How did we get to the point that we care more about a killer than we do his victims?
Do you know who Stephanie Nieman was or what was done to her?
Probably not, but you no doubt know who Clayton Lockett is because his picture and experience in an Oklahoma prison last week saturated the headlines in this country and abroad.
All sympathetic.
We got a play-by-play description of what happened to him when the “lethal injection” didn’t work and he didn’t die for 43 minutes, ultimately from a heart attack.
Awwwww.
It was called a “botched execution” – meaning the criminal didn’t die from it.
That reminds me of the definition of a “botched abortion” – the baby lives.
Lockett’s experience was so traumatic for state officials, from the governor on down, that the next scheduled execution of Charles Warner was postponed.
It all comes down to Lockett suffered too much in his dying.
Well, let’s take a look at, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.”
In mid-1999, Stephanie, a recent high-school graduate, was driving a friend home and they encountered a home invasion robbery at that house by Lockett and two accomplices.
They tried to steal her truck keys, and she fought back. She was beaten and her hands, head and mouth were wrapped with duct tape.
She was assaulted and her friend was repeated raped by all three men.
They were driven to a remote location where she was beaten again when she refused to tell them their home alarm codes.
Stephanie had to watch as the accomplices dug a shallow grave and Lockett shot her. Even though the accomplices told Lockett that Stephanie was still alive, he shot her again, laughed at her pleas for help and he ordered his buddies to bury her.
To bury her alive!
And they did.
And eventually, she was no longer alive.
Tell me, please, why we’re supposed to feel sympathy for any suffering he may have had as the execution drugs didn’t work as fast as intended?
The news coverage of the attempted execution rarely noted more than that Lockett was convicted of the death of Stephanie – if they even mentioned her name.
It was reported on Breitbart London that the BBC World newscasts heavily covered the story but only mentioned Stephanie as an aside.
I’m disgusted, and I’ve had my fill of it!
I live near San Quentin prison, and they schedule – rarely, this being California, after all – executions.
But it never fails.
When an execution is scheduled, all the bleeding-heart libs come out of the woodwork and cry and moan and protest and light candles and have prayer vigils.
Like clockwork, the media take the bait and send their satellite trucks with reporters who will show the audiences the scope of the caring for the taking of a life
But these people aren’t there to lament the loss of life for the innocent victims of these vicious killers.
No, they’re demonstrating their support for the convicted murderers.
It’s called capital punishment – the execution of convicted criminals for capital crimes – most often grisly torture and murder.
The details of any and all of these crimes are enough to make any caring human being sick.
The one common thread in these bizarre demonstrations and the media coverage is that the details of the crimes, the victims and their suffering are virtually ignored.
It’s all part of a dedicated effort (in this country and worldwide) to end executions for any crimes, no matter how grisly.
It’s clear the demonstrators don’t value innocent life and their sense of justice is perverted.
You could say the same for the media, since they rarely question the view that executions should end.
Maybe it’s air pollution or fluoridated water, but most likely it’s a severe case of “liberal-itis,” and there’s no cure.
One of the tactics used by the anti-capital punishment advocates is to attempt to make it impossible for prisons to get the execution drugs.
There’ve been protests at the factories and threats of violence. The European Union bans the export of one of the drugs needed – the intent clearly to make executions impossible.
But the most potent weapon is using the media and religious spokesmen to garner sympathy for the criminal.
They say if we are to have executions, they must be done in a way that is not “cruel and unusual.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ll buy that when they come up with “torture and methods of murder” that are not “cruel and unusual.”
On the face of it, torture and murder are both cruel and unusual and anyone who resorts to them deserves a quick dispatch.
We have the means: the firing squad, the guillotine, one shot to the back of the head.
We also have the gas chamber and the electric chair, which, while they take a bit longer, are just as effective.
But we have something else.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen it done – veterinarians every day euthanize loved pets in their offices. One injection and the animal is dead. No pain, writhing or crying out.
Quick and simple.
Let’s use those drugs on criminals.
They’re swine. It would suit them, might shut up the libs and would get justice for victims.
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