"You'll Swing for This!" Thoughts on the Execution of Troy Davis

www.stolinsky.com ^ | 09-26-11 | stolinsky

[stolinsky]

 

“You’ll Swing for This!”

Thoughts on the Execution of Troy Davis

David C. Stolinsky
Sept. 26, 2011

On Sept. 21, Georgia executed convicted murderer Troy Davis by lethal injection. Twenty-two years ago, Davis murdered police officer Mark MacPhail. After shooting Officer MacPhail, Davis stood over him and shot him again. Predictably, MacPhail’s name was mentioned much less often than the murderer’s name, and there were demonstrations for the murderer but none for MacPhail. For details read Ann Coulter, who is an attorney and − unlike other commentators − actually reviewed the transcript.

If opponents of capital punishment claim that Davis did not receive a fair trial, reply that, like the murderer, the majority of the jury was black. Reply that the case underwent multiple appeals to over a dozen courts, up to the U.S. Supreme Court, over two decades. Then add that there is persuasive evidence that capital punishment deters murder. Fines deter illegal parking. How could the death penalty not deter murder?

I checked liberal newspapers and saw headlines such as “Execution Denounced Far and Near.” This was a “news” article, not an opinion piece. But then something odd happened. Into my head popped the expression, “You’ll swing for this!”

I’m old enough to have grown up watching Western films. Often a good guy would say to a bad guy, “You’ll swing for this!” In earlier movies, the hanging would be left to our imaginations. Later Westerns were more realistic, and we saw a gallows being built.

Crime dramas were equally popular. As police arrested a murderer, they would say, “You’ll fry for this!” or “You’re going to the chair!” Sometimes the electrocution was dramatized on the screen.

We grew up having learned an important lesson while being entertained. We learned that terrible crimes, especially murder, would bring terrible punishments. We learned that murderers did not have a right to eat three meals a day, sleep in a warm bed, and enjoy human companionship until they died of old age – while their victims enjoyed none of these benefits.

In high-school physics, we learned that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In movies, we learned that in human behavior, often the same is true.

We also watched dramas involving doctors. They were portrayed as healers. People lying on gurneys or receiving injections were patients. When an execution was necessary, a hangman was sent for. We learned that healing and killing were separate activities, carried out by different people.

Things have changed.

Under the guise of “compassion,” we decided that hanging was cruel. Yes, a brain deprived of oxygen loses consciousness in about five seconds. Yes, there is a certain dignity in dying standing up, not strapped to a gurney.

But hangings sometimes went wrong. If the murderer was too slender, or the drop too short, the neck might not break, and the man might struggle briefly while strangling. And if the murderer was too heavy, or the drop too long, the head might separate from the body – which would make no difference to the criminal, but would upset the witnesses.

So we banned hanging and replaced it with the gas chamber in California and the electric chair in New York. But if the murderer didn’t inhale deeply, he would cough and struggle briefly before the cyanide gas killed him. And electrocuted criminals would grimace and jerk as the current made their muscles contract. But one of the electrodes was on the head. Persons who survive being struck by lightning, or touching high-voltage lines, don’t recall the accident. The brain runs on tiny currents – thousands of volts completely disrupt its functions.

Then we were told that lethal injection was more humane, so we banned the gas chamber and the electric chair. This was done to appease opponents of capital punishment, who claimed other methods were “cruel and unusual” and hence unconstitutional. But when the Constitution was adopted, hanging was the usual method of execution. The Constitution mentions the death penalty four times. No matter – judges decided that what was approved by the authors of the Constitution was “unconstitutional.”

And now opponents of capital punishment claim lethal injection, the way we put beloved dogs and cats to sleep, is “terribly painful.” Critics claim that the murderer may remain conscious after receiving a massive overdose of Pentothal. This drug is used in normal doses to anesthetize surgical and dental patients, who recall nothing about the operation.

But nobody volunteers to receive a similar overdose and report how he felt – if he wakes up. Nobody really believes that the murderer remains conscious. What the critics oppose is not lethal injection, but capital punishment by any means. Predictably, now some judges have banned lethal injection because it is “terribly painful.”

I oppose lethal injection, but for another reason. I object to confusing healing and killing.

