Joanna Schroeder attempts to examine the death penalty objectively, despite the visceral and powerful desire to exact revenge against child sexual abusers.
TRIGGER WARNING for sexual abuse
Mark Ellis’ article Death Penalty Now is an interesting study in human nature.
If you spend any time reading the news online, as I do for this job, you will come across stories of abuse, rape, incest, neglect and torture that will simply ruin you if you let them too deep inside. Sometimes it’s the specifics that get you, such as the exact steps an abuser took in order to ease a child into their abuse, or the horrific details of what exists within the child pornography community (it truly is a community, with a huge network of users taking and sharing photographs).
And sometimes it’s just a single mental snapshot from a story that stays with you. For me, I crouched next to the toilet and dry heaved after reading the testimony of a person who saw two pairs of legs in the shower in the locker room: a child’s and a man’s hairy legs. That witness realized that it was Jerry Sandusky, and did not call the police.
I thought of my own children… I think of my own children now, and my eyes fill with water and my throat closes off. I want to kill Jerry Sandusky. I want him dead. If I were in a room alone with him with a gun, I think I could kill him. I bet many of you feel the same way.
Fortunately, I will never be alone in a room with Jerry Sandusky. And possibly I would change my mind when faced with a choice that should never belong to an individual.
I suspect Mark Ellis is working upon two human instincts in Death Penalty Now. The first is similar to mine: it’s visceral, it’s animal, it’s fueled by rage and disgust and vengeance. The second is logical. In the Oregon case Ellis cites, a man murdered a boy in a fast-food restaurant bathroom. The man was convicted, and imprisoned, for child sexual abuse before he cornered that poor child in the bathroom and he was let go. This is a failure of our criminal justice system that cost a boy his life innocence*. My stomach is churning as I write this, my eyes are filling. My thought is, of course, my boys. My sweet boys. And of the mother who thinks the same of her son.
If that man—that animal whom I cannot even convince myself is human—had been put to death after his first conviction for sexual abuse, that child in Oregon would not have had to experience that. That is simple logic. It is the very sound logic upon which Mark Ellis’ piece is founded.
♦◊♦
A few months ago I came upon the story of a Texas father, whose name is being withheld to protect his daughter, who beat to death the man whom he found raping his 4 year-old daughter.
I read the story, both nauseous and intrigued, and found out everything I could about the case. Then I was silent for about 15 hours. All I could think about was the case, yet I never wrote about it, even though I knew it would get a lot of attention here on The Good Men Project. I simply couldn’t deal with how I felt.
The Texas father had a horse-shoeing at his home, attended by a man no one knew well, Jesus Mora Flores (some articles reference Flores as “Jose”). When the father heard his 4 year old scream, he ran behind a building to find Flores raping the girl. The father pulled Flores off his child and beat him. The man lay unconscious and the family was trying to revive Flores when the Texas father called 911.
There is nobody I know who wouldn’t do what the Texas father did. My husband, the most sensitive and kind man on the planet who cried while watching a baby cow being born, probably would have pounded Flores into the ground if that were our child. If I believed I had the physical strength, I would have too. I would do anything to protect my children, or any child for that matter.
Flores died, despite efforts to save him. At the hospital, physical evidence proved the abuse Flores had inflicted upon the child. What was left was a decision of the courts on whether to charge the Texas father with a crime. Finally, the Lavaca County grand jury announced that it would not return an indictment. CNN quotes a spokesperson:
The substantial amount of evidence showed that the witness statements and the father’s statement and what the father had observed was in fact what had happened that day,” Lavaca County District Attorney Heather McMinn told reporters.
“Thank God,” I said aloud as I read the update. My kids asked what I was reading and I told a little fib about how I had read that someone I was worried about would be just fine.
Fact is, that little girl isn’t “just fine”, but we can hope she will be someday. She clearly has a loving, supportive family and that is the first step in helping her heal. And that is what strikes us about sexual abuse—sexual assault against anyone for that matter—the ravaging effects the abuse often has upon the survivor.
