John Allen Muhammed is due to be executed tomorrow. Good.
Lori Lewis Rivera was one of his victims. She was only a year younger than me. She had a baby, and she had her whole life ahead of her.
Three Supreme Court justices--Stevens, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor--"objected to the court's haste, saying it "highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded."
No, Rivera's death was hasty. Rivera didn't have the benefit of these past seven years to see her family grow, to enjoy DC and her life here. Her death was "perverse." She had no appeal.
I remember being in DC at that time, walking that route from our old place on 23rd to Pentagon City. You looked over your shoulder, you were timid, you cautiously turned on the news and wondered if and when there would be the next vicitim. It was only a year after 9/11 and the anthrax letters. It was a scary time, and it was terrorism. I frankly think Lee Boyd Malvo should be executed, too. He was old enough to know right from wrong, and he was old enough to know the consequences he'd face as a cold-blooded murderer.
I hope Rivera's family can find some peace, if not closure. I don't like the death penalty, but some crimes are so heinous that they warrant a greater punishment. This is one of them. And I hope that the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, faces a similar penalty once he is brought to justice.
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