I'm disappointed to find that the jury in Shawna Forde's sentencing has given her the death penalty. Not unexpected, and it's no issue with her guilt, but the choice of penalty. I'll be curious to see how the left and the right deal with this.
The Pima County Attorney's Office said Tuesday the Tucson jury returned the death penalty verdict against 43-year-old Shawna Forde. She now becomes the third woman on Arizona's death row.
The MSNBC article is just a quickie; the local paper here in Tucson goes into more detail.
It's tempting in cases like these, poster boys and girls for a death penalty, to indulge in the desire for vengeance. Although Arizona does have some...issues...with Republicans' promotion of cheap and somewhat ineffective private prisons, for the most part prisons succeed at keeping criminals imprisoned. We don't need to kill murderers. And our present justice system doesn't seem to execute criminals in a cost effective manner, or in any way demonstrate a deterrent effect by it. So I'm left with the vengeance angle.
The decision is just in, so time will tell if any prominent liberal thinkers or politicians step up to say anything about this, or if the left will be satisfied to sit back and let the 'justice' system run its course. I also wonder if the right wing will be disturbed by the death penalty nailing one of their own, but this petty thief with delusions of grandeur seems easy enough for them to write off. Who will care if she dies? Is it strange that I care? Is it better that she die than linger on in what passes for our prisons? Maybe.