Dru Sjodin is
probably dead. She was kidnapped in Grand Forks, North Dakota, taken from the parking lot of the mall where she worked by a monster, apparently a
Level 3 sex offender who had recently been released after serving 23 years for attempted abduction. Sjodin was 22 years old.
I could go off on a rant right now about the wisdom of allocating so many resources on fighting pot use while scum like Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. are ever allowed out of jail, but I'm not going to right now. My anger now is focused at one man: Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN).
Dru Sjodin's body has not yet been found. Her family just found out within the last 24 hours that the man who probably killed her had been caught. Hundreds of volunteers are still searching for Sjodin, hoping against all odds that she is somehow still alive, knowing in their hearts that they at least need to find her body to bring closure to her family.
Governor Timmy, meanwhile, has decided to score some political points.
Pawlenty decided today would be a good day to call for a restoration of the death penalty.
Jerk.
Look, my feelings on the death penalty are plenty mixed. I believe the death penalty is a moral sentence: people like McVeigh, bin Laden, and Malvo have forfeited their membership card in the human race, and extermination is too good a penalty for them.
But I also understand the imperfect nature of our criminal justice process. Where capital punishment is used, it is often applied capriciously. Too often the most important factors in whether someone convicted receives the death penalty is the convicted person's race. In too many cases, innocents have nearly lost their lives when wrongly convicted.
These two tensions--the moral rectitude of the death penalty, as opposed to the procedural problems with its imposition--have led me to believe that, while death is warranted in many cases, life without parole provides society with the same benefit.
But when Tim McVeigh got the gas pipe, I was happy.
All of this is pretext to let you know that I am not a strong opponent of capital punishment. If Minnesota decided to reinstitute it I would probably be disappointed, but it's hardly something I'm going to fight about. Certainly, Tim Pawlenty can and should raise this issue.
But not today.
Today, Gov. Timmy should have let the spotlight stay where it is: on the search for Dru Sjodin. He should have let the family grieve, let the justice system work. If he felt the need to get his name in the paper, it should have been with the banal platitudes politicians spout at times like this; it wouldn't have meant much either way, but that's why the platitudes are what politicians spout.
Instead, Gov. Timmy felt the need to put himself out, front and center, and make himself the focus. That's sick. That's wrong. And it's inexcusable.
If in a week or two, Pawlenty had stepped forward and advanced this issue--even mentioning the Sjodin case as a reason--I would have understood. Like Pawlenty, I also am a father of a girl. And like Pawlenty, I'm sick of reading about cases like this.
Unlike Pawlenty, I recognize two things. First, the focus today should be on the Sjodin family and Dru's friends.
And second, since the kidnapping happened in North Dakota, it doesn't matter what Minnesota's laws say. All the more reason for our governor to shut up.