Natural causes won't do on Death Row
My column today:
I thought about starting like this: Death Row inmate Gary D. Greene cheated the executioner last week by dying of natural causes.
Garbage. A cliche. Hackneyed. And wrong.
Greene didn't cheat the executioner, who's probably delighted to be relieved of an unpleasant task.
The fact is, Greene cheated me. And you, and all the people of North Carolina.
He cheated the jurors who decided he deserved to die for the murder of his own father. He cheated the judge who pronounced his sentence and ordered his execution.
He cheated our system of law and order.
He cheated truth, justice and the American Way.
Darn it, the state was supposed to take his life. Instead, it let him die in his bed. ...
It's far from the first time. Just since 1977, at least 13 other prisoners awaiting execution in North Carolina have escaped punishment by dying before their appointed hour.
Ten have done so by natural causes, which I suppose they couldn't help, but three took their own lives.
As if murder wasn't bad enough, they compounded their crimes by killing again. It shows how little respect some people have for the laws of God and man.
"Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord" -- words for which these death-dealing demons demonstrated their utter contempt.
When the law demands the ultimate penalty for the crime of murder, it must be obeyed.
The law does not mean that these evildoers should remain in prison, sleeping in a warm bed and eating three meals a day, until their release by their own mortal frailty. If that were the intent, they could have been sentenced to life without parole and locked in a cage safely away from decent society, forgotten forever.
The people of North Carolina are due more satisfaction than that.
Yet, the wheels of justice grind so slowly that criminals are liable to die of old age waiting for them to turn.
Greene illustrates the point. He murdered his father in 1986 and the next year was found guilty by a Caldwell County jury and sentenced to death. So far, so good.
By 1991, justice still had not been dispensed, creating an opportunity for judicial interference. Sure enough, Greene was granted a re-sentencing hearing. It took nearly seven more years, until 1998, for that to conclude with an outcome the same as the first.
This process should have been hurried. There ought to be someone in the judicial system who says, "Hey, let's move this along. We don't want this guy to kick off before we can kill him."
Failing that, his second sentencing should have put him on the fast track to the death chamber. Instead, it turned the clock back to zero. So, 10 years later, he still wasn't out of time. Except, well, he was out of time ... naturally.
So, why didn't someone at Central Prison recognize Greene's shaky health as an emergency? There should be a provision in capital cases for situations like this: When a condemned man is in danger of dying, he jumps to the front of the line. An "expedited execution" policy.
Suicides present an admittedly greater challenge. Guards will just have to do a better job of keeping Death Row inmates safe and healthy until their appointed day arrives.
Some people might say: Dead is dead. What difference does it make how an inmate dies as long as he's no longer drawing breath? Society is rid of him just the same.
You might as well question: Why prison? Why not sentence criminals to confinement in their own basement? Off the street is off the street. And that way their families would have to feed them.
No, justice demands the imposition of sentence as pronounced by judge and jury. A prisoner condemned to die should have execution carried out in a timely manner. No one should dodge his fate by dying first.
At the very least, if an inmate succumbs to natural causes prematurely, he should be given a shot of lethal chemicals immediately thereafter.
Better late than never for a deadly dose of justice.
Contact Doug Clark at dgclark@news-record.com or 373-7039.
Comments (15)
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Doug: No, justice demands the imposition of sentence as pronounced by judge and jury.
So what happens when the judge and jury are wrong? We still need to execute? And if the inmate happens to fall ill, well, lets hurry things along.
Under that theory of justice, Alan Gell would have to thank his lucky stars he never caught a cough.
Posted on March 5, 2008 6:28 AM
Doug:
This was an attempt at gallows humor, right?
Posted on March 5, 2008 9:06 AM
Doug, your'e either having some type of mini-brakedown (possibly precipitated by the pending political martyrdom / retirement of your patron saint-Dorothy of Emerywood) or this is a deliberate attempt to out-sarcasm the Savage, in which case you have suceeded marvelously.
Posted on March 5, 2008 9:10 AM
My bad. Apparently I missed the sarcasm.
Posted on March 5, 2008 9:55 AM
Thanks, guys.
I've been getting a lot of email. Here's one:
"Dear Mr. Clark,
"Is your column today in the News-Record, Natural causes won’t do on Death Row, intended to be satirical or straight up?
