One of the arguments against the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber was that it would result in years of appeals and collateral review, renewing the anguish of survivors and the families of the dead.
Of course there is an obvious way to avert this problem: Tsarnaev could waive further review and accept what he earned.
I note that the adverse coverage of the sentence, for example, here and here, never so much as mentions this possibility. The abolitionist assumption is what it always is: The problem is not the killer. The problem is us. He's not the sadist. We are. Years of review are needed to advance the admittedly tiny hope that our racist, brutish, wahoo, etc., country will come to its senses.
As Kent has noted, it is anything but a foregone conclusion that review will take its usual length. This is the feds. McVeigh was executed less than four years after he was sentenced.
And then there's the fact that no one has cited a ghost of a plausible reason to believe the results of the trial or sentencing will be overturned.
Ronald Reagan famously said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Perhaps, in the unlikely event those upset with the prospect of further victim suffering are sincere, they will join me in saying, "Mr. Tsarnaev, tear down these appeals."
For once in his young life, perhaps Tsarnaev could show an ounce of decency.
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