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An Eye for an Eye: in Defense of the Death Penalty by William T

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An Eye for an Eye: in Defense of the Death Penalty by William T An Eye for an Eye: In Defense of the Death Penalty by William T. Harper is a response to, among other things, Sister Helen Prejean’s books, Dead Man Walking (1993) and The Death of Innocents (2005). There is a distinct and vitally active move afoot in this country to do away with the death penalty – a movement generally headed up by social liberals in search of a “cause.” And, as most polls show, they are winning. Support for the death penalty is diminishing. The United States State Department, a source that might not have an axe to grind in the death penalty debate, recently reported “public support [for the death penalty] has dropped from 80 percent to 61 percent since 1994.” The death penalty opponents are winning because most of America’s vast “silent majority” is conceding the argument through inaction and default, and through ignorance and apathy (“I don’t know and I don’t care”). Others who have taken similar anti-death penalty stances are also met head-on by An Eye for an Eye as it strives to preserve, protect, and defend the concept that for a crime there must be a punishment; that the punishment must fit the crime – and for the ultimate crime there must be the ultimate punishment. Via a series of chapter-opening vignettes illustrating the ghastly, brutal, monstrous murders committed by some of those the death penalty dissenters would spare, the book goes on to prove that the so-called “panacea” – Life Without Parole – is a joke that isn’t funny. An Eye for an Eye also definitely illustrates that the death penalty is, indeed, a most effective deterrent. To purchase a signed copy of An Eye for an Eye for $16.00 (plus $5.00 for taxes/shipping or $10.00 for a pdf version on a CD via e-mail), go here: [email protected] An Eye for an Eye: In Defense of the Death Penalty By William T. Harper William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 2 Published by: CreateSpace, an Amazon.com subsidiary Copyright © by the Author, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise – without prior written consent of the Author, except that brief passages may be quoted for reviews. ISBN-13: 978-1479264988 ISBN-10: 1479264988 Harper, William T., Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, Texas, University of North Texas Press, 2004 We Three: Fred, the Ferry Boat, and Me, Amazon Kindle, 2009; CreateSpace-a subsidiary of Amazon.com, 2012 The Rivers of Life – and Death, M.E.T. Publishing, 2010 Second Thoughts: Presidential Regrets with their Supreme Court Nominations, CreateSpace-a subsidiary of Amazon.com, 2011 HOW COME: 96 Unanswerable Questions, CreateSpace- a subsidiary of Amazon.com, 2012 An Eye for An Eye: In Defense of the Death Penalty, Kindle, Amazon, 2007; CreateSpace-a subsidiary of Amazon.com, 2014 Keywords: 1. Prejean, Sister Helen 2. Life Without Parole 3. Deterrence 4. Damned Lies 5. Legal Mischief William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 3 Dedication This book is dedicated to Bill, Bob, Barb, Beverley, Beth and their Mother who know only too well the absence of An Eye for an Eye justice following the murder of their brother and son, Brian Patrick. May God love him and you. Brian Patrick’s last name is Harper. I am his father. Brian Patrick’s sister, Beth, named her son Brian Joel – in honor of her brother, Brian Patrick. Brian Joel, one of my grandsons, was also murdered almost 33 years after his namesake. I burden the readers with these tragedies only to let them know that within the pages of this book, I know – only too sadly – whereof I speak. W.T.H. William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 4 William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 5 Table of Contents Dedication 3 Introduction 7 Chapter 1 And Now…for the Rest of the Story 11 Chapter 2 Do the Abolitionist Say Anything… We Can Believe? 37 Chapter 3 If They’re Interred…They’re Deterred 69 Chapter 4 Life-Without-Parole is a Joke… But it isn’t Funny 89 Chapter 5 It Isn’t the Law…It’s the Lawyers 133 Chapter 6 Pity the Killers…Forget the Victims 169 Chapter 7 Wrongly Sentenced Doesn’t Mean… Wrongly Convicted 221 Chapter 8 There Are Statistics and Then… There Are Damned Lies 239 Chapter 9 In Football… Interference Gets Penalized 267 Chapter 10 The Bible, the Baby and…What If? 291 Epilogue 317 Post Script 321 Index 323 Notes 347 William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 6 William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 7 “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein Introduction There is a distinct and vitally active move afoot in this country to do away with the death penalty – a movement generally headed up by social liberals in search of a “cause.” And, as most polls show, they are winning. Support for the death penalty is diminishing. The United States State Department, a source that might not have an axe to grind in the death penalty debate, reported that as of 2002, “public support [for the death penalty] has dropped from 80 percent to 63 percent since 1994.”1 A more recent Gallup Poll study shows the in-favor figure dropping to 61 percent in 2011.2 The death penalty opponents are winning because most of America’s vast “silent majority” is conceding the argument through inaction and default, and through ignorance and apathy, through “I don’t know and I don’t care”. Furthermore, there is even an attempt to end the use of the death penalty in the Lone Star State of Texas – wherein is located Harris County, called by death penalty opponents “the death house capitol of the Nation.” To paraphrase an old political chant, “If Texas goes, so goes the Nation.” An Eye for an Eye: In Defense of the Death Penalty is an attempt to overcome that ignorance and apathy – especially in light of a June 2007 newspaper report. It notes that which “gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument – whether the death penalty acts as a William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 8 deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer (emphasis added).”3 An Eye for an Eye is a response to, among other things, Sister Helen Prejean’s books, Dead Man Walking (1993) and The Death of Innocents (2005). Others who have taken similar anti-death penalty stances are also met head-on by An Eye for an Eye as it strives to preserve, protect, and defend the concept: For a crime there must be a punishment; the punishment must fit the crime – and for the ultimate crime there must be the ultimate punishment. Via a series of chapter-opening vignettes illustrating the ghastly, brutal, monstrous murders committed by some of those the death penalty dissenters would spare, the book goes on to prove the so-called “panacea” – Life-Without-Parole – is a joke that isn’t funny. An Eye for an Eye also covers some religious aspects of the death penalty, offers an undeniable stance for the validity of deterrence, examines foreign and social influences, and exposes the extensive stretch of credulity by capital punishment opponents. The book shows undeniably that as executions go up, murders go down. It concludes with a “What If” segment addressing the horrible possibility of an innocent person’s execution. Many death penalty abolitionists invariably quote Mohandas K. Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of the Indian national independence movement who said, “If everyone took an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind.” That pithy comment misses the point entirely. Not every convicted murderer needs such retribution. It’s only those who truly deserve it – “the worst of the worst.” There is justice in applying the death penalty – just as there is justice William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 9 in pulling the trigger on your gun when someone else is pointing his gun at you. In April of 2005, then-Governor Mitt Romney introduced a bill to reinstate capital punishment in Massachusetts. In discussing the bill, Romney said, “…there are some crimes that deserve the ultimate penalty and just as science can free the innocent, it can also identify the guilty.”4 An Eye for an Eye refutes the arguments of those abolitionists who would do away with capital punishment. An Eye for an Eye presents an undeniable case for preserving the death penalty and for its rational but expedited use. * * * William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 10 William T. Harper An Eye For An Eye 11 Chapter One And Now…for the Rest of the Story – Paul Harvey, radio commentator The death penalty dissenters, as personified by Sister Helen Prejean, C. S. J., via her two books – Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents – tell us that nobody, absolutely nobody deserves to die for crimes they commit, no matter how heinous. Let’s talk about that. Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old little girl, was kidnapped from her home in Homosassa, Florida on February 24, 2005.
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