And as we know, there is a lot of evidence that the majority of sexual abusers were at one time abused. It is a disease that spreads, it is contagious. And Mark Ellis is right in saying that there needs to be swift and final action taken against sexual abusers.
But the Death Penalty, despite the visceral satisfaction of knowing that someone who hurt a child is off the streets, is too rife with bias and imperfection to be relied upon to “cull the heard” without damaging our society as a whole. We can only rarely know beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone is guilty.
♦◊♦
There have been 292 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the US since 1989. The Innocence Project breaks down how these wrongful convictions happen, with 72% based primarily upon wrongful eyewitness identification. Humans are fallible. We know this.
Beyond false convictions, there is a strong racial bias to who is executed in this country. Amnesty International released a report on the Death Penalty in the United States that says this:
Even though blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal numbers of crimes, 80% of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims.
More than 20% of black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.
…
“Race and the Death Penalty in North Carolina An Empirical Analysis: 1993-1997” This study, the most comprehensive ever conducted on the death penalty in North Carolina, was released by researchers from the University of North Carolina. The study, based on data collected from court records of 502 murder cases from 1993 to 1997, found that race plays a significant role in who gets the death penalty. Prof. Jack Boger and Dr. Isaac Unah of the University of North Carolina found that defendants whose victims are white are 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those with non-white victims. “The odds are supposed to be zero that race plays a role,” said Dr. Unah. “No matter how the data was analyzed, the race of the victim always emerged as an important factor in who received the death penalty.” The study’s findings will be presented to the North Carolina General Assembly which is currently considering moratorium bills in both the House and Senate. (Associated Press, 4/16/01 and Common Sense Foundation Press Release, 4/16/01) Read DPIC’s Press Advisory.”
The crucial line in the above paragraph is this: “The odds are supposed to be zero that race plays a role…No matter how the data was analyzed, the race of the victim always emerged as an important factor in who received the death penalty.”
Race also plays a role depending upon who is the defendant. Amnesty International explains:
“From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining to jury sentencing, African-Americans are treated more harshly when they are defendants, and their lives are accorded less value when they are victims. All-white or virtually all-white juries are still commonplace in many localities.
- A report sponsored by the American Bar Association in 2007 concluded that one-third of African-American death row inmates in Philadelphia would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been African-American.
- A January 2003 study released by the University of Maryland concluded that race and geography are major factors in death penalty decisions. Specifically, prosecutors are more likely to seek a death sentence when the race of the victim is white and are less likely to seek a death sentence when the victim is African-American.
- A 2007 study of death sentences in Connecticut conducted by Yale University School of Law revealed that African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white. In addition, killers of white victims are treated more severely than people who kill minorities, when it comes to deciding what charges to bring.
And so I must reason with myself, my brain against my heart, that the Death Penalty is not the answer. As much as I believe that I could kill Jerry Sandusky with my bare hands, the institution of the Death Penalty is simply too biased, too faulted, ultimately too human to be the answer.
That isn’t to say that I don’t support the Texas father who killed his daughter’s attacker. I do support him, and without shame. I cannot help but think to myself how much better off the world is without Jesus Mora Flores in it. And that is what makes me feel sick in the end.
Because I am not one to revel in another’s death, no matter who they are. My pleasure at the pain Flores suffered at the hands of the Texas father is a visceral, vengeful, mama-bear emotion of which I am not proud. Even the Texas father, on his call to 911, was hoping someone could help Flores.
Taking another’s life is not simple. The emotional fallout for the Texas father is likely not just over the crime that was committed against his daughter. And legislating to kill people in the name of the United States—in all of our names—is significantly more complicated.
As much as I believe Mark Ellis’ heart is in the right place, and that he is echoing something we all feel on some level, racism is alive and well in this country, and until we find a more effective and unbiased means of determining people’s guilt and assigning just sentences, we cannot—as a society—put people to death.
