“I don’t question their guilt or the gravity of their crimes. They get no mercy from me,” stated Washington State Governor Jay Inslee when he announced that he would suspend all executions for prisoners on Death Row during the balance of his term in Olympia.
Well, that’s an all too obvious lie. Suspending all executions is merciful — although not to the families and loved ones of the victims who wait for justice. Whether the Death Row inmates deserve Inslee's mercy or not is a totally different question. But his action is merciful nonetheless — in spite of his denial.
I’m not altogether convinced the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, but do believe it should be preserved — although used sparingly. IMHO, there are just some people who are sociopathic predators, and some who simply commit crimes so heinous they deserve nothing less than death — Charles Manson for example, whom the taxpayers of California have supported for decades longer than he was a free man. Gary Ridgeway, AKA the Green River Killer, and Jonathon Lee Gentry, who killed 12-year old Cassie Holden by bludgeoning her with a rock in 1988, fall into that same category as well.
And what was the reason Ted Bundy openly admitted committing his crimes in Florida was his only mistake? Florida is a Death Penalty state that actually executes those who run out of legal appeals — as Bundy found out.
Gentry has been on Death Row for 27 years now. Meanwhile, Inslee said, “It costs the state more to carry out a death sentence than to lodge a person in prison for life.” Personally, I’d like to see the numbers that prove it has cost the taxpayers less to house, feed, and fund more than a quarter century of his ongoing legal appeals, compared to the cost of filling a syringe and sticking it into this convicted murderer’s arm.
If that’s Inslee’s idea of cost-effective government, Washington has significantly larger problems than the question of the death penalty.
Well, that’s an all too obvious lie. Suspending all executions is merciful — although not to the families and loved ones of the victims who wait for justice. Whether the Death Row inmates deserve Inslee's mercy or not is a totally different question. But his action is merciful nonetheless — in spite of his denial.
I’m not altogether convinced the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, but do believe it should be preserved — although used sparingly. IMHO, there are just some people who are sociopathic predators, and some who simply commit crimes so heinous they deserve nothing less than death — Charles Manson for example, whom the taxpayers of California have supported for decades longer than he was a free man. Gary Ridgeway, AKA the Green River Killer, and Jonathon Lee Gentry, who killed 12-year old Cassie Holden by bludgeoning her with a rock in 1988, fall into that same category as well.
And what was the reason Ted Bundy openly admitted committing his crimes in Florida was his only mistake? Florida is a Death Penalty state that actually executes those who run out of legal appeals — as Bundy found out.
Gentry has been on Death Row for 27 years now. Meanwhile, Inslee said, “It costs the state more to carry out a death sentence than to lodge a person in prison for life.” Personally, I’d like to see the numbers that prove it has cost the taxpayers less to house, feed, and fund more than a quarter century of his ongoing legal appeals, compared to the cost of filling a syringe and sticking it into this convicted murderer’s arm.
If that’s Inslee’s idea of cost-effective government, Washington has significantly larger problems than the question of the death penalty.
