I ran some errands this evening, and drove home with the radio tuned to an am station that carries Ed Schultz ... and Tammy Bruce. For most of the 15 minutes she was ranting about a perceived injustice brought against her by Delta. But then she said something that made me actually listen:
"The sister has non alcoholic cirrohsis of the liver. And the parole board rejected Gregory Scott Johnson's appeal for clemency in order to donate his liver to his sister."
the canned applause was followed by:
"too bad for you. Your brother is a murdering pig. Get your liver elsewhere."
I searched the diaries, but didn't come up with anything, and though I admittedly know very little about the story, thought it was important enough to give some thought and space to here.
YahooNews (which has a death row roundup at
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=us&cat=death_penalty -- 2 executed in TX in 2 days) has the story:
His crime was brutal - convicted of stomping to death an 82 year old woman during a robbery and then setting fire to her home to eliminate evidence, he's been on death row since 1985.
But the argument isn't about the death penalty (I'm opposed), evidence, or the like. Even Johnson isn't arguing that his life should be spared:
Johnson knows he should die for killing his elderly neighbor. "While I don't think that I'm a danger to society now, I have a hard time looking you in the face and coming up with any reason for you not to kill the 20-year-old. I'm a failure."
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3349114&nav=9TahZtoK
The argument goes back to the "culture of life" - the rhetorical principle that Republicans claim to have bought enough shares in to accrue the moral high ground.
Where is the respect for the sanctity of life in denying a man the possibility to be tested to see if he is compatible with a dying woman?
The concerns - who will pay for the transplant, will he be remembered more for a final act of selflessness rather than a brutal crime - shouldn't these pale beside the sacredness of life itself?
Republican hypocrisy certainly isn't news. But Gov. Mitch Daniels' decision on a stay of execution will show what the Republican party truly values -
the life of an innocent woman with a failing liver
or
the vengeful murder of two Americans.