The solution to ending child abuse lies elsewhere. In a more holistic approach: more effective convictions, in finding rehabilitation that actually works for abusers, in effectively supporting our survivors—both male and female equally, in intervening when people show the earliest signs of sexual aggression and finding sufficient preventative therapies, in preventing prison rape, in teaching our children bodily autonomy and giving them the tools and language needed to help protect themselves when possible (though we know that it is not always possible), and in listening to and supporting victims the moment suspicion arises.
Still, there are no guarantees. And that is the scariest thing of all.
What do you think of the Death Penalty for child abusers? Could it ever be unbiased? Could it serve as a deterrent to other abusers?
In what other ways can we, as a society, help put an end to the rampant sexual abuse that is harming our children, and our society as a whole?
*Update: a commenter was able to clear up confusion over whether the boy Mark Ellis was referring to had survived, and fortunately he did.
Read Mark Ellis’ “Death Penalty Now“
Image of an empty chair in a dark room courtesy of Shutterstock
About Joanna Schroeder
The mere fact that you realize this to be murder should be the only thing that needs to be said.
But really, I don’t get this urge to kill people who haven’t killed anyone else. This man is a monster, but he didn’t kill anyone. Therefore, he doesn’t deserve to die himself. I don’t, in general, see killing as an acceptable punishment (Nobody here would endorse rape as a punishment, because it’s evil. Well, murder is 10 times worse than rape could ever be. And no, I don’t care what anyone here has suffered. They’re still here to talk about it. Whoever came up with a ‘fate worse than death’ clearly didn’t grasp what death is), but this drive to use it to punish non-murder is just flat out barbaric.
I don’t think it’s necessarily about punishment as much as it is about prevention…
I’m being totally honest and open in this piece about my feelings, and how I reconcile those with an intellectual understanding. However, when I heard that Flores was killed by the father, both my husband and I (when I finally told him about it) felt this stunning internal pull. Both of us immediately felt the world was better off without Flores commiting these horrific crimes. And both of us felt this shame at relief over someone’s death.
That’s just an honest reaction. I’m not sure I would’ve felt it quite as much before I had children… Soullite, do you have children?
Obviously, capital punishment isn’t rehabilitative. And really, it can’t be punitive. It has to be as a means of making the population safer, or as a deterrent. As far as I can gather, the deterrent element just doesn’t exist (educate me if I’m wrong, anybody). So it becomes about simply eliminating these offenders from the population.
We could keep these people in prison forever, and we probably should, but then we do need to look at the prison system very critically and find a way to prevent the human rights abuse that is prison rape, as that just creates more disease within a population of people who will reenter the community.
Joanna, I think you’re onto something about parents reacting differently to this than non-parents. I read the full Grand Jury thing on Sandusky and saw the same testimony that left you dry-heaving. I was heartbroken and disgusted and angry… but not close to a real physical reaction.
I empathize on the mixed feelings about the Death Penalty, or feeling relief at the death of another. I *do* feel a little nauseous when I think about calling for the death of another person, even if that person is guilty of truly evil crimes, as Sandusky is. Taking another person’s life should never be taken lightly and I’m always shocked by those who can talk about it, or who even go so far as to demand it, so casually. People like that frankly frighten me. But I understand the feelings and fears motivating it.
A tough dilemma indeed – thanks for addressing it in honest and rational terms.
For me, opposing the death penalty is simple. Focusing on what the criminal did is the lazy, emotion-charged and revenge-driven approach. A much more troubling question is: Who do you trust with this power and believe will never abuse it?
The answer’s pretty obvious to me.
Awesome point.
Joanna, do you remember the dinner scene at the end of The Color Purple where Whoopi Goldberg finally swoops up a carving knife and holds it to Danny Glover’s throat, and Oprah Winfrey starts coaxing her “He ain’t worf, girl he ain’t worf it.”?
That dad in Texas acted on an emotion we can all identify with and quite a lot of us have actually felt, but he was putting his little girl’s childhood at risk – male disposability works like that. She needs him raising her rather than festering in jail. Fortunately that’s not going to happen, but it could have.
