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Article Last Updated: Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 7:48:05 AM MST

No vengeance, no violence -- justice By Dan Sernoffsky So who deserves the death penalty? According to George Ryan, former governor of Illinois, no one. Not, for instance, Fedell Caffey and Jacqueline Williams, who were among those awaiting execution in Illinois when Ryan, in one of his final acts as governor, commuted the sentences of the 156 inmates on death row to life imprisonment. Death penalty opponents cheered the blanket amnesty handed out by Ryan. And they'll probably cheer more if similar steps are taken by other governors in other states, especially Texas, where a couple of guys named John King and Russell Brewer would be spared the needle. So who are Fedell Caffey and Jacqueline Williams, and who are John King and Russell Brewer? Caffey and Williams were sentenced to death for killing a pregnant woman named Debra Evans. The murder was particularly grisly, as was the ensuing murder of two of her children. King and Brewer are two of the three men convicted and sentenced for the murder of James Byrd -- the third, Shawn Berry, is serving a life sentence -- by dragging him to death, a murder which became a major focus of hate crime proponents. There has been a growing clamor on the part of death penalty opponents to end what they see as the barbarism of taking human life. Calling it "state-sanctioned murder," those opponents point to various statistical studies, or to claims that violence begets only more violence. But is that really the case? Much of the statistical "evidence" gathered in support of once again halting the death penalty has already been called into question as flawed, especially the way in which that evidence has been presented. Many of the supposed "innocents" who were freed from death row had their sentences commuted for reasons other than a genuine proof of innocence. One escaped death row because a witness at his original trial had died in the interim prior to the start of his new trial. Others escaped death row because appeals courts overturned verdicts from state courts for reasons other than the actual guilt or innocence of the defendant. Meanwhile, the debate over whether the "violence" of the death penalty actually begets further violence regularly overlooks the basis on which the death penalty is applied, which is to say particularly grisly or heinous acts that have already been committed. Fedell Caffey and Jacqueline Williams would not have been facing the death penalty had they not murdered Debra Evans and her children. John King and Russell Brewer would not be awaiting the executioner if they had not killed James Byrd. Ted Bundy would not have been put to death had he refrained from killing all those women. Timothy McVey would have avoided execution if he hadn't decided to detonate that truck bomb in Oklahoma City. The debate on the death penalty will soon be focused on suburban Washington, D.C., where accused Beltway snipers John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo may well be facing that sentence in their upcoming trials. Despite what death penalty opponents may say, the death penalty is not about vengeance, or violence. It is about justice. That it may not always be fairly applied is a question that must be worked out, but there are numerous safeguards already built into the system, and the chances that an innocent man or woman may be put to death are indeed almost non-existent. Too often overlooked is the fact that it was the death of an innocent that triggered the sentence. ------------ Sernoffsky can be reached at : dansernoffsky@ldnews.com

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