Death Row....

I was once upon a time a court t.v. addict. I didn’t’ work, I had two small children that were perpetually watching Disney, so any chance I got, I wanted to watch the most adult channel on television (Fox doesn’t count, guys).

This was before Court T.V. became “True T.V.”, before Nancy Grace came off as a man hating, overly aggressive in her opinions witch. And I even think her make-up was better back then. Glorida Alred was as annoying as ever and her daughter was just getting started in the television arena.

I would watch these different trials and be fascinated and horrified at the atrocities that are continually committed in our 1st World society.

My oldest son was just a toddler, and I’m not sure if I had given birth to my youngest son, but I remember the case of Brandon Wilson. Some may remember him, some may not, but he was the teenager that walked into a restroom located in an R.V. Park and slit a little boys throat as he stood at the urinal. The boy’s aunt was standing outside the door, and when he never returned, she found him lying in a pool of blood.

The details of the case were shocking. I was an extremely young mom, and Brandon Wilson and I were of an age, so I remember wondering what went wrong in his brain that he was capable of harming a little boy, for no other reason than just to do it? And I remember looking at my own little boy and not being able to fathom the depth of grief that his entire family had to be suffering from such a senseless, heinous act.

Brandon Wilson was sentenced to death row in California. I’m not sure what made me think of the case, as it has been years and years, but I decided to look it up and found out that Brandon Wilson hung himself in his cell last month.

I then found out that since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978 in CA., 19 inmates have committed suicide, while 13 have actually been put to death. Seriously.

Can I just say that in most of my political beliefs, and yes I do have them, if I had to classify myself, which I really hate to do, but in this case I will, I would have to say that I’m pretty far to the left (which is not exactly popular here in the deep South…) but in this instance….When you have a full confession, and in the process of pleading guilty he says that he will do it again if ever given the chance….Why did he sit on death row for over a decade?

It took death by his own hand to finally rid the family that has suffered, and will continue to suffer, of the foul person that robbed them of the joy of seeing their child grow in to a young man. Where is the justice in that?

I now work in our legal system, and I’ve chosen not to work in the criminal field on purpose. While a ton of good can be done there, and obviously, some strides need to be taken to move our justice system along, it is imperative that we, as a so-called forward thinking, precedent setting nation, really need to step up our game.

Currently, more than 700 people are sitting on death row in the state of California alone. 700…..

Surely, many are there with an iron tight case proving guilt. Why are we keeping them around? Could someone answer that question for me?