Anyway, killing Jerry Sandusky would not be vengenance enough. The vengenance I want to see is the destruction of the glamor and glory that all Paterno’s and Sandusky’s supporters enjoyed all those years, that led them to so empower those two monsters and the entire rotten structure of Penn State and its football program. The vengeance I would like to see is machine gun fire raking back and forth and back and forth over the Penn State side of the stadium until there is nothing left alive, because those fans were the source of the power that enabled this ongoing atrocity. Ultimalety they are the guilty parties behind this institutionally protected program of child rape.
No I don’t really want that. Besides – never happen. But a two minutes hate is cleansing, and then you move on.
Ginkgo, thanks so much for that. I think you’re right. The Color Purple is one of my favorite books, and a great movie (though I HATE what Spielberg did with the Harpo character — talk about images of masculinity in the media, why did Harpo have to become a bumbling idiot?).
I think you’re right, the best thing we can do is tear down these untouchable institutions and say, “YOU are not more important than any child.” I don’t care if it’s a wealthy university program, a respected public official, the Catholic church or a random sect of another religion, this society will NOT tolerate the sacrifice of children to your disease, fueled by greed.
Brilliant responses to brilliant stories are enough of a rarity that I don’t often find myself clapping at my desk, as I do right now, reading Gingko’s response to this one.
Gingko,
I understand your point that what the Texas father did might put him in jail and that little girl may have to live without her father for awhile. However, as a victim of child sex abuse I wish someone acted violently against my offender. Instead, everyone minimized the situation and he ended up not going to jail (and he was convicted of two prior child molestations acts before this). Some of the worst damage to me as an adult has been the repercussions of the lack of actions of the adults around me. That little Texas girl will never have to wonder if what happened to her was “really all that bad”. Her father made it clear that her life and her body are worth more-and that the man who did that to her was a monster.
—But, I loved your response about Penn State, I applaud you.
To continue, Jesus Morales probably would have gone to jail, been released, and committed more atrocious acts. The average sex offender molests 200 kids in his/her lifetime. In theory, I don’t think we should kill rapists or child molesters because I don’t believe in the death penalty. In reality, if it were my own child, or any child for that matter, I would probably do my best to murder the offender with my own hands, despite the consequences. Because I know the child has a better chance to fully recover from the abuse if someone shows them they are worth it.
Life in prison is really the only option. Prison reform is crucial, but so is societal reform. We can not tolerate people who tolerate child molestation. And people who tolerate or ignore it should be severely punished. That’s the only way to get rid of the monsters.
Child sex abusers are sneaky, smooth snakes….they know how to wiggle out of any jam…
Some of them go as far as Thailand/SE Asia to indulge their sickest desires….surely, the Thai government doesn’t all of that commerce to stop…it’s big money, isn’t it?
But back to the U.S., I would say that the men who came onto me when I was a minor were all teachers and well-respected mentors and upstanding citizens…they looked just like the nice professor at school, married and with kids…it’s just behind closed doors when all the masks are thrown aside….
Joanna, it’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time….would you want to have all those “nice” teachers and professors with families executed right now? (Actually, 3 of them are dead now already….I had nothing to do with it!)
Joanna,
The fact that junk falls from your car when you open the door, tells me you are willing to keep stuff around that should be disposed of. We need to clean out our cars. The race problem is not a reason to allow other problems to exist. As I commented in Mark Ellis article, putting down a sick animal is not justice, revenge, or easy, It is necessary, or the disease will be passed on.
Again, if animals committed crimes (and left culpatory evidence every time) we would have no problem.
I do not agree with the death penalty on any level. You cannot say it is wrong to kill people, and then kill people. That does not mean I do understand the desire to inflict vengeance on others. Part of me would love nothing more than to do that, and that is all the more reason why I oppose it.
There are also plenty of problems with the “kill child abusers” thinking. For instance, what if the abuse happens as a result of mental illness or drug addiction? What if it happens because the abuser knew nothing different, i.e. that their entire environment is abusive (like FLDS churches)? What if the abuser is a child? What if you have the wrong person? What if no abuse happened?
