Gardner Execution

Last night @MarkShurtleff tweeted:

I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims.

And that infuriates me. Certainly it was not the Attorney General's place to decide at the last minute not to go through with the execution. The Rule of Law has to should be followed by elected officials at all levels of government. But damn what an inappropriate thing to say. "May God have mercy on him, even though he didn't have mercy on his victims, and we're not having mercy on him. While the AG couldn't decide at the last minute there is a major disconnect in Tweeting a statement about mercy while explicitly denying mercy.

I don't know much about the Utah AG. I do, however, know that the Attorney General in Alabama is a blood-thirsty supporter of state-sanctioned murders. He mentions the "liberal elite" aka people who are educated and might be qualified for his job, people who may have actually tried cases before being appointed to a position and then running for re-election. He advocates "using the death penalty to keep Alabama families safe from the most violent criminals" by killing them after they've already done something; who does that protect? That's about vengeance, not safety. He also mentions "recent studies" that aren't cited. Recent studies by whom? When? That's not science, that's politics. Then the view zooms to his wedding ring which says "See, I'm a straight married man."

Troy King first got me riled up in December of 2007 or 2008 when I heard on Alabama Public Radio a brief news snippet about king wanting the death penalty to continue in a case where the evidence doesn't line up and everything has changed. It doesn't matter to King if people are actually guilty of the crimes they commit, just that they get killed if they're accused of something serious. Evidence? Who needs that? It's not a matter of justice or anything. While this certainly has an agenda -- and this is my blog, I can do that -- look at the defense's side of Thomas Arthur's ongoing battle against the retribution-"justice" of Alabama politics.

Let us truly pray for mercy, for those who have been executed, for victims of violent crimes, and for electorates that enable such unjust systems to continue functioning.