First we aborted early fetuses. Then we aborted late-term fetuses – the judges insisted. Later we slowly dehydrated and starved to death the brain damaged or incurably ill – the judges insisted. Now a professor of “bioethics” at Princeton, and the British organization of obstetricians, favor killing severely disabled or unwanted babies. We have a right to ask: Who’s next − disabled people over age 70? That would get rid of our Social Security and Medicare deficit. It would be “cost-effective.”

When I came into a patient’s room, I was seen by the patient and the family as someone who would try to make the patient better. But I was lucky. I retired before Terri Schiavo was slowly killed over 13 days, while doctors and nurses stood by idly. They could say, as Nazi war criminals claimed at their trials, “We were only following orders.” After all, the judges insisted.

The Nazi war criminals were hanged. Back then, we knew what to do with murderers. Back then, we knew the difference between killing and healing. Back then, we revered Judeo-Christian values. We didn’t always live up to them, but we tried. Back then, we didn’t have to view our doctor with suspicion, as a possible double agent. We didn’t have to wonder whether the doctor was working for us to make us better, or working for the government to save money by hastening our death.

But now, we follow no value system. We do whatever the latest judge tells us to do. If a judge tells us that slowly dehydrating and starving the disabled to death is “peaceful, even pleasant,” we believe it. And if another judge tells us that lethal injection is “terribly painful,” we believe that, too. Our beliefs need not be logical, or even consistent. After all, we are only following orders.

Nobody says “You’ll swing for this!” anymore, not even in movies. We’re much too sophisticated, too advanced, too progressive for such crude behavior. Now we medicalize executions, but turn doctors and nurses into executioners. We kill the innocent, but spare the guilty. We gloss over the prolonged suffering of the disabled, but agonize over the possible momentary discomfort of those guilty of the worst crimes. We turn morality and empathy upside down.

Oh yes, we really have progressed since those primitive days when murderers were hanged, while old Doc cared for the sick. Aren’t we lucky to live in modern times?

If we were serious about our claim that slow dehydration and starvation is a “peaceful, even pleasant” way to get rid of the disabled, we would also use it for executions. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed that it is good enough for innocent disabled people like Terri Schiavo, so surely it must be good enough for convicted murderers.

But we’re not serious, so let’s just read the morning paper and see what judges say the Constitution means today. But be careful − don’t be an unborn or newborn child, get old, or become disabled. It’s not safe anymore. If you want to be sure of living out your normal life span, be a convicted murderer in a “progressive” state.

Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. Contact: dstol@prodigy.net.

[Meet the New Boss]

Executions should be televised in a 1-hour program.

Forty minutes should be spent devoted to honoring the life of the victim, in this case the police officer and Army veteran who was murdered.

Then, the evidence against the perp should be reviewed in a completely objective manner, free of the distortions by the social justice lefties. In this case, the large number of eyewitnesses who witnessed Rah kill the police officer and gave statements to the police immediately after the killing.

And finally, the execution.

[Vigilanteman]

Excellent rant. I agree with the good doctor/author. Medical people should not even be present during an execution except to sign a death certificate for the perp once the deed is done.

The only compassion warranted is a couple of hymns sung to the perps before the trap door is sprung, whether they want it or not.

[FreeAtlanta]

I have taken to using this as an example why murderers should be executed... Edward Corliss, 65, is charged with shooting clerk Surendra Dangol in a Dec. 26, 2009 incident at Tedeschi’s on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain.

A social worker who went looking for batteries at a Jamaica Plain convenience store the day after Christmas 2009 yesterday described finding the “gurgling” body of the store clerk behind the counter, as a parolee’s murder trial got underway in Suffolk Superior Court.

On the first day of testimony in the murder trial of Edward Corliss, Christopher Jepsen told jurors he walked into Tedeschi’s on Centre Street about 3 p.m. and didn’t see anyone, but heard an alarming noise.

“It sounded a like a gurgle,” Jepsen said. “It was a gasp.”

Behind the counter, he said, he found 39-year-old Surendra Dangol lying on his back, his eyes open but no pulse, a bullet wound to his torso.

