LUXURY ON DEATH ROW
ABC NEWS
Danny Hembree, 50, is on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., but he's not looking for any pity in the letter he sent to The Gaston Gazette.
"Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day," Hembree asked in the letter. "I'm housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with round the clock free medical care 24/7."
The Practical Buddhist
Responds
Danny is correct of course, on all counts. He
brutally killed a teenage girl, and allegedly at least two other women.
He taunts us by describing death
row advantages we don't have out here, and reminds us it will
probably take decades for North Carolina to kill him.
Why do we do this crazy
stuff? We are on a global short list for completed executions, just after Iran,
Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. (No one knows for sure about the champion, China,
but most experts believe their numbers are in the thousands). Seems we're the
only ones who house in relative luxury those we plan to kill, and wait so
many years to pull the switch or insert the needle.
It's because we want to do it
in icy cold blood. With slow ceremony and ritual and endless rules and interminable
debates on which death drugs are more humane. The alternative -- a quick trial
and a quicker death while passions for vengeance are still flaring --
not for us.
It's the opposite for the murderers.
If they kill in the heat of a moment, sentences are lighter. If they
think it through and plan it, it's first degree and we can kill them in return,
at least in all but 12 states and D. C.
There's no good science to
say capital punishment deters. There's plenty of science to show it's unevenly
applied. It's still very popular in some quarters, but so are dozens of
things that are bad for our society.
Why do we keep doing this
crazy stuff?
