[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.''
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