Put To Death
On every political and social topic, I stand to the far left, save the issue of the death penalty. My heart believes that men who commit murder at a certain age should be put to death (and not in a nice medical way, but quartered or hanged—the final punishment should always be graphic, visceral, and public). But my brain knows that the final punishment system is such that class (and as a consequence, race) plays too big role in the judgment process. (I also have an esthetic reason for supporting the death penalty: What would film noir be without it. But as with most matters that concern crime and punishment, the fiction of noir barely translates into the facts of life; those who are executed by the state tend not to look like Fred MacMurray but Michael Clarke Duncan.) The only reason I say no to the death penalty is because the system is seriously imperfect.
But what say you about this case.
SAN FRANCISCO - A 76-year-old convicted killer — legally blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair — tried to stave off execution early Tuesday by arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to put a feeble old man to death… Allen went to prison for having his teenage son’s 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary. While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders.
I say, like the robot in Blade Runner, “Wake up! It’s time to die.”
For once, I'm with you Charles, and in every way. Deaf or blind or both, he's still the same man. And since we know he was responsible for a fact and there's no chance of an imperfect system missing the mark in this case, go for it.