Day 166: 30 Plus Years To Wait

I am outraged. I am disgusted and I am really angry. How can a monster who was sentenced to die some 30 years ago still be alive and living on death row? I mean how much pain as Americans do we expect a family to endure? Have you been following the case this week in California where a death row inmates' execution was stayed ... wait for it ... because the lethal injection may not be "right".

Okay yeah I'm sure the two young girls aged 14 and 15 who he raped and then one that he murdered -- by strangling her with her own shoe lace -- didn't have the "right" methods of death applied to them either. I mean are you kidding? I think I'm going to throw up.

His last victim, a 15 year old girl from Riverside, California named Susan Jordan, walked her two younger siblings to school, then was walking herself to High School one early morning back in 1980. A piece of garbage grabbed her, raped her, removed her shoelace from her own shoe, and strangled her in a dirt field. I need you all to breathe, and pause for the gruesome, heinous crime that this was.

And as if that wasn't enough, he then called her family and taunted them by saying, "your daughter Susan won't be coming home from school today."

What sick mother fucker does this and lives for 30 more years because the State believes it isn't the right fucking lethal drug to kill the bastard?

Can you sense my outrage? I hope so because it is shameful and we should all be angry.

Look, do I believe that there are innocent people in prison, yes. Do I believe that mistakes can be made and death is final, yes. Do I believe that God maybe should have the only right to take a life, maybe. But there is no wavering on this case. The DNA, the evidence is rock solid. This bastard murdered a young girl while out on parole from prison from raping another girl. There's no mistake here.

California voters voted for the Death Penalty and it's criminal that it's not applied. Instead your tax dollars have fed this monster three meals a day for 30 years. You've paid for his medical needs, his dental needs, anything he needed.

I have been obsessing over this young woman. How afraid she must have been during her final moments on earth. If she were alive, she would be just 4 years younger then me, 45. Maybe she would have gone to college. Maybe she would have discovered a cure for cancer. Maybe she'd be my friend. Had children. Worked toward peace around the world. Cared for her elderly parents.

The possibilities of her life have never been fulfilled because some disgusting person felt that his needs were worthy of her life. And you want me to feel sorry that the lethal injection may be a little painful? Just stop it ... All I can think about is her family waiting 30 years for the nightmare to maybe be over. But is it ever over? Their daughter is DEAD and they were robbed of her life.

End this nightmare.

Day 67: A Mom's Son Murdered

I read a distributing and sad article in the Los Angeles Times this morning, and then I learned I know the mother of the victim. My heart sunk and I felt disgusting. I have never known a person whose child was murdered. Thank goodness, right. I mean we live in one of the highest crime rate cities in America and everyday there is another mother weeping over the casket of her beloved child. Senseless murders due to gang violence, domestic violence, or in this case being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It makes you sick to hear.

But to read an article about a Marijuana Dispensary robbery where allegedly gunmen entered the store and shot the employees, and to learn later in the day that one of the victims is the son of a prominent woman labor leader here in Los Angeles, and someone I know, has really rocked me to the core.

I met Julie Butcher years ago when I was employed at the LA Area Chamber of Commerce. She was a union organizer. Over the years our lives would intersect often through our mutual involvement with politics. Most recently when I ran for City Council I remember having lunch with Julie and we would always talk about our boys. She had two sons, me three. She was a proud Mama, just like me. And now her son Matt, is gone. I'm sick even writing this post thinking of how her heart must be shattered into tiny pieces.

Matt Butcher was an employee at a legal dispensary in Echo Park. On Thursday afternoon gunmen entered the store and shot the two employees, one being Matt. Just like that. What for? Money? For pot? What could possibly be worth shooting two young people over? Nothing is.

I just can't imagine how a family regroups after the loss of their child. I think of all the Mama's who have lost their loved ones to violence. I just can't imagine what today is like for Julie, her husband and their other son.

If you are reading this post, and you have children, squeeze them tight, hug them, tell them you love them. If they are alive and healthy you are blessed. I send the Butcher family abundant blessings during this most treacherous and painful time.