Florida, 9-30-09: Convicted child killer Couey dies (of cancer) in prison; cheats the executioner.For those of you who don't remember, here's what he did: (Excerpted from a 7-2-08 Relax Max post on Yummy Biscuits)
Jessica was 9 years old. She was a delightful 3rd grader. One night she went to sleep with her stuffed animal. During the night, a man with a long criminal record and a history of abducting and raping little girls, broke into her house and took her and her stuffed animal away. Over the next several days, in between rapings, the little girl was kept in a closet at the man's house. When her emaciated bloody little body was no longer sexually attractive to him, he put her in a garbage bag, like a piece of shit, and buried her alive. When little Jessica couldn't claw her way out of the ground, she ran out of air and died. When police found her killer, the man confessed to what he had done, and even led police to her grave so they could recover her body. Later, after he had been properly lawyered up at public expense, the long-time pedophile recanted his confession. He still couldn't explain how he knew where Jessica's body was buried. The State of Florida wants to take this man's life, and he has been sentenced to die. The sentence is currently on appeal, of course, and, if things go as usual, the appeals process will go on for another 12-19 years. This length of time is needed to insure that the man was not mistreated or wrongfully convicted on any of a long list of possible technicalities, despite his tearful confession and description of how he raped her and kept her beside him in his bed the first night.
God forbid that, during his execution, this poor man might feel a burning sensation or even outright brief pain as the chemicals flow through his veins to stop his heart. God forbid that, as he loses consciousness for the last time, he might very well experience a feeling of impending suffocation. These are the things that lawyers use to stop executions on the grounds that they are briefly painful, and therefore "cruel and unusual" and so, unconstitutional. Oddly, no one is thinking too much about Jessica's feelings during this, and whether or not SHE may have been mistreated or how she felt during her own suffocation.
Please write me your comments and tell me why you think he deserves to live. I promise to forward your comments to Jessica's parents, and I am sure they will be of great comfort to them. Thank you.
So, Couey is in hell right now as you read this. If there is a God, he is in hell right now.
And Jessica finally has her justice.
I can't even begin to write what I really want to. I'll simply say that the criminal justice system is WAY too good for some people.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of topics where we don't see eye to eye, Relax Max. This is not one of them. If there is a hell, it's for people like this.
ReplyDeleteAnd I use the term "people" loosely.
It's a travesty that monsters like this are given room and board for so long while their victims (and those who loved their victims) suffer. That is not justice.
"Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of."--H.L. Mencken
Justice doesn't always happen the way we want it to, but it's good to know that sometimes it does, although not necessarily in the way it was expected, like in this case. Thankfully for little Jessica's sake.
ReplyDeleteThis burns inside of me. You know how I feel about a child or a helpless animal at the mercy of someone bigger, stronger etc. I have never understood why we worry so much about making sure the harbinger of misery is kept fed and happy. I know I will not be agreed with but I do believe in an eye for an eye. I wish someone like this could be made to feel the same exact thing that poor baby felt.
ReplyDeleteI don't pretend to be anything other that who I am and my beliefs state that taking anothers life is inherently wrong.. Does taking his make us any better than him? Far better than he spends his time making restitution for his actions, and I don't mean living in comfort and style but productively behind bars with no release and be in his own personal hell every single day until he wishes for mercy.
ReplyDeleteBelieving that life is important is one of the things that sets us aside from the lower animals, and I don't want for us to ever lose our dislike for taking another life. Yet, I think, we (society) have another obligation, a higher obligation, to the ones who live under it's rules - and that is to ENFORCE the value of human life. For some of us, simply removing an offender from that society is not enough; the innocent lost life must be shown to have value too. I am not going to belabor this point yet again because you all have your views on this.
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say that there are some of us who believe those actually caught in the act, or who confess, are in a different category (punishment-wise) than those a jury finds guilty by evidence without witness or confession. The later get life imprisonment; the former get put to death. Rehabilitation is not a factor in this type of crime.
The difference in our beliefs is that many of you believe life may not be taken under any circumstances, else we become no better that the original killer; but I believe we as a group - society - DOES has the right (even obligation) to take a life, though any one of us individually do not.
@Sage - You speak for many. And there are those who speak in favor of life imprisonment because they think that is a greater and more lasting punishment than execution. Yet we all know that unforeseen things that happen during a prison sentence may happen to pervert justice. Scotland has recently shown America how this happens. They would have let our baby killer go free because he had cancer, I presume. Forget Lockerbie and the victims. So "life imprisonment" is only theory. Execution is fact.
ReplyDeleteBut I take your comment, and beliefs, very seriously. You always make me pause and reexamine my own beliefs. Thank you.
@Aris - Thank you for your comment. It wasn't my intention to open this can of worms again, generally. I only read about Couey dying, and I wanted to report it, since I had blogged on this subject before. We all have our own private views on this subject, and nobody's mind is going to be changed. If we of opposing views can try to get along, then I suppose that in itself is a tribute to little Jessica.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie B - You are a mixed bag of beliefs. Sometimes I see reactions from you I don't expect. At any rate, nobody is going to win this argument. And probably shouldn't.
ReplyDelete@Redbeard76 - Sometimes it just evens out. Maybe that's what the mean by "Providence."
@Ettrose - I know how you feel. Paradoxically, because you feel life is so important, we must take life. Oddly, I do understand.
I am myself, Relax Max. Each opinion I reached by my own thinking and my own set of beliefs. It's one reasons I tend to bristle when someone accuses me of herd mentality.
ReplyDelete