[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S6831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S6831]]
                             DEATH PENALTY

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article 
entitled ``Remembering Victims Key to Death Penalty, Executing Justice: 
Arizona's Moral Dilemma,'' by Steve Twist, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Remembering Victims Key to Death Penalty--Executing Justice: Arizona's 
                             Moral Dilemma

                     (By Steve Twist, May 20, 2007)

       Opponents of the death penalty rarely want to talk about 
     the crimes of those sentenced to death. One commentator has 
     observed that this is ``a bit like playing Hamlet without the 
     ghost, reviewing the merits of capital punishment without 
     revealing just what a capital crime is really like and how 
     the victims have been brutalized.''
       In the week ahead, the public will be riveted with news of 
     Robert Comer: his life, his struggles and his legal battles 
     borne by others to the very end. But what of his victims?
       Let us hope, in the end, the law will speak for them. And 
     let us hope that those who excuse or minimize his crimes will 
     listen, if only for even a brief moment or so, to what Judge 
     Alex Kozinsky has rightly called ``the tortured voices of the 
     victims crying out for justice.'' It is in those voices that 
     we understand the morality of the death penalty, even when 
     they are raised in opposition, as they sometimes, albeit 
     rarely, are.
       There are 112 murderers on Arizona's death row. Robert 
     Comer is one of them, having been sentenced to death almost 
     20 years ago, April 11, 1988.
       The Department of Corrections reports, ``(O)n Feb. 23, 
     1987, Comer and his girlfriend . . . were at a campground 
     near Apache Lake. They invited Larry Pritchard, who was at 
     the campsite next to theirs, to have dinner and drinks with 
     them. Around 9 p.m., Comer shot Pritchard in the head, 
     killing him. 
     He . . . then stole Pritchard's belongings. Around 11 p.m., 
     Comer and (Juneva) Willis went to a campsite occupied by 
     Richard Brough and Tracy Andrews. Comer stole their property, 
     hogtied Brough to a car fender and then raped Andrews in 
     front of Brough. Comer and Willis then left the area, taking 
     Andrews with them but leaving Brough behind. Andrews escaped 
     the next morning and ran for 23 hours before finding help.'' 
     .
       Donald Beaty is another. ``On the evening of May 9, 1984, 
     Christy Ann Fornoff, a 13-year-old news carrier, was 
     collecting from her customers at the Rockpoint Apartments in 
     Tempe. Beaty, who was the apartment custodian, abducted 
     Christy and sexually assaulted and suffocated her in his 
     apartment. Beaty kept the body in his apartment until the 
     morning of May 11, 1984, when he placed it behind the 
     apartment complex's trash dumpster.''
       Richard Bible is another. ``On June 6, 1988, around 10:30 
     a.m., 9-year-old Jennifer Wilson was riding her bike on a 
     Forest Service road in Flagstaff. Bible drove by in a truck, 
     forced her off her bike and abducted her. He took Jennifer to 
     a hill near his home where he sexually assaulted her. He then 
     killed her hitting her in the face and head with a blunt 
     instrument. Bible concealed the body and left the area. He 
     was arrested later that day. Jennifer's body was not found 
     until June 25, 1988.''
       Shawn Grell is yet another. ``On Dec. 2, 1999, Grell took 
     his 2-year-old daughter, Kristen, to a remote area in Apache 
     Junction, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. After 
     Kristen was engulfed in flames, she managed to walk around 
     and stomp her feet for up to 60 seconds before collapsing in 
     the dirt. Kristen (died suffering) third- and fourth-degree 
     burns over 98 percent of her body.''
       And there are so many more. Repeating them is hard. 
     Thinking about the victims and their loved ones, left to 
     grieve, is heartbreaking. But think about them we must if we 
     are to truly understand the context of the death penalty 
     debate.
       Those who agitate to abolish the death penalty for these 
     killers say the killers don't deserve to die because no crime 
     justifies death.
       These arguments continue to find disfavor with large 
     portions of the public. Gallup consistently reports support 
     for the death penalty by wide margins (67 percent in favor, 
     28 percent opposed: 2006) when the question is asked in a 
     straightforward manner. When the question is asked whether 
     death or life imprisonment is the ``better'' penalty, 48 
     percent choose life and 47 percent death. Yet, when the facts 
     of a case are cited, support for the death penalty grows 
     dramatically. Even among those who said they opposed the 
     death penalty, more than half of those supported the 
     execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
       Another issue the abolitionists like to avoid is 
     deterrence, which is of two kinds, specific and general. 
     Specific deterrence is the measure of the penalty's 
     effectiveness in deterring the sentenced murderer from ever 
     killing again.
       General deterrence is the effect of the penalty on 
     deterring others from committing murder. Most recently, 
     Professor Paul Rubin of Emory University and his colleagues 
     have reported the results of the most extensive econometric 
     study of death penalty deterrence and concluded that every 
     execution saves on average 18 lives because of the murders 
     that are deterred. Rubin's results have been replicated by 
     others.
       This is such an ``inconvenient truth'' for the 
     abolitionists that they prefer to ignore it. Professing to 
     revere life so dearly as to oppose even the taking of 
     depraved life, they nonetheless seem to care little that 
     their advocacy would result, if successful, in the slaughter 
     of more innocents.
       This week, when the news is filled with Robert Comer, let 
     us pause to remember Larry Pritchard, Richard Brough and 
     Tracy Andrews. And let us remember also Christy Anne Fornoff, 
     Jennifer Wilson and, dear God, let us remember little Kristen 
     Grell and all the other victims.
       In those memories, let us offer prayers for their families 
     and a steady, steel-eyed resolve that we will value their 
     innocent lives so dearly that we are willing to exact the 
     ultimate punishment for their murders, in order that we might 
     preserve justice and protect others from becoming victims. In 
     the wake of these decades-long delays to justice, let us 
     finally resolve to demand of our courts that they become more 
     respectful of the victims' constitutional rights to a 
     ``prompt and final conclusion of the case.''

                          ____________________