Anatomy of An Execution

Translation from legalese to lingo: Screwing up, messing up and getting mixed up happen when you are under 18.

Co-written by his final spiritual adviser, who also was a former teacher, this is an eloquent book that covers the life to execution of someone now barred from being executed because the crime was committed when he was seventeen.  Roper v. Simmons came in 2005; Douglas Christopher Thomas died five years earlier, before he was thirty years old.  A summary of the book's purposes was offered by the other author:

[A] case study by which to highlight and explore such questions as the execution of minors, the quality of legal defense provided by court-appointed counsel, the trial and appeals process of capital cases, the prison conditions on death row, the methods of execution and the role of spiritual advisors.

The authors are against the death penalty and believe in the humanity of those executed, and this person in particular (the even younger girlfriend, who helped him kill her parents so that they could stay together -- not that the parents did much really to keep them apart -- is looked at with a scornful eye).* They don't let him off the hook though believe his execution was particularly wrong, something others (including the trial judge) felt as well.  This comes out in various passage,  but the core value of the book is that it provides a comprehensive look at the history and process of execution in Virginia as well as one in particular.

When I check the Supreme Court website for orders, from time to time, there are denials of final appeals in death penalty cases.  Looking at the details, these cases repeatedly involve heinous crimes.  The crime here in effect was a heinous crime of passion by a mixed-up immature teenager.  He was defended at trial by two overwhelmed first time death attorneys, the book pointing out various places where this strongly hurt his case, particularly in the sentencing phase.  This is one of those cases where we see the arbitrary nature of the application of the death penalty.

The girl here was fourteen, so too young to be tried as an adult, so was only kept in confinement for a few years.  It is arbitrary, though the same might be said for a similarly immature nineteen year old after Simmons, that she is out now, married, particularly since it was her parents killed. The net value to society to execute him is unclear to me though at least it appears Thomas obtained some peace, growing to maturely accept what he did and have remorse, to the degree others could so determine.  I see him as a human being in that respect and would if he was some twenty-five year old person who killed someone for less "sympathetic" reasons.  But, his youth and so forth does help the reader some.

Scott Turow in Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty references someone he helped, someone who killed in a "mundane" way that does not reach the narrow range of particularly heinous murders that states determine justify the death penalty.  Given mitigating factors, this case fits the bill.  The authors agree that the person here is not to be judged by the worst of his acts, which would be true too for a murderer of a police officer.  Each person probably has their own story to put such acts in context, but such a person as just noted would entail a somewhat different kind of book.

But, the death penalty is not only about the "worst of the worst," who repeatedly have their own mitigation aspects. There will always be some Douglas Christopher Thomas sort of character, even if he or she is not a troubled teen when doing the crime.  And, the person is also a window into a wider subject matter, which again is here told eloquently.  Photographs help provide this tone, including those of the murder victims and a person who helped him, herself knowing a family member murdered.

 A both well documented and emotional book, this is much recommended.

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* I'm against the death penalty, but I felt myself a bit more empathic of the other side at times.  For instance, the "death squad" who fights to oppose those working on appeals.  Of course, they are gung ho -- each side here has a mentality and a sense of perspective is somewhat like the defensive line during a game considering the humanity of the offensive line of the other team.  They do, but only up to a point. 

Also, again Jessica Wiseman was fourteen at the time of the crime. Yes, she was an immature manipulative thing, but what would one expect, especially after she was convicted? After all, she was locked up in a juvenile facility based on her very immaturity.  It is noted that Thomas was very sexually active in part as a "masculine" coping mechanism affected by his specific biography. She had her own twisted means of coping and as a human being in her own fashion is a tragic case. 

The parts inspired in particular by the spiritual adviser also lay it on a bit thick about how he was a beautiful soul and so on though I can understand how serving such a role would touch a person.