"Thank you,
Gerda Stein
Raleigh"
Ms. Stein is public information coordinator for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation:
http://www.cdpl.org/Staff.html
I replied, "To ask the question is to answer it. Thanks for reading and for getting it."
She answered, "Thanks! I’ll let the people who have written me about it know. (I don’t think 99% of them got it, unfortunately)."
I guess her percentage is about right.
Did I need to add more obvious hints?
Posted on March 5, 2008 12:44 PM
I warn you Doug, going down Sarcasm Lane is a double-edged sword. Once you start down you may not be able to stop. ie; When I tell my wife and kids I love them, they say: "Right, dad" or "that's good, can you stop at the store on your way home"?
I even went to the local deli the other day and asked for a pound of capicola, and the clerk, who knows me, looked at me awhile then said "Really?"
It's probably too late for me, Douglas, but take it from the Savage, proceed with caution.
Posted on March 6, 2008 8:47 AM
Thank goodness I know that this is sarcasm on your part. I was so waiting for the punch line when I read the article. I hope you might write a follow up that tells of some of these reactions and states what you truly feel. I visited on death row for 4 years until my dear friend, Elias Syriani was executed in 2005. I now send birthday cards and received a response from one last week about his sorrow over the death of Gary Green. " I feel just a little rodden(sic), a guy here that used to be on the block with me passed away; he had lung cancer. I'm sure he is better off." Yes, death row people mourn; they also climb atop their beds trying to catch a view of the sunset out their small window, and they write poetically of a hawk that visits their outside recreational space. My friend was on death row 14 years; it took his children 12 1/2 to return to confront him after he killed their mother. Who could blame them? And yet, it was in that long awaited return and confrontation that they found the man, the changed man, who was theri father and who could tell them of their childhood in the times when they were a happy family. They learned the power of forgiveness and even though their story ends so sadly with the loss of their second parent, they live more authentic lives today because of being reunited with their father before the state of NC killed him.
Posted on March 6, 2008 10:35 AM
Thank goodness I know that this is sarcasm on your part. I was so waiting for the punch line when I read the article. I hope you might write a follow up that tells of some of these reactions and states what you truly feel. I visited on death row for 4 years until my dear friend, Elias Syriani was executed in 2005. I now send birthday cards and received a response from one last week about his sorrow over the death of Gary Green. " I feel just a little rodden(sic), a guy here that used to be on the block with me passed away; he had lung cancer. I'm sure he is better off." Yes, death row people mourn; they also climb atop their beds trying to catch a view of the sunset out their small window, and they write poetically of a hawk that visits their outside recreational space. My friend was on death row 14 years; it took his children 12 1/2 to return to confront him after he killed their mother. Who could blame them? And yet, it was in that long awaited return and confrontation that they found the man, the changed man, who was theri father and who could tell them of their childhood in the times when they were a happy family. They learned the power of forgiveness and even though their story ends so sadly with the loss of their second parent, they live more authentic lives today because of being reunited with their father before the state of NC killed him.
Posted on March 6, 2008 10:35 AM
A modest proposal, eh
Posted on March 6, 2008 10:43 AM
Savage, you're exactly right. Meg, thanks for writing and reminding us of the humanity in everyone.
Posted on March 6, 2008 10:44 AM
Pierce,
Unfortunately, I'm not as Swift as I'd like to be.
Posted on March 6, 2008 10:46 AM
Meg, not to be picky, and admittedly a minor point, but the folks sent to the dirt-nap I would wager aren't getting any views of the sunset out of any little windows or composing any poetry about the birdies, unless this is what one does (along with blogging) in the afterlife.
Posted on March 6, 2008 11:05 AM
What I meant was; that the people sent to the dirtnap by the actions of these would-be Whitmans aren't likely composing verse.
Posted on March 6, 2008 1:55 PM
As a member of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty I was appalled to read your column on March 5th. I read it again and began to think it must be a failed attempt at sarcasm. I hope you will write a follow-up explanation and apologize to those who were deeply offended by your comments. I can't imagine the pain it would cause to someone who had a loved one die of natural causes on death row.
Posted on March 6, 2008 8:08 PM
Sue, some people got the column, some didn't.
Those who found the sentiments expressed offensive and illogical got the point.
Do you apologize to families of murder victims for opposing the death penalty?
I wouldn't expect you to.
People hold strong views on this subject and aren't obligated to apologize for them.
Posted on March 7, 2008 8:30 AM