The trial of John Couey, the convicted sex-offender and all-around creep who is accused of killing 9 year old Jessica Lunsford, is now underway. Jury selection has been slow and painful. The judge would like a pool of 75 potential jurors, but only 62 have been selected after 4 days of voir dire.
Once the initial 75 are selected, the serious questioning will begin. No doubt the death penalty (and how potential jurors feel about it) will be the most important topic.
I've read some of the newspaper articles about the case leading up to trial, and it appears that the defense is going to go for the 'this idiot isn't fit for trial' bullshit defense. Although his original confession was thrown out by the judge, Couey has apparently told anyone willing to listen that he kidnapped, raped, and burined Jessica alive.
Because my 'formative' years were spent in Texas, I used to be a 'get a rope' kind of guy. Now that I'm an old man, I sort of think that the death penalty should be reserved for especially heinous crimes.
I think we've learned that capital punishment isn't the deterrent that we hoped it would be. It certainly deters the killer, I'll admit. If capital punishment is abandoned, I'd like to see more 'life without parole' sentences instead of 25 years to life, which just seems to return killers to the streets after 15 years.
As I mentioned, there are certain crimes so disgusting that they shout out for the death penalty. If there ever was a murderer that deserves to die, it is John Couey.
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