of the victim. If you commit a capital crime and the victim is white, you are much more likely to be sentenced and executed. Statistics show that since 1976, the race of murder victims where executions took place was: 13.9% (black) 4% (Hispanic) and 80.6% (white). In cases involving white defendants and black victims there were 12 executions. In cases involving black defendants and white victims there were 192 executions. Had Laci Peterson been black, it would be highly unlikely that Scott Peterson would have been condemned to die, and that’s wrong.
What about serial killers and mass murderers? Shouldn’t their appointments with the lethal needle, or preferably, the gas chamber be kept? The murders of Laci and Connor are horrible and brutal, but so was the murder of multi-millionaire Ted Ammon here in Long Island, New York. Yesterday, while the nation was focused on Scott Peterson, Danny Pelosi was convicted for Ammon’s murder. The public mute switch was on, and that’s the real inequity. Angry voices don’t cry for equal vengeance against all murderers. If all those convicted of premeditated murder were executed without years of delays and appeals, we’d be able to minimize inequities regarding religion, race, ethnicity, sex and wealth. That’s what justice should really be about.
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