Posted on 12/14/2005 12:35:03 PM PST by knighthawk
Folks in California have the best of all possible worlds: warm weather ... and the death penalty, too. As a frigid New York pays its final respects today to Police Officer Daniel Enchautegui, Californians know their most famous killer got his just deserts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected clemency for Stanley (Tookie) Williams, and the convicted murderer was executed by lethal injection in San Quentin prison early yesterday.
Please, spare me the tears for Williams. A founder of the brutal Crips crime gang, he killed four people in cold blood during robberies that got him $200, then laughed about it, according to trial testimony. He was sentenced in 1981, yet never expressed remorse, a fact that belies the claims of Jesse Jackson and other daffy supporters that Williams had gained redemption. Finally, his debt to society is paid in full.
New York should be so lucky. Eleven cops have been shot since June, two of them fatally. The family heartbreak and fury, the solemn sea of blue, the respectful politicians who gathered only last week for the funeral of Officer Dillon Stewart all will be in evidence again today when Enchautegui is laid to rest.
Against that horrible backdrop, the Daily News is leading the campaign for tougher penalties for all violent crimes against police officers. It's such an obviously necessary change that the only shock is that these lax laws haven't been corrected already.
Yet the effort to bring some sanity to New York's criminal justice system will not be complete until the state restores the death penalty. And uses it.
The law was on the books for 10 years, but zero executions were carried out before the state's highest court ruled a key provision unconstitutional. Like so much else in Albany, a simple fix has been stalled. It's time to plug in Old Sparky, or, as the late News editorialist Reuben Maury preferred, the Hot Squat.
Whatever you call it, whatever method is used, the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for some crimes. It's not about blood lust or revenge. Nor do I believe the possibility of a sanitized execution deters anyone who would otherwise pull the trigger. I simply believe that some crimes are so heinous that those fairly convicted must pay the ultimate price.
Killing a cop clearly qualifies. Yet because New York prosecutors and juries no longer have the option, the three men charged with killing Officers Stewart and Enchautegui already know they won't pay with their own lives.
And that's a crime.
Ping
Hillary and the Manhattan limousine liberal elitists will never let it happen.
For as much as people opposed Howard Stern (largely because of his tv/radio show), it was one of the three issues he ran for office on (restoring the death penalty).
Manhattan liberals,absolutely! But don't be so sure about The Former Twelfth Lady.
She'll do a (national) poll...with particular focus on the Electoral College...before taking a position.
If she has any hope of ever being President, she would have to support the death penalty. During his 1992 campaign, Clinton returned to Arkansas for the execution of a convicted murderer. That the man was also mentally retarded never became an issue.....
I think Hillary would sell her daughter to white slavers for a vote. She'll go whichever way the wind is blowing.
Interesting. The NY Post has been moving to the left for the past month or so, and the NY Daily News has been moving to the right. Maybe they've decided to change places again.
a fact that belies the claims of Jesse Jackson and other daffy supporters
Jesse Jackson couldn't even name a Victim of Tookie's
Jesse Jackson is truely a dirtwad.
I certainly hope not--& as a matter of fact, I would like to see the death penalty used more often & expanded for crimes other than murder, too (such as violent rape & sexual abuse of children, for example).
Not going to happen. Sorry. The leftist aristocracy that doesn't care about the little guy will never let the Death Penalty return.
I hate to disappoint you.
bump
Time for N.Y. to restore the death penalty ..........N.Y. and every other state that currently doesn't have it .......preferrably without 20yr appeals
He has continued to rant on and on about guns. He said, and I kid you not, people don't kill people, guns kill people.
No one believes a word out of her mouth.
Television has me confused.
Every other episode, one of the detectives is threatening to "put a needle" in some murderer's arm? What gives?
"Law and Order", that is.
"Californians know their most famous killer got his just deserts."
Nah...that POS Charlie Manson is still alive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.