The chances for screwing this up are far greater than the chances of getting it right, and worse, there is no guarantee that killing one abuser will stop other abusers. Indeed, we already know that does not work because plenty of people who abused and killed children have been executed or killed themselves and that has not stopped abuse. There is also that needling tendency for people to relish this. We would all like to think we would be judicial about this, but nothing in human history suggests that. Every time we have given a group of people the right to kill other people, most of them have abused it, often killing people who did nothing wrong.
Bad analogy, TTwain, sorry. First off, child abuse is not a communicable disease. And the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, as has been shown again, and again, and again. And while empathy and compassion is what drives people to put down sick animals, it’s not what drives people to execute other human beings. If you want to cop to a rage-filled desire for revenge, have at it. Just don’t hide behind fatuous analogies and nonsense about “necessity.” Own your bloodlust, and argue using that instead of the rest of this speciousness.
Children that are abused are more likely to abuse, it is passed on.
The death penalty is most certainly a determent to crime, as far as that criminal is concerned.
Compassion is the only thing that could drive me to kill another person.
The rest of what you said just sounds angry, why?
OK, we’ll work through this post, from TTwain too.
1) While “children that are abused are more likely to abuse,” millions and millions of abused children grow up to be non-abusers, in the same way that non-abused children often grow up to be abusers. So no, as I said, child abuse is not a communicable disease in the saw way that, say, rabies is, to go back to your false equivalency between child molesters and “sick animals” who need to be euthanized. Or, perhaps you’re actually suggesting the incarceration, or even euthanizing, of abused children, since they “are more likely to abuse” when they grow up, since it’s “passed on?” Is that where you’re going with this?
2) The death penalty is not a deterrent to spreading crime. While it definitely stops the criminal in question, there is nothing that the death penalty accomplishes that life imprisonment without parole doesn’t accomplish–except, perhaps, feeding the primitive bloodlust of pro-death penalty Americans, or the Iranian judiciary, or the Pakistani, or Taliban Afghani, in whose company America finds itself on this topic.
3) Compassion in antithetical to bloodlust. There is no way for compassion to drive anyone to kill anyone else. Revenge, definitely. Never compassion.
4) Please spare me the third-grade “you sound angry” argument techniques. I’m an educated adult, and they don’t work on me, sorry. On the other hand, you may be detecting a touch of contempt, possibly. I tend to have a preference for people who can argue their points honestly, and own them, whether I agree with them or not. I’m always a bit embarrassed for those who hide behind trite analogies and disingenuousness instead of owning what they say without gilding the turd, so to speak.
When a diseased animal is put down, other animals they have come in contact with are put down as well. Whole herds of cows had to be put down of one had Mad Cow Disease.
Are you sure you want to go down that road?
Sure, why not? Let’s just kill everyone!
Sometimes the victims of abuse still harbor some feelings of fondness or sympathy for their abuser, despite what that person has inflicted, and/or the victim feels horrified at the thought of inflicting suffering on others.
So how would it change your moral calculus to know that some victims would not report abuse if the death penalty were in play, because it would tear up the victim inside that it was “their fault” that the abuser died, because they reported it?
Excellent point, I had not considered that. I’ve always said that crimes against children are the worse overall and should have the punishments that reflect that, however, I have little idea what exactly that is. I have nothing more to add at this point without further thought…
Great piece Joanna.
Would I have murdered the man raping my child? Yes. I would’ve done exactly what that Texas dad did. But that man should be charged with murder. Don’t get me wrong, he should also be acquitted in my opinion. What he did was justifiable and probably fits the textbook definition of temporary insanity. My hope is that justice would prevail and he would be set free by a jury of his peers. But that didn’t happen because charges weren’t filed. Some would call that a victory, but it’s not. Instead it just gives the green light for more vigilante justice with no repercussions. And while I understand that primal need for vengeance, the fact is the rapist (as far as I can tell from all the stories) never directly threatened the father or made an attempt on his life. I know the guy was defending his daughter, but it’s still murder and charges should’ve been filed.
