Friday, May 2, 2014

A "Botched" Execution In Oklahoma....

I read the report about the inmate on Death Row in Oklahoma whose execution didn't go as well as intended. Instead of dying quickly, he lingered on for a while and finally suffered a myocardial infarction, a heart attack, from the drugs he was given. He suffered before he died. And I personally don't care.

I'm sure some may find my post today offensive, maybe even heartless or cruel. I'm OK with that. The man didn't die a painless death for his crime and even though our Constitution says he's supposed to do just that. And some are making a big deal of it - including the White House.

Sometimes justice hurts. And like it or not, he deserved it.

In 1999, Clayton Lockett was surprised during a home invasion (in which he held a man and his 9 month old son captive) by an 18 year old friend of a friend. At gunpoint, he took all persons involved on a ride and eventually raped and sodomized two women, then shot the friend in the head with a shotgun and had his accomplices bury her, still alive, The left her to die.

Lockett was convicted of "conspiracy, first-degree burglary, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of forcible oral sodomy, four counts of first-degree rape, four counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery by force and fear. The charges were after former convictions of two or more felonies, according to the court clerk’s office.”

The man was not a good guy nor was he a poor victim of society. He was an evil man who robbed, raped, and murdered an innocent girl. I have no sympathy for him. The fact that he suffered during his execution doesn't break my heart at all when I consider what he did to those people, particularly the poor girl he shot in the head.

Some people say we should do away with the death penalty because someone could be wrongly convicted and be executed even though they are innocent. That may have been the case in the past but in this day of science and DNA evidence, wrongful convictions, particularly in murder cases, are rare. Besides - in this case Lockett's accomplices ratted him out. So much for honor among thieves, huh?

The state of Oklahoma has postponed the execution of another Death Row inmate because of what the media is calling the "botched" execution of Lockett. In my opinion, although it didn't go well, the execution wasn't botched. Lockett is dead - which was the intent of the procedure. He didn't get there painlessly, as expected, but he got there. And in the meantime he had time to think - maybe to consider what his victims went through. At least they didn't bury him before he died.

No - the slow, hopefully painful death of Clayton Lockett didn't bother me at all. I almost wish his execution was the norm. Some people say the death penalty doesn't deter violent crime. That may be true but it does one thing for sure. It prevents that person from ever killing again. And that's a start.

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