Spare Us

In the fall of 2002, I was as riveted as anyone outside of the DC area could be by the shooting and murder spree of the "Beltway Sniper." My wife at the time was about to begin a temporary assignment in Washington, and it hardly seemed safe to be contemplating such a move. The odds of encountering the sniper were millions to one, but that never stopped us from worrying.

Tonight, seven years after his capture, one of the two snipers was executed. If anyone ever deserved the death penalty, he did. His guilt was not in question. His crimes were particularly heinous, because they terrorized millions and struck down ten people for no reason any of us could understand. Yet tonight, as happens any time there's a prominent execution (for example, that of Timothy McVeigh), I actually feel worse. Somebody just got killed, somebody else intentionally did the killing, and we all knew it was coming. I would have preferred the murderer spend the rest of his life in prison, if only to spare us all this day when once again we had to relive his crimes and witness yet another planned death.