As for Sandusky and Penn State, I hope the football program gets the death penalty. It should be a minimum of two years without football. Will that hurt Penn State employees and students who had nothing to do with this? Yes. But it has to be done. Reducing the number of scholarships is a slap on the wrist. Even taking all the profits from the football program won’t accomplish anything, because Penn State boosters and apologists will simply fund the program privately and under the table, even more than they do now. And nothing will change. As the Freeh report noted, it is the culture that has to change because that’s the most dangerous part of all of this.
I agree about murder charges for the Texas father, assuming that I have all the facts of the case. He sounds guilty of second-degree murder, and should be punished. Let’s say 5 seconds of community service and a $1 fine to help pay for the medical examiner’s time in autopsying the deceased. (Not likely, because of sentencing minimums.)
Actually, killing the rapist may have spared an even more horrible possibility. I can imagine in this country the rapist surviving the beating and then successfully suing the father for pain and suffering caused by the beating.
Aaron, I think you’ve landed spot-on here.
Yeah, frankly, from a purely intellectual and practical standpoint I would say he should’ve been charged, if only not to set a precedent that may be a real doozy to overcome in the future. From an emotional perspective… Well, I’m relieved.
As for sentencing minimums, they could’ve charged him with some sort of lesser crime like negligent homicide – but I’m nowhere near a lawyer, so I’m not sure what charge would’ve been suitable. Just assuming that possibility exists…
My only problem with charging him for murder and acquitting is that it would be a waste of tax dollars.
Jonathan,
Moral compasses or calculus can’t be changed, north is always north.
Victims of fraud testify as character witnesses for the person that stole for them.
That does not change right from wrong. They are confused by the predator.
Michael,
So you agree its is passed on, and the death penalty does stop crime.
I call that progress.
I never said it is contagious.
An abortion, to save a mother is, compassion.
OK, your not angry.
Mr. Rowe,
This is a clear personal attack.
I do not agree with TTwain, but you are also oversimplifying and then demanding that we take your word as gospel. There are studies demonstrating that the death penalty does have a deterrent effect, just as there are studies claiming that it does not. Your comments without citations are hardly the final word (and I’d be happy to provide counter citations if you do dig anything up).
That you would then begin to personally insult someone who refuses to take your word as capital-T Truth is disappointing.
I sincerely hope you will work to re-earn the respect your have lost with your behavior here.
Hi Mike,
There are no valid “studies demonstrating that the death penalty does have a deterrent effect,” and even if there were, the overflowing cells on death row in America would put a lie to that study. You don’t have to “take [my] word as gospel,” all you need to do is open your eyes and/or think.
Of the countries that still execute their criminals, the U.S. is fifth-highest after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Very impressive idealogical company in which to find oneself, wouldn’t you say?
Guess how many westernized, first-world countries share that company? You guessed it: none.
As for “work[ing] to re-earn the respect [I've] lost with [my] behaviour here,” I’m sorry to say there aren’t enough consecutive reincarnated lifetimes with the same mate in this world or the next for me to have time to worry about something like that.
Moderator Note: Edited to remove personal insults
Mr. Rowe,
This statement: “[t]here are no valid ‘studies demonstrating that the death penalty does have a deterrent effect,’” is wrong. I would direct you to look at Dezhbakhsh, Rubin, and Shepherd (2003) or Mocan and Gittings (2003). Both were peer-reviewed and published in the American Journal of Law and Economics, a respected publication.
The “overflowing cells on death row” merely demonstrate the point made by Katz, Levitt, and Shustorovich (2003) that people are on death row for a very long time as the appeals process takes decades. Levitt himself is famous for popularizing the statistic that a black man on death row may actually have a higher life expectancy than a black man who is free yet involved in the inner city drug trade.
Finally, you engaged in an ad hominem attack on TTwain and are now trying to justify it. Just own up to your mistake.
