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Just what purpose is our criminal justice system supposed to serve? Is it to serve the interests of society, or is it merely a mechanism for extracting private vengeance?
Those questions emerged again last week, when our district attorney, Ed Rodgers of Cañon City, came under attack because he made a plea agreement instead of going to trial to seek the death penalty.
He made the deal with Michael and Joel Stovall, 24-year-old twins who were arrested on Sept. 28 by Frémont County Deputy Sheriff Jason Schwartz after a complaint that they had killed a dog in Penrose, a small town northeast of Cañon City.
They killed Schwartz in his car, then fled on foot to Florence, where they shot local policeman Toby Bethel, who is paralyzed from the waist down. In a stolen pickup, they sped west on U.S. 50, firing at pursuers before they abandoned the truck and ran into the mountains; they were captured near Salida on Sept. 29.
Clearly, they're a threat to the people of Colorado. And they're going away. On Friday, they pleaded guilty to the murder of Schartz and the maiming of Bethel, and they got sentences of life plus 896 years.
That wasn't enough for some people. Gov. Bill Owens
issued a statement that he was very disappointed
that Rodgers had not pursued the death penalty, because
the facts clearly indicate that the death penalty is
appropriate in this situation and would have been a
deterrent to others who might attack a law enforcement
officer.
Owens sounded rather temperate in comparison to Sheryl
Schwartz, the widow of the murdered deputy. If you
accept this plea,
she told District Judge John
Anderson, my husband's right to justice will be
sacrificed.
In other words, even if the Stovall brothers will die in prison, justice is not being served because the district attorney did not seek the death penalty.
Now, there is talk that Rodgers didn't pursue capital punishment because he's personally opposed to the death penalty. I don't know because the issue has never come up in an election for district attorney (we're in the same judicial district). It hasn't come up because Rodgers runs unopposed. If his attitude was important, why didn't somebody run against him? Isn't that why we have elections?
In his statement to the court last week, Rodgers pointed out that Schwartz failed to search the Stovall brothers before he put them in his car.
Neither defendant was searched. If searches had been
conducted, the two handguns Michael Stovall had in his
possession, when he was placed in the patrol vehicle, would
have been found. Michael Stovall would have been disarmed
and the murder of Schwartz, the shooting of Toby Bethel and
the entire criminal episode would have been
avoided.
Rodgers was too polite to say the rest, so I will. Schwartz did not follow normal police procedures, which involve at least patting down suspects when they're taken into custody. By this dereliction of his duty, he endangered not only himself, but his fellow peace officers and the citizens, myself among them, whom he was sworn to serve and protect.
If this case had gone to trial, Deputy Jason Schartz would not have emerged not as hero slain in the line of duty, but as one who failed to perform his duty and thereby put thousands of residents and travelers at risk.
By accepting this plea agreement, Rodgers avoided this, while still insuring that the Stovall brothers will never again be a threat to society. The case was closed quickly without the years of appeals that a death-penalty case might have occasioned -- if he had got a conviction and a death penalty.
A conviction wasn't an open-and-shut matter, according to Rodgers, because there were potential Miranda problems with Joel Stovall's statement to police. Even with a conviction, a three-judge panel might not have upheld a death sentence -- the brothers were young, they cooperated with prosecutors, and they had no prior criminal records.
Given all that, Rodgers performed his duty well, no matter what view he might have of the death penalty.
He arranged for two dangerous and homicidal men to die behind bars. He saved time and money in the process so that his office will have the resources to pursue other violent criminals. He preserved, insofar as possible, the reputation of Deputy Jason Schwartz.
We elect district attorneys to make these decisions, and we have the right to criticize their decisions -- a right which one does not give up when entering the governor's mansion.
But we also have the right to commend these decisions, and I think Rodgers acted properly. It is in the interest of society to get these guys off the street, and Rodgers properly pursued that interest -- the interest he's supposed to serve, rather than the understandable rage of a grieving widow or the pronouncement of a grandstanding governor.
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