House of Eratosthenes

Michael Angelo Morales killed Terri Lynn Winchell twenty-five years ago, by stabbing her after striking her in the face two dozen times with a claw hammer. This week, he was up for execution. Everybody loves to ask why we execute people. Everyone loves to ask if this is for justice, or revenge — and who knows the difference between the two? It’s also popular to ask if anybody thinks the execution will bring Terri Lynn Winchell back to life. And those of us who are in favor of the execution, have we ever watched one. That’s a real thigh-slapper, that one. Oh, and even more popular still, is the question of how would we feeeeeeeeel if we were the ones being executed, knowing we were falsely accused.

Well, as of last night, Morales walks. Not because he was exonerated by DNA evidence, or even because new evidence placed his guilt into any degree of doubt. Not because his execution would have been cruel or unusual, since California just got done executing Tookie Williams and Clarence Ray Allen exactly the same way they would have dispatched Morales, after a long, drawn-out episode of harsh scrutiny over the cruel-and-unusual clause.

No, Morales was allowed to walk because of media noise. That’s it. Oh, we had media noise with Williams and Allen, but this time it stirred up just the right tempest in a teapot to coincide with unfolding events, to produce the desired result.

Morales is the guy who wrote in with his fears that the lethal injection process would not subdue him adequately before the final serum would bring paralysis to his heart, killing him. If he wasn’t properly put under, he would feel everything, and be able to communicate nothing.

Gee. That would hurt. Like…being bashed in the head with a hammer.

Well, at the eleventh hour, the Ninth Circuit Court issued a decree denying clemency to Morales, but empowering the anesthesiologists to take “all medically appropriate steps” to make sure the convict stayed under. The unnamed anesthesiologists, who apparently were under the impression they’d merely be observing the execution, had ethical problems with taking a more active role. With them walking off the job, the state explored other alternatives for carrying out the prescribed punishment, and essentially gave up. Now Morales’ execution has been postponed indefinitely.

Indefinitely. Anti-death-penalty weenies 1, sensible people 0.

Well, now. I just find this interesting. Morales’ guilt has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt according to established law. His crime being deserving of the death penalty, also, is a matter of established law, and for now California is a state that allows the death penalty. There is precedence to indicate that the lethal injection process is constitutional, including but not limited to the cases of Messrs. Williams and Allen. By any reasonable standard of equal protection, Morales should be wearing a toe-tag.

Yet he lives, and only for two reasons: 1) he requested a entitlement to be spared physical pain, superior to any entitlement he recognized on the part of his victim, and 2) our media, justice system, and activists granted that request for superior entitlement.

Nobody ever asks the anti-death-penalty types any schismatic questions, inquiries that would surely tear their gatherings asunder ideologically. Questions, such as: Are you opposed to Morales’ proposed execution because you want him to live, or because you want to make absolutely, positively sure he is spared pain?

Do you believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect? If not, do you think it would have a deterrent effect if it was carried out more quickly? And if that’s the case, do you feel responsible for some of the murder rate? Do you ever think there may be some dead people under ground who would be walking around today, enjoying sunshine, fresh air and love, if it were not for your activist efforts?

If you do think the death penalty has a deterrent effect, do you ever feel some pang of conscience about trying so hard to get rid of it?

How is it you feel the sanctity of human life trumps the administration of justice, but at the same time, is too trivial to be enforced by that same system of justice?

That last question pretty much sums up all the problems I have with these people. One subject is under discussion, and human life is all-important, taking a back seat to nothing; and then it’s time to ask what the innocent among us can be protected, and whoops! Suddenly, human life isn’t all that important anymore.

I guess they need to see the human life in the flesh (or on TV) before they pay it any importance. Some creep who “found religion” or wrote children’s books, after murdering people in cold blood for a couple hundred dollars in cash, is worthwhile. A young lady smiling into the camera in a black-and-white quarter-century-old photograph, even with her whole life ahead of her, isn’t quite as important. Sure she’s a pretty girl. But she doesn’t move. She doesn’t gasp, or sob, or even put a lilt into her voice, like the man who killed her. She can’t. She’s dead.

We’re always going to have people in our midst who like to make life-changing decisions for other people, based on their feeeeeeeelings. Instead of with their deep, quality thinking about what’s good for society, or what it takes to protect people more innocent. Those people will always be around. And I’m even in favor of listening to them…we should listen to them.

I just don’t understand why the “gotcha” questions, with no easy answer, are saved for the rest of us. For those of us who think rationally, recognize the ugly truth that some people’s gears are permanently stripped, and nobody ever said that everyone can live in close proximity with everyone else.

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Nobody Ever AsksWednesday, February 22nd, 2006

Nobody Ever Asks
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006