Jepsen dialed 911 from the store phone and began CPR until police arrived, their guns drawn.

Corliss, 65, sat expressionless in Suffolk Superior Court as Tedeschi franchisee Tariq Nehmood testified that Dangol was a hardworking employee of his brother’s from Nepal who was gunned down for $746.

At the time of the shooting, Corliss was on parole from prison, where he had a life sentence for killing a Salisbury store clerk in 1971. Corliss was released in 2006.

Corliss is charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm in Dangol’s death. -— marie.szaniszlo@bostonherald.com Poster child for Capital Punishment

[Robert A Cook PE]

Strong words, strong opinions expressed persuasively.

[stolinsky]

Thanks for the glaring example. There are many other cases of convicts with long or “life” sentences who were released, or escaped, and murdered again—or murdered a guard or another prisoner while still in prison.

But my primary reason for supporting the death penalty is that it shows how highly we value human life. If a long prison term is the punishment for kidnapping, rape, child molestation, or murder, why not murder the victim and remove the witness? The death penalty for deliberate murder is the only law that is repeated in all of the first five books of the Bible. Or, if you prefer Star Wars terminology, it is the only way to restore so great a disturbance in the Force.

[GeronL]

Very well written

[Niuhuru]

I’ve been partial to making juvenile delinquents watch the execution, from the days leading up to the execution, to watching the preparations that the convict goes through up to the actual ‘last walk’ to the execution chamber. Then make them watch the procedure be applied and afterwards, watch the body be prepared for the funeral services. It’ll leave a mark in their minds where htey will end up in the end.

[Niuhuru]

I wonder just how anti-death penalty these activists would be if it were a relative of theirs that had been shot and killed by these monsters.

[Niuhuru]

These killers play God, just as much as the executioners are accused of doing. The difference is, the executioners are usually not killing innocent people.

[Niuhuru]

I think compulsory religious services should be part of things as part of the preparation for the execution of the killer. What do you think?

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Ping me...Dr, your commentary is superb. I want to read much more of what you have written. You have a way of ‘hitting the nail’...Blessings.

[SoCal SoCon]

Excellent and thought-provoking article.

[PalmettoMason]

Which religion? Who chooses it?
Sounds awful close to “establishing” a State Religion to me.
No thanks.

[Alberta's Child]

I always cite the case of Reginald McFadden, a guy who had previously been convicted of murder in Pennsylvania and given a "life sentence," yet somehow was paroled in 1994 only to go on a killing spree in New York within weeks of his parole. That guy ought to be the poster child for the death penalty.

I use that example because the case had major political implications that lasted for years. If it weren't for McFadden, nobody ever would have heard about Tom Ridge. Ridge was running well behind his opponent Mark Singel in the 1994 Pennsylvania governor's race when the McFadden case unfolded, and when it was learned that Singel had been the head of the parole board that recommended McFadden's release, his political career was basically over.

[The Great RJ]

I hardly call 20 years of trials and appeals a rush to judgement that sent an innocent man to execution.

In South Dakota a man who sexually assaulted and murdered a 9 year old girl nearly 20 years ago is finally running out of appeals for his death sentence. He had two complete trials in different parts of the state to avoid any jury taint. He demanded and got DNA tests resulting in confirmation he was the person who sexually assaulted the girl. He has appealed on any technicality imaginable and cost the state taxpayers an estimated $1.5 million in legal fees. Finally all these appeals will be exhausted and justice will be served and yet their will be some who will lament this POS being put to death and speculate about his "innocence"

[MHGinTN]

How many times have ‘progressives’ slithered onto Freerepublic abortion threads to demand of we who oppose abortion on demand what we have done to care for babies ‘nobody wants’ or aid pregnant women who have ‘no choice except abortion’? Well, time to turn the tables. Have these opponents of the death PENALTY take the paroled murderers into their homes to live with them during a five year ‘rehabilitation’ period if released from prison. We could then reinstate the death PENALTY after the murderers ‘educate’ the fools.

[GOPJ]

Does it strike anyone as odd that elite liberals who look down on decent everyday Americans could cry for a lowlife l murderer like Troy Davis? I think we’re starting to know who they really are...

[TheSarce]

“Euphoria” ping....