Death penalty is seldom just

After reading Monday’s Daily Free Press, I was horrified at the arrogant assumptions and violent, vengeful attitude spouted forth in Brendan Cavalier’s column (‘Snipers should get death penalty,’ Nov. 4, pg. 3).

Mr. Cavalier recommended that the government retaliate against these two suspects using the death penalty and mocked the policies of Maryland, which has imposed a moratorium on executions. He advocated the trial be held in Virginia so these men will be killed, claiming that Maryland never considered that ‘monsters like Muhammad and Malvo would emerge.’

Are you the governor of Maryland, Mr. Cavalier? Have you read his mind? I haven’t, but I did do a search for ‘Maryland death penalty,’ and found in the first article returned that in May, Maryland’s governor issued a stay on all executions citing, ‘reasonable questions’ concerning the integrity of capital punishment. Like the ‘fanciful, idealistic’ Marylander you’ve labeled him, he’s waiting for the results of research to determine if executions are being carried out accurately and without racial bias. How ’embarrassing.’

I also discovered that, like you, the governor favors the death penalty for heinous crimes. But this common ground you share is ambiguous and irresponsible. What constitutes a ‘heinous crime’? Two deaths? Ten? Forty? And on what grounds?

By your logic, killing people in a fit of passion or a felony-homicide isn’t so bad. Hey, at least they had a reason, right? They’re not ‘killing for the sake of killing,’ as you arrogantly put it. I’m so happy you solved this because I don’t recall hearing the suspects saying they just wanted to scare everyone. Have you talked to them, or are you reading minds again?

But, you insist, these men are guilty and ought to be put to death they said so on the news!

I’m reminded of Sam Shepard, a man jailed for murdering his wife in the 1950s. The media accused Shepard of the crime, ignoring his story about a bushy-haired intruder. Raging front-page editorials proclaimed Shepard’s guilt. Shepard was later found innocent and was released after a dozen years in jail. Hollywood made the story into a movie – ‘The Fugitive,’ starring Harrison Ford.

But enough of this crazy talk. Am I presuming that these vicious, professionally trained (by our military) murderers might be innocent? Am I saying the media, police and Federal Bureau of Investigation might be wrong? That it doesn’t matter even if they are, because the suspects have already been irrefutably proven guilty in the court of public opinion, as echoed by Mr. Cavalier’s accusations and hollering for further death?

Actually, I am. Remember that crazy old saying, ‘Innocent until proven guilty’? People seem to have forgotten it.

Congratulations, Mr. Cavalier. You’ve lived up to your name. In clamoring for revenge and death, you’re propagating the cycle of violence in which we currently find ourselves trapped.

In bombing numerous foreign countries under the banner of ‘justice,’ our government is creating more enemies than it’s eliminating. People like you, Mr. Cavalier, obsessed with vengeance, justifying murder with murder, clearly display the root of a problem that will continue to plague this nation for as long as such barbaric ideals are held as the pinnacle of freedom and liberty.