Letter: Legal process hurts victims, families

There will be a hearing ­— yet another hearing — in the post-conviction appeals for Derrick Todd Lee, the DNA-convicted serial killer who murdered my daughter in 2002. No one doubts his guilt but Gary Clements and the Post Conviction Project have managed years of delay in this capital case.

They appeal detail after detail without regard for what it costs in money and legal time and certainly without regard for us, the families of the dead, who are as shackled by their actions to the Louisiana “justice” system as surely as the serial killer.

The Innocence Project predominantly utilizes DNA to exonerate wrongly convicted individuals. DNA and forensic science are powerful, neutral tools. I believe it should be an absolute obligation to test for DNA when it is available. It should be criminal not to.

The law should also be congruent with science on every front. If DNA exonerates, it should also permit timely execution of sentence. Our own DNA case has twice been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court through regular appeals.

Because the Louisiana legal system does not allow DNA the same power in execution of sentence as it does in exoneration, we allow death-penalty attorneys to hijack the system for years and then use their own delay tactics to argue that capital cases take too long and cost too much.

There seems little mercy or justice in the post-conviction process in Louisiana for the dead or for those who survive them.

Ann Pace

project administrator

Jackson, Miss.

Comments

1) Comment by retiredinbrla - 15/11/2012

Derrick Todd Lee murdered many innocent young, beautiful women. He terrorized our city for months and months. Every time I ride near the place where Murray Pace was brutally murdered, I feel her spirit reach out. Every time I drive I-10 at Whiskey Bay, I feel Pam Kinamore's and Carrie Yoder's spirit. Derrick Todd Lee deserves to die. We, as taxpayers, should not have to support him for the next 50 years while he has a bed to sleep in each night, a roof over his head each day, and three meals a day. Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore and Carrie Yoder are dead because of this monster.

2) Comment by Whatchange - 15/11/2012

OK, guess I need to sugar coat this for the liberal " The Advocate". If spending the rest of ones life in a comfy jail cell is far worse that the Death Penalty, why do prisoners fight the Death Penalty so hard. The mere thought of death scares everyone.

3) Comment by DMJ - 15/11/2012

Besides, tradewinns, aren't you a Christian? What about the whole"thall shalt not kill" thing? Or did Moses lose the tablet that had the caveat on it?

4) Comment by DMJ - 15/11/2012

The reason they have delays is because sometimes innocent people are convicted. The more "efficiently" we carry out the death penalty, the more innocent people die. This is a fact. Just look at the Innocence Project's stats. If you still think the death penalty has a place in our society, then I guess there's no getting through to you. The reason we have the much-hated delays is because, like it or not, our legal system was set up to protect the innocent as well as to punish the guilty. I'll say it again- the death penalty has no place in civilized society. It's not a deterrent, and it's not any worse than a lifetime of solitutde in a supermax prison. Give me the choice between an efficient, painless death with minimal court delays and 30-40 years in a supermax prison....guess which I'll take. Think about it.

5) Comment by tradewinns - 15/11/2012

i disagree with swinham and DMJ. the death penalty is more expensive because of the delays by lawyers who are paid every time they do anything in a case. so delay is profitable. if the DP was handled efficiently without all these profitable delays, it would be far less expensive and again be a deterrent. very few killers truly believe they will be executed and they are correct. most die in prison of other causes.

6) Comment by Whatchange - 15/11/2012

****Comment Removed for Violation of Terms of Use****

7) Comment by DMJ - 15/11/2012

Call me crazy, but I think the rest of one's life in a supermax prison, where you're in a cell 23 hours a day is worse than a timely, painless death sentence, which is also more expensive and often ends up killing innocent people. As a civilzed country, it's high time we do away with the death penatly.

8) Comment by swinham - 15/11/2012

While Ms. Pace makes excellent points about DNA evidence, the simplest and most rational solution to the ridiculous death sentence appeals process, and its costs, is elimination of the death penalty. The costs of appeals outweigh what it would cost to incarcerate almost every person given the death penalty - the average cost of appeals equals a 40 year sentence at $50,000 per year. Execution may give the victims' families some satisfaction, but it rarely even satisfies the "eye for an eye" equation (prisoners are not executed in the same way victims are murdered, for example), and many would argue a life in prison is far worse punishment than a quick death. The appeals process is costly, ties up valuable court time that could be better used, and subjects the victims' families to reliving the crime over and over and over. And, if just 1 person is executed due to a wrongful conviction, the death penalty is morally indefensible.

9) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 15/11/2012

Thank you Mrs. Pace for your letter. People cannot begin to understand the loss of your daughter to this fiend. This animal will go to his death whimpering like the coward he is. I don't understand how these lawyers keep dragging out justice. There is no doubt that he is guilty guilty guilty. Now it is time for him to pay the piper.