Moderator Note: Edited to remove personal insult
Mike: when you have time, take a look at Durlauf, Navarro, and Rivers (2007), they refute Dezhbakhsh, Rubin, and Shepherd’s conclusions. Trigger warning for heavy use of regression
“In short, the effect of the conditional probability of execution given a death sentence on behavior cannot be understood separately from the effects of the conditional probability of being caught and being sentenced to death if caught. Therefore, we conclude that the Dezhbakhsh, Rubin, and Shepherd specification fails to properly model the implicit decision problem involved in homicides. Their analysis is based on a misspecification of the implications of their assumed behavioral model.”
The study I mentioned by Katz et al came to similar conclusions to the study you mention.
I suspect we haven’t heard the end of this either, Erhlich suggested there was a deterrent effect in his 1975 paper, and yet he was still being defended (and attacked!) as late as 1992. This whole subject is likely to cycle through academia several more times with little additional clarity.
That’s why I think it’s important to point out that claiming either side as “obviously correct” is a gross oversimplification and does not reflect the actual state of research.
While “children that are abused are more likely to abuse,”
While it definitely stops the criminal in question,
Apology accepted, even if it is for the wrong reason.
Well you know me. I wouldn’t have killed him. That was a crime and the dad should have been arrested. You don’t get to kill people just because you’re mad at them and want revenge. There was (as you describe it) no resistance by the guy. He wasn’t trying to fight back or even run away.
No doubt the situation the father faced was an extreme one and his lack of self-control was unlikely to be repeated (making him a menace to society) because situations as stressful and full of anger as that are very rare. But he did kill someone, albeit without malice. It’s a serious crime.
The jurors would be in a tough position because I bet there’s some stupid minimum sentencing laws for it in Texas whereby a judge is prevented from using judgement as to sentencing, given the extenuating circumstances, but the actual question of guilt? Not a hard call.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the Texas case the only living witness to the man’s death is his attacker and the attacker’s 4-year old child. These are the only two witnesses to say that a rapist was caught in the act. Even accepting that the dead man is guilty of raping a child (and he’ll never really convicted of it now), we have to take the dad’s word for it that he caught the guy in the act.
I think the more realistic, more common scenario is what to do if you *suspect* someone of raping your child or someone is accused of raping a child. Is that enough to guarantee acceptable deadly force? If you “just know it’s true”, is that really enough to call for someone’s death?
This reminds me a lot of the handy civil-liberties-destroying hypothetical about the terrorist who knows where a bomb is. Shouldn’t you torture the terrorist to find out where the bomb is? Sure, why not. The much more likely scenario is that there is a terrorism suspect who MAY have information about an immanent threat. So, do you torture him just in case?
Should we kill people who are just rumored to be child rapists, just in case? After all, that probably would save some children from being raped. You’d probably kill some honest-to-God guilty people that way and save some lives. (Well, save some OTHER lives, anyway.)
I’m guessing the urge to kill Sandusky was there even before he ever went on trial, even before formal charges were filed. How many people wanted to kill him only after he was convicted? I suspect the majority of people baying for his blood would not have stopped if there had been a “not guilty” verdict.
I live in Oregon where we have a” death with dignity” law.
We call it compassion killing Kevorkian style.
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
‘Scent of a doctor’!
It is not that we don’t know who’s guilty, it just we are to most are afraid to admit it, and many are willing to hide it. Predator’s rely on this.
And one more thing.
I am just starting to view your site and I enjoy the writing and comments.
Although, Widen-Kennedy would advise you to change your name.
I suggest” The good writers project” because that what it seems you all are.
For the record, the boy stabbed in the Portland restaurant survived, thankfully, I suppose I should have made that more clear in my piece. Of course that in no way changes the import or spirit of Joanna’s piece.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/07/adam_lee_brown_arrested_in_chi.html
Thanks Mark! I have made a note in the piece to correct! If I could ever be wrong about anything, it would be a child who survived his attack!
Don’t have kids, never will. Mama Grizzly can go hunting on her own time. She ain’t doin’ it in my name or with with MY tax dollars.