I previously linked a Washington Post story about the execution of serial killer and multiple rapist Alfred Prieto. I want to quote some parts of it, however, to illustrate a number of points retentionists stress, but are mostly deep-sixed by the mainstream media. My hat is off to the Post for allowing this story to be printed.
[T]he state of Virginia handles the execution of convicted murderers in a precise and professional way. Similarly, serial killer Alfredo R. Prieto lived the final moments of his life with his own version of professionalism, maintaining the same passive look he held through his three long trials in Fairfax, and defiantly refusing to show any remorse or regret as he issued a rehearsed final statement similar to a pro athlete being interviewed after a game. He thanked his "supporters" and then snapped, "Get it over with."
The last story I read about an execution, that of Kelly Gissendaner for plotting to have her husband sliced to death so she and her lover could share the insurance money, started off with how she sang "Amazing Grace" during the execution procedure. Somehow I suspect, "Get it over with" is more common, but doesn't get widely reported because it doesn't make good abolitionist propaganda.
The Post story continues:
[Prieto] entered the death chamber at 8:52 p.m. Thursday, and was dead by 9:17 p.m.
That would be a total of 25 minutes. Most human beings do not get the luxury of a death anything like that fast.
A diverse crowd of witnesses watched every moment intently, some in the chamber with him, some victims' family members and friends in a room peering through one-way glass, and then about 18 more people -- lawyers, corrections officials, and four reporters including me -- facing him straight on from another room. We watched what appeared to be an utterly painless death for a man who brutally killed nine people and devastated nine families,
You can wait 'til doomsday eve for most of the press to report on "an utterly painless" execution, But your wait for stories about a "botched execution" is typically measured in milliseconds.
[Several witnesses and a couple of the prosecutors] take seats in the front row along with the jury foreman from the second Prieto trial, who wanted to express his support for the victims but did not want to be identified. They will sit about six feet from Prieto, as they did at the trials, when Prieto wore high-collared shirts to hide his gang tattoos.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the foreman of a jury that imposes the death penalty supposed to be a barbarian? I seem to have heard that every now and again.
I first met Dede Raver in 2000, 12 years after her sister was killed in Reston. A DNA match had been made with Tina Jefferson's slaying in Arlington, but there was still no suspect. Raver would become active in pushing for more funding for DNA use in crime fighting, and now it is everywhere. And now, her sister's killer had been caught, convicted and put to death."To me, the whole thing is so surreal," she said late Thursday night. "It's lasted so long, it's hard to believe it's come to an end."
She said of Prieto: "I did not see any emotion in him. It kind of haunts me because I kind of know that's the expression my sister saw. I found it absolutely disturbing." She did not expect him to apologize or offer condolences. "But I'm glad that I went," she said, "because my mother really wanted to. [Veronica Raver, who attended all three Prieto trials in Fairfax despite suffering from stomach cancer, died in 2013.] So I did it on her behalf."
Remember that the next time you hear that what victims really want is "healing and restorative justice." It's true that some members of some families of murder victims oppose the death penalty. But one mother was sufficiently determined to see justice done that she came to three trials despite having one of the most horrible and debilitating forms of cancer you can get. That the system dawdled so long over phony appeals that she died before the execution of her daughter's tormentor and killer is a disgrace.
And last (emphasis added):
It was Ray Morrogh's [the Commonwealth Attorney's] third time witnessing an execution, which he felt was only right as a prosecutor who sometimes seeks the death penalty. "I thought Prieto died a much easier death than any of his victims," he said. "He passed very quietly. The way he was administered the lethal injection and went to sleep, I've seen family and friends struggle to the last heartbeat. His death was a lot easier than those women who begged for their lives."
I will not live to see the day when a defense lawyer decides to witness the autopsy of someone killed by a violent client he successfully defended. Coming face-to-face with the consequences of the choices you make in your professional life is only for other people.
Give credit also to the federal judge who tossed the TRO. The judge's opinion is stellar and makes no bones about what needed to be done for justice's sake.
It also should bear noting--this piece of garbage was an immigrant who should have been deported after serving time for shooting people. Now, Jeh Johnson tells us that we should be keeping some alien criminals here. This is the sort of thing that can happen when the safety of the American people is less important than some left-wing idea about what America should be.