Sometimes I wish I was Chinese
There is something to be said for Process. But there is something to be said for
results, as well.
They say the difference between following “process”….appreciating process….understanding process, as opposed to the
age old “decision by emotion” way of doing things is the difference between a
child and an adult. In the end, having
a process in place isn’t just good form, but the expression of a superior
society. It makes for a more mature,
and civilized place to live.
Well, I say fuck process.
I want results. NOW.
I’m talking about the death of my brother. I’m talking about the length of time it has
taken to try his killer, who sits in jail, well fed….clean. Off the streets. Certainly
never to see those streets again.
It is when I think of him, that quite frankly, I wish I was
Chinese, and that this had happened in China.
The son of a bitch that killed my brother would have had a
bullet in his head a long time ago.
__________________
It’s been nearly two and a half years since that morning I arose
and saw I had missed not one but several phone calls from my sister. Strange.
I instantly worried for my father.
An Old Man, I had long since prepared and made all the arrangements.
I usually kept my cell on mute, as not to wake me before I wanted
to be awoken. My customers were on the
West Coast anyway. But upon seeing my sister
had called I untangled myself from the bronze legs beside me and gave her a
quick call.
Her tone of voice told me something was wrong and I mentally
braced to hear the inevitable about dad….except it was my brother’s name she
mentioned. I didn’t show any emotion. Still I must admit while surprised I was not
overly shocked. I had last seen my
brother at my grandmother’s funeral not 6 months before. Though
younger than myself, barely over 40, he had lost a lot of weight, had yellow
skin and shrunken eyes with very large, dark bags. I mentally observed he wouldn’t make it to
50. He simply lived a hard life.
Still, I didn’t think he’d die this young. The circumstances of his death are not
important. He was set up by a woman,
and ambushed by a man. He opened the
hotel door thinking it was her, and another fellow on drugs stepped in the
doorway and shot him. Walked past him to
my brothers suitcase and robbed him of several thousand dollars. My brother perhaps lived 30 seconds. This was
March 2012.
They caught the killer a few days later. A traffic stop of all things. His father is in prison, too. There were three accomplices. All women.
Within 3 days all were in jail, and there they still sit. The woman that set my brother up has
apologized to my mom, and she is serving a 20 year sentence.
With good old fashioned biblical glee, I was very satisfied with
the capture of the killer.
“Now he will die”, I thought to myself.
_____________
China’s executions are down, but still higher than the rest
of the world combined.
There are over 50 offenses that qualify for execution in
China.
Those of you that have studiously read my posts(well done!)
will know that I have written more than once on the ludicrousness of China’s
death penalty process. I.E. it’s too damn
quick. Sloppy. It’s NOT
as process driven as you think. Still,
15% of death sentences are apparently overturned to mere life
imprisonment. And of course the trials
are usually SECRET.
But at the risk of a good slap in the face by my readers in
the name of Hypocrisy, well….you have my permission to start forming a line.
I like the lack of empathy that China shows for it’s truly
guilty convicts. One needs process when
building a subway…a skyscraper….a bridge.
But once a person has been shown
to be truly guilty of taking another life, and the proof and evidence are truly
irrevocable, than put the bullet in the chamber.
I know this comes across as a turn off. Perhaps even Crass. But justice walks a fine line between proper
Empathy and Fairness.
________________
Oklahoma is a “death penalty” state.
Growing up in Oklahoma I’ve always supported the death
penalty.
However, to my surprise, it really hasn’t stopped the
killing now has it?
There are approx. 50 people on Death Row in Oklahoma. One has
been there since 1984.
The average stay on Death Row is nearly 8 years. The average
age is 38.
The shortest stay on Death Row in Oklahoma was 30 days, back
in 1922.
The first official execution was in 1915. It was via electrocution. The last
electrocution btw was in 1966. There has been but one hanging over the past
century, and that was in 1936. From 1966 until 1990 there was a moratorium on general
Execution. Lethal injection began in 1990, after the
moratorium ended.
Now I realize that Oklahoma has been in the news lately,
over the past couple of years, for senseless killings and botched
executions.
(My take on the above is so what? This guy was on Death Row for a reason, which
the media refuses to focus upon: he buried his victim alive)
I myself have in the past referred to Oklahoma as our “North
Korea”. Oklahoma is a state with Neanderthal
policies, that will perhaps in my lifetime never vote in the majority for a
Democratic Presidential Candidate. Guns
are everywhere. Oklahoma’s approach to violent
crime is simple: more guns.
