Enforce death sentences for cold-blooded killers

Enforce death sentences for cold-blooded killers

Delays let criminals get away with murder

By Aanand N. Patel

Twelve years have passed. Justice has not been served. Will it
ever? On Sept. 17, 1983, William Kirkpatrick Jr. shot two men while
robbing a Taco Bell where he was once employed. In cold blood: no
remorse, no emotion, just malice and malevolence. After he robbed
the store of just over $600, Kirkpatrick killed the eyewitnesses,
shooting two store employees – James Falconio and Wayne Hunter –
with his stolen .22-caliber gun.

In a simple and fair 1984 trial, Kirkpatrick was convicted of
the two murders and sentenced to death. In the years that have
passed since the trial and the gruesome murders, Kirkpatrick has
not denied his guilt. In fact, he admitted his guilt in a letter
written to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is scheduled to die by lethal
injection Jan. 26 at 12:01 a.m.

Suddenly, a week before his scheduled execution, Kirkpatrick is
singing a different tune. He has filed papers with a federal judge
asking for a stay of execution – an extension for his pathetic
life. It is quite possible that his request may be granted. And so
for another few years, William Kirkpatrick Jr. will be allowed to
live, and his heinous acts will remain unpunished.

The absurdity of our criminal justice system, especially the
death penalty, is mind-boggling. A man is sentenced to die, but for
12, 15, even 20 years, can escape his punishment?

In the process, he can file dozens of appeals for arbitrary
reasons. I do not argue that appeals are unnecessary or that they
are useless. To the contrary, appeals are a necessary part of the
capital punishment process. Yet, the current system allows for
repeated, lengthy appeals that delay execution simply for the sake
of delaying it. They waste huge amounts of taxpayer money in the
process. Wouldn’t these millions of dollars be better spent
somewhere else (education, defense, policing, environmental
clean-up)?

There is no doubt in my mind that the death penalty would be a
very useful, powerful deterrent if it was applied properly. If
criminals knew that they would be sentenced to death and that the
state would carry out this sentence swiftly and consistently, then
there would be a lot fewer people contemplating murder.

Criminals are not stupid people. They know that the death
penalty is not enforced, that it is just kept out there in some
halfhearted manner by politicians to sound tough on crime. They
know that if they kill, chances are they won’t actually end up in
the gas chamber (EVEN if they receive a death sentence).

Want to be tough on crime, President Clinton? Start enforcing
the law. Start using the death penalty correctly, consistently and
often enough so that it can finally exercise its deterrent
effect.

Executions should be carried out within five years (at the
latest), appeals should be minimized, and the system of automatic
appeals and automatic extension stays needs to be looked at again.
Why would a criminal have any fear of the death penalty or the gas
chamber if he knows he probably won’t get it?

What kind of ridiculous system rewards cold-blooded murderers by
helping them escape their punishment? Ours does. In the United
States, it pays to be a criminal – chances are you can avoid
punishment. It should be that if a man decides to commit armed
robbery and shoot two people in the process, he will receive the
death penalty. Simple and easy for all to understand, criminals and
non-criminals alike.

So what can we do to help improve the criminal justice system?
Supporting the California attorney general’s suggestions to limit
needless federal death row appeals would be a start. Currently,
thousands of inmates sit on death row across the nation, waiting to
be executed. Let’s get on with the process; the delays are useless
and time-consuming nonsense.

Propositions on this year’s California state ballot that will
allow the death penalty to be used for those convicted of drive-by
gang shooting murders and carjacking murders deserve support.
Finally, expansion of the death penalty for terrorist acts,
contract murders and the like should be continued.

Those sentenced to death row are not angels – far from it. Why
does our government spend so much time and energy fighting for
their rights? Death row inmates are not human; they are vicious,
brutal and violent monsters. They have been convicted by a jury of
killing another human being. They have been given a punishment by
society, one that they deserve. Why the hell can’t we enforce it
yet?

Patel is a fourth-year political science student.Comments to
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