Justice Delayed

By lex, on June 18th, 2010

The Beeb has an article up about the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah. The more heightened sensitivities of Evropa are emphasizing the “barbaric” nature of his death by firing squad, and a banner on the page places the US in such august company as China, Saudi and Yemen.

But Gardner chose the manner of his death back when it was still a legal method of execution. And Utah still believes that people who shoot innocents down in cold blood ought to get shot right back, after due process and a decent interval.

Gardner is nothing like the worst man * who sat on death row over the course of the last 25 years. He shot and killed a barman in a botched robbery, and then – using a smuggled gun in a Salt Lake City courthouse – shot dead lawyer Michael Burdell not for being in the way of his escape, but rather just for being there. Court bailiff Nick Kirk was gutshot but survived for 10 years before dying, complaining of chronic pain in his last years.

Here’s a man entirely without compassion for his fellow human beings. A man who lacks that empathy that separates us from the rude beasts in the jungle. Here’s a state composed of citizens that probably realize that there’s no deterrent value to letting a murderer sit on death row for a quarter century while his appeals run out, but who still insist that there out to be not revenge but a reckoning. That there are certain things we ought to hold inviolate and reserve the ultimate sanction for those who manifestly cannot live by those standards.

Twenty-five years is a long time to wait. This was justice deferred, but it was justice nonetheless.

* 10-05-2018 Link Gone; no replacements found – Ed.

Back To The Index