Opinions expressed by Steve Bowers on this site are solely the opinion of Steve Bowers . Political Gateway tries to bring input from all sides of the political arena to allow free and open discourse on a range of subjects.

Category: Political Commentary - Conservative   
Posted Tue Mar 29,2005 10:38 PM   Last Edited: Tue Mar 29,2005 10:44 PM

The filthy scum arrested in connection with Jetseta Gage's murder by asphyxiation has been charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder and his bond has been set at $1,000,000 on each count. But the worst punishment Roger Bentley could face is life in prison without parole. Iowa hasn't had a death penalty since 1962.

The death penalty serves a great purpose. There are certain crimes that just beg for it. Kidnapping, raping and strangling 10-year-old girls is one of those crimes. (Although, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, I have to add that tests haven't come back to show Jetseta was sexually assaulted -- yet.) The state of Florida has the good sense to recognize this because John Couey, the rapist and murderer of Jessica Lunsford, has been charged with capital murder. But Iowa is one of those "progressive" states that consider the death penalty to be to "cruel and unusual" for rapists and murderers of little girls.

It's at about this point in the argument that death penalty opponents start whining that us reasonable, thoughtful folks who realize that the death penalty serves a purpose are out for vengeance. This is patently ridiculous. I've had a number of friends, colleagues and co-workers recommend that we perform various and sundry special acts of torture on this sex offender's genitalia that either involve removing small pieces of that area with a knife or hanging him from a tall tree by said genitalia BEFORE killing him. Although on it's face, this sounds like a wonderful idea, THIS is what you call vengeance. Putting the miserable sick pervert out of his misery by normal capital punishment leaves him just as dead and, although it's probably too good for him, it's not vengeance: It's simply putting the situation as close to being right as us mere mortals are capable of. An eye for an eye. You can't give the family back their precious little daughter but you can give the perpetrator a fitting punishment while at the same time making absolutely certain this sick freak won't live to do this again.

And because capital punishment is just that -- punishment, it doesn't matter whether it deters anyone else from committing the same crime. It is the ultimate deterrent for the person who receives it. If it happens to make some other sick pervert think twice before he diddles with a kid, all the better. And I'm thinking that if we went back to the days of swift and sure public executions, some of the cowardly bastards who kill might not.

And finally, to the death penalty opponents who whine about the length of the appeal process and the fact that it costs more to execute someone sentenced to the death penalty as it does to house a murderer, I would say that I wholeheartedly agree. But it doesn't have to be this way. In this day and age of DNA testing, clear and convincing evidence can be gathered that establishes guilt beyond any doubt in many cases. It should be possible to limit appeals to one in these cases and perform the execution shortly thereafter. No need to drag it out.

Meanwhile, in the absence of the death penalty here in Iowa, we continue to make idiotic decisions with our prisoners that make our situation worse instead of better. Like letting 2nd degree murderers such as Sam Henry Archer out on work release so he can go missing. According to one local TV station, Archer is one of about 20 of the 240 prisoners, including 2nd degree murderers such as Archer and sex offenders, on work release from the Fort Des Moines Correctional Facility on the south side of Des Moines who go missing every year. And our attorney general for life Tom Miller continues to stand by his statement opposing the death penalty. Will we ever learn?