Yet Oklahoma does do something right: it is the national model for pre K education …(you’re
shocked right?)
With Oklahoma’s penchant for Death Row, one would think that
the only qualification for admittance to Death Row would be having ended
someone’s life.
And that is what I thought, too.
Indeed….I was quite frankly looking forward to witnessing
the execution of my brothers murderer.
Upon
my hasty arrival back to the US, I had a conversation with the DA’s ofc.
20 seconds into my first conversation with the Prosecutor, I
was told otherwise.
Turns out that simply killing a person in Oklahoma is not an
automatic ticket to the Death Chamber. Indeed…contrary
to what I had perceived, it’s actually quite hard to be executed for killing
someone in Oklahoma. Turns out there are
“rules” for this sort of thing.
This hard bitten state towards violence has “rules”?
“Criteria”.
Indeed, there are apparently 7 criteria, only one of which needs
to be met in order to qualify for execution.
I won’t write them down here….they are below. Needless to say, to my great anger and
dismay, this fellow would not be subject to the Death Penalty after all. Merely
to life in prison.
I looked into this. The
Prosecutor had a point. Of the 623 murders that took place in Oklahoma
from 2008-2010….only one lucky guy made it to Death Row.
Just One.
Those that did not meet the threshold received usually
life.
I’ve been told the killer of my brother will probably
receive Life yet with the possibility of parole after 60 years.
I like China’s noted lack of empathy for the accused. I’m not saying they have empathy for the
victim, but the process shown to date in simply getting a known killer tried
and found guilty in America is exasperating.
Process blinds compassion. It frowns upon empathy for the family of the
victim. Should there not be a sense of
urgency? Should the family be allowed a
sense of closure, within a reasonable timeframe?
_________________
Upon hearing of the sentence my brother’s murderer would probably
get, I felt great anger and emotion. You see….I wanted to see him die. In my lifetime. I do not want to see him die of natural
causes. Living the life of an old man,
repenting in old age. I want him to die
before he can repent.
Living in China would allow me this luxury.
It got worse.
My brother’s trial was originally scheduled for end of 2012.
This was the expected timeframe I had
anticipated. Then it was pushed back to
June 2013. I stayed in constant contact
with the Prosecutor. I arranged my time
in China carefully. I was ready to
book my tickets back home to the trial.
Then there was another delay. My brother’s killer…the week before the
beginning of the trial suddenly said he had an alibi. That’s right….
An alibi.
For 15 months he had sat silent. Denied he was guilty, or even at the scene of
the crime, despite the video evidence of him having arrived and left the
hotel. Despite his accomplices all
having confessed(except for some inexplicable reason his dumb girlfriend).
Now on the eve of the trial, the judge had to make a
decision. I would later speak with the
crime reporter for the local paper. He admitted
to being surprised that the judge would fall for such a tactic. The judge delayed the trial. The Prosecutor called me. Her words were “the judge doesn’t want the
verdict thrown out on a technicality upon appeal” and is thus playing it safe.
Yet it seemed to me the rights of the accused were being
kept in everybody’s scope of vision. Utmost
care was being taken to address every need of the accused. False claim, deliberate mistruth or otherwise.
Meanwhile my father wasn’t getting any younger. He’s 76 years old. It seemed the State was indeed showing empathy,
but to the wrong party. The Public
Defender was getting away with a grievous abuse of power, manipulating….LYING,
to protect his client. The Public
Defender is not supposed to knowingly forward false data to the Judge…..right?(right?)
The trial was pushed back to August 2013. But I knew it wouldn’t take place. I wrote a long letter to the DA himself, and
gave it to the Prosecutor. I have
neither heard from or spoken to her since.
However, my instincts were right.
The killer’s attorney had a massive heart attack(I believe
he died, but I’m not sure….I hope he did), and as such the trial was
indefinitely postponed.
Now my mother tells me his trial is set for August
2014. The previous delay you see had
been because the previous judge recused herself, for some “conflict of interest”. I don’t know the story. I’ve given up tracking it. I really have.
I wonder if my father will live to see justice done? I don’t know.
But I do know if I were Chinese, the trial would be a
distant memory.
just blogwalking.. nice post :D
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