"Strained Mercy" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Strained Mercy

The headline read "Washington Sniper Suspect Pleads Not Guilty" on the day that the trial was set to start in the case of John Muhammad, the elder of the pair who are alleged to have killed ten people and wounded three others in the Washington, D.C. area last fall.

Some questions about the process arise. One, is that the evidence against both men is overwhelming. Only if the prosecution booted the case six ways from Sunday and the jury was on a racist rampage could these men be acquitted. Sure, there’s always a chance that the case could be muffed, or that the jury could pull a Simpson, but that doesn’t seem likely, at this point.

This first trial is being held in Virginia Beach, where they thought they could empanel a more impartial jury. It is expected to run six months. They began hearing testimony a year after the terrorizing three-week slaughter. The second trial is expected to begin soon in nearby Chesapeake, Virginia, and the younger perp, Lee Malvo, is apparently planning an insanity defense.

Already, it is said that the defense of the pair is costing over a million dollars. That figure is likely to more than double during the first trial phase, and the government is expected to spend several times that prosecuting the two men. That seems like a lot of money when guilt is so obvious -- as with an insanity plea by one of a pair -- and suggests that there’s something wrong with the system that doesn’t make it more practical for the guilty to own up before they cost us even more.

In this case, being an opponent of capital punishment, I would have offered these guys LWOP, as they say in the trade: life without (the possibility of) parole. The prosecutors ain’t no-how gonna do that; they want the needle for these culprits, as a matter of principle. Me, I think the needle would be too good for them, and would rather see them survive as long as they might in prison.

That may not sound very Christian, but tough nuggies. I think about the dead and wounded, and their families. What right does any human being have to wreak such havoc? None. And what difference will it make if these men are executed or put away for life? Probably some to the survivors, but certainly no deterrent to others. We’ve got too many rats in the box, and some of them are seriously damaged. It will happen again, regardless.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.