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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 1995)
Susan Smith too white to die Imagine, if you will, that Susan Smith wasn’t lying. Suppose that a black man actually did abduct her children. Further, sup pose that he was then convicted of the same crime that Smith was: two counts of first degree murder. Is there any body reading this column that believes that he would have received anything other than the death penalty? Long before the Smith trial had begun I predicted that Susan Smith, regardless of whatever crime she may be found guilty, was never going to be sentenced to die in South Carolina’s electric chair. Why? Because she was too pretty; she was too female; and dare I say, she was too white. And that, my friend, is the problem with capital punishment in America today. Through the years I have been one of the biggest defenders of the death penalty. And while I acknowledged in the past there may have appeared to be a perceived imbalance in the way capi tal punishment was applied, I always argued that instead of scrapping the system entirely, we should explore more ways to ensure that everyone who deserves it gets it. Now I have changed my mind. If ever a person deserved to be strapped to a cold wooden chair and electrocuted until dead, that person is Susan Smith. That instead she only received fifteen years in jail per dead child indicates a serious, systemic problem with the manner in which capital punishment is distributed in this countiy. Anti make no mistake. Smith will be paroled after serving only 30 years, lest you forget that in this modem day of revolving door justice you have to demonstrate that you DON’T deserve parole instead of proving that you DO. Just as sympathy caused jurors to have mercy on this poor, troubled soul by not giving her the deserved punish ment, so too will sympathy sanction her release from incarceration at the earliest opportunity. Remember folks, had this been an African-American man, little atten tion would have been afforded his troubled marriage or history of sexual abuse. He would have received what Thomas Eads “Long before the Smith trial had begun I predicted that Susan Smith, regardless of whatever crime she may be found guilty, was never going to be sentenced to die in South Carolina’s electric chair. ” he rightly deserved according to the current law of the land. So how do we solve this discrep ancy? A detailed design should be adopted for the handing-down of a death pen alty sentence. During the sentencing phase of a trial, jurors should be pre sented with this guideline and in structed that any deviation should re sult only from severe, specific and proven mitigating circumstances. Al leged sexual abuse, for example, would not qualify as anexcuse to kill your kids, nor would it act as a disqualification from receiving capital punishment. Without incorporating this type of precept by which the death penalty is utilized in an impartial manner, I sug gest that we abolish it altogether. Currently, the only thing the death penalty seems to be successful at do ing is costing great quantities of money; causing a severe backlog of cases at the appellate court level; cre ating even more disharmony than is already present among certain minor ity groups; and perhaps most nefari ously, promoting abuse (through the seemingly infinite numbersof appeals) by judges and others who disagree with the law personally. Though I concede that capital pun ishment is very popular among the general populace (some 80-percent of Americans now favor the death pen alty according to a recent CNN/Wall Street Journal poll), I’m beginning to wonder if the price for this kind of justice isn’t too high. It is evident that our criminal jus tice system is overburdened and in desperate need of a tune-up. But at a time when more and more cell space is needed to house increasingly violent offenders, sorely needed money is being depleted by costly, drawn-out appellate procedures for death pen alty cases. American society needs the death penalty if for no other reason than to demonstrate that certain crimes will absolutely, positively not be tolerated. However, in the absence of a capital punishment law that works, we at least owe it to the victims to see that a minimal amount of justice is done. Justice was not done in the Susan Smith case; anyone who thinks it was i s fooling themsel ves. Collectively we have disrespected our children once again (I’ll spare you a reopening of the abortion debate) by saying that Michael and Alex’s lives were only worth fifteen years of jail time each. I do not buy the cockamamie no tion that the worst punishment for Smith is having to to live with her crime; though that would be just fine with me as long as she had to live with it (behind bars) for a time commensu rate with the life expectancy of her kids. What she got, instead, was a comparative slap on the wrist. The jurors who returned the 30 year sentence for the drowning deaths of Smith’s two children should be ashamed of themselves. South Caro lina legislators should be equally em barrassed that a life sentence without parole was not an option for the Smith jury. And the rest of us, as Americans, should hang our collective heads low because of our seemingly innate in ability to apply capital punishment judiciously and without partiality. Eads is a senior political science major and a Dally Nebraskan columnist Send your brief letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St, Lincoln, Neb. 68588. Or fax to: (402) 472-1761. Letters must be signed and include a phone number for ^verification. Need for diversity Dear Governor Nelson, 1 am writing to you in regards to Patrick A. Campbell, one of the final ists for the position of County Judge. I am the Pastor of the All Nations Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and I am also a Public Service Officer with the Lincoln Police Department. As a Pastor and an activist in the Lincoln community, I see a great need for Lincoln and Lancaster County to elect and appoint officials of color. As you well know, Lincoln is a city that is growing very quickly and be coming more diverse. I believe that it is important that Lincoln is inclusive in its hiring practices to include repre sentation from the rich diversity that exists in this community. I believe that by appointing Patrick A. Campbell as a Lancaster County Judge, it will certainly show that you are aware of the needs of Lancaster County and are willing to effectively work on meeting the needs of our city and county. Please be certain that I am not endorsing Mr. Campbell solely on the basis of him being a person of color, but equally important is the exem plary credentials that he possesses. He is well qualified for the position of County Judge. As a Public Service Officer, one of my duties includes working as a court officer in the Lancaster County Courts. I have worked in the courts for the past nine years, and I have personally ob served the performance of many attor neys, prosecutors and judges in the courtrooms. I must say that Mr. Campbell has proven to be among the top. He is knowledgeable of the law, confident and thorough in his handling of all legal matters he encounters in the courts. 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