Another view of viewing an execution

As detailed here and here and here, some weeks ago the aesthetics of the death penalty in general and the swiftness of the Saddam execution in particular generated a lot of interesting debate.  Against that backdrop, folks interested in execution procedures in particular and the death penalty in general ought to check out this article now available on-line from the California Lawyer. 

The article is entitled simply, “Witness to an Execution,” and is authored by James Ardaiz, who is now the administrative presiding justice of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno.  Judge Ardaiz describes his experience attending the 2006 execution of Clarence Ray Allen, whom Ardaiz prosecuted back in 1977.  Here is one of many moving passages:

Allen’s appeal and writ process had taken more years than the life spans of all but one of his victims. He had outlived the parents of some of the victims.  What of the surviving parents who were too infirm to witness his punishment?  What was the toll of their suffering through their long years of waiting?  Much of the publicity in the last few weeks had been about public and legal reaction concerning executing such an aged inmate.  I thought about the fact that, in the end, Allen’s health was better than that of the parents of the victims. Where was the outrage at that?

As I looked at the people walking out of the witness room behind me, I saw that Allen had left a long trail of victims behind, and many of them were here walking along silently.  For most of them I don’t think it was over.  I don’t think it will ever be over.  But there is one thing I know for sure: The length of time that all of this took added a layer of pain to what these people endured.  And that was wrong.