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Western Carolinian Volume 60 Number 19

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Item 1 - Western Carolinian Volume 60 Number 19

Western Carolinian Volume 60 Number 19

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Item

Details
- Format
  - Publications (documents)
- Type
  - Text
- Source institution
  - Western Carolina University
- Identifier
  - HL_WesternCarolinian_1995-02-09_Vol60_No19_13
Transcript

February 9, 1995 Western Carolinian Editorial "Criminal codes do not sanction the raping of rapists or the burning of arsonists' homes." This statement was issued by Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization. I wrote this hypothetical dialogue to express my feelings oh capital punishment, or capital murder as I like to call it. It is a personal crusade for me to expose the death penalty for what it is — an inefficient and inhumane form of "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy. Capital Murder (referred to hereafter as CM): Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth! That's what the book of the Lord Jesus Christ says. Life Sentence (referred to hereafter as LS): That's the Old Testament; from a book written long before Jesus, I might add. CM: You just can't let people get away with stuff, lt sends a message that... LS: (interrupts) I never said nobody shouldn't be punished for killing. They (murderers) should sit in the pen and rot with no parole or early release for good behavior. Stack them to the ceiling, 20 to a cell and (give them) one crappy meal a day. Oh yeah, what about all of Christ's talk about compassion and forgiveness? He saw much of the Old Testament moral codes as brutality. After a few more minutes, twists and turns, lt is not a deterrent to murder and it's not cost effective. Since ^^^^ theSupreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 the murder rate has been steadily on the rise. As far as cost goes... CM: interrupts) It don't work because guys sit on death row for years and waste our money because we keep 'em up. They should be tried the day after they're arrested and killed the next if they're convicted. LS: You see, as soon as somebody gets a death sentence there is an automatic appeal. CM: I see. Left wingers way to cost us all money. Tax and spend, tax and spend. LS- NO, this is where it s at — me Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that "death is different" and requ.res tremendous exercises to assure protection of one's constitutional rights. CM- But once somebody is convicted of murder they don't deserve any "8 US' That statement typifies the attitude the appeals process aBn*.to protect the condemned from. In Hamlet, my hometown, I know an older man that lived in Chattanooga when he was young. During part of this time he lived in a boarding house. He was dating one of the female boarders and one day somebody found her in her room, murdered. CM: Well, did he doit? LS: There was no evidence, besides unlawful carnal knowledge, to implicate him. Of course that didn't matter to the cops — they "knowed he done it." So they beat the piss out of him for hours, trying to force a confession out of him. He said if they had beat him a few minutes more he would have confessed to a crime he didn't commit. So that's mainly where the automatic appeal comes from, the fact that some people are illegally coerced into confession. CM: Yeah, that's an exception to the rule. Usually it's a scumbag and there's no doubt he's red-handed guilty. LS: But that's an arbitrary way to say what cases involve a shadow of doubt and which don't. Quite often there are no witnesses to a murder and the only key witness is the accused. To waive impartiality because popular opinion is that he is a "scumbag" or "white trash" or whatever is unlawful. CM: Still, to say it costs less, you gotta be on crack. LS: I have the facts to prove it! The Dallas Morning News did a study on the costs of murder cases in Texas. It costs $3.2 million and takes 7.5 years on the average to try, convict and execute a murderer. It costs an average of $750,000 to try, convict and detain someone in maximum security for 40 years. CM: Texas is halfway across the country. LS: I also have a Netu York Times article on this issue, lt includes a Duke University study conducted right here in North Carolina. On average, for $329,000 you can try, convict and execute somebody. For $166,000 a murderer can be tried, convicted and put away for 20 years. CM: All your factual intellectual bullshit is well and good. So how would you feel if your parents were murdered? Not too compassionate, eh? LS: On the contrary, I would definitely want the murderer punished. Since a lot of death row inmates find God and want to die for what they did, then by executing them you are, in a way, giving them what they want. In my mind getting what you want and being punished don't go hand in hand. Let me give that question a twist and direct it to you. CM: What? LS: Let's suppose your brother, no your mother, gets a death sentence for killing somebody. That wouldn't bother you, right? CM: I would be upset if Mom killed somebody, but if she did she would deserve to die. LS: Here comes the rest of the twist. She is executed in say, oh, June of 1995. Well in November of 1996 new evidence shows she was not the murderer. They could pardon her, but that won't resurrect her. CM: Ah man, be reasonable, that never happens. LS: You need to do some reading, lt happened to Leo Frank*. Just last year Kirk Bloodsworth** was released from Maryland's death row after a DNA test confirmed his plea of innocence. He had sat on death row for nine years condemned to die for raping and killing a 9-year-old girl. CM: Well it used to work when it was used right. And um, uh, um... LS: (In triumph) When you have some hard evidence to support your claims I'll be glad to continue this conversation, (exits) *ln 1913 Leo Frank was condemned to the gallows for killing Mary Phagan, a young girl that worked at the Atlanta pencil factory that he owned in part and managed. Legal procedure was disregarded during his trial and he went as far as the U.S. Supreme Court trying to get an appeal, but to no avail. This sparked a national outcry and compelled Governor J.H. Slaton to commute his sentence to a life of labor on a Milledgeville, Ga. prison farm. On August 16,1915 the Marietta chapter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan abducted him from the prison, took him the 175 miles back to Marietta and hung him in an oak tree. Over 50 years later an employee of Frank's factory who had testified against him came forward and claimed Frank did not kill Phagan. He witnessed the crime and the murderer swore he would kill him if he told about what he had seen. A polygraph confirmed this and Frank was pardoned. This case epitomizes anti- Semitism, which could inspire another column in itself. **While researching Kirk Bloodsworth's case I ran across several others from the past couple of years that were very similar. I hope this makes you wonder how many innocent people have been executed in the world's history.

Object

Description

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.
Details
- Creator
  - Western Carolina University
- Format
  - Publications (documents)
- Type
  - Text
- Date
  - Date original: 1995-02-09
  - Date digitized: 2019-11-13
- Extent
  - Dimension: 14" x 11.25"
  - Pages: 20 pages
- Subject - Topic
- Location
  - Jackson County (N.C.)
  - Cullowhee (N.C.)
- Source institution
  - Western Carolina University
- Source Collection
  - WCU Students Newspapers Collection
- Identifier
  - HL_WesternCarolinian_1995-02-09_Vol60_No19
- Repository
  - Western Carolina University Hunter Library

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