Englishman: I know, that’s why I posted the piece. It was sent to me, Author unknown. Also, here is an editoral I would like to share........
John Byrd's execution
Cincinnati Post editorial
There is nothing to celebrate in the fact of John Byrd's execution Tuesday by the state of Ohio. There is, perhaps, a grim measure of satisfaction to be had in the fact that Ohio's capital punishment law was finally enforced, that an awful measure of justice was meted out for a crime that never should have happened nearly 19 years ago. But that satisfaction is hollow.
Before our attention is drawn away by the next sensational, horrific story to come out of the criminal justice system, a few observations about this one are in order:
It was proper to see the focus kept as much on the victim, Monte Tewkesbury, as on the perpetrator. So often, it seems, the victim is forgotten, the obligation to them outstripped by society's obligation to protect the rights of the person who committed the murder.
In many capital crimes - drug paybacks, gang revenge, barroom fights and the like - the victim shares a measure of blame. But this one was different. Monte Tewksbury was a decent man, trying to do right by his family by moonlighting at a Colerain Township convenience store to help his daughter pay for college. He wasn't even trying to be a hero when the man who'd robbed him sliced his liver open with a hunting knife. He'd given his assailant the money from the cash register, his watch, even his wedding ring.
Byrd had more than ample due process. His claims - that he was innocent, that he was so drunk and so full of drugs he didn't remember what happened, that his conviction was based on the perjured testimony of a jailhouse snitch - were considered, and rejected, by the full range of state and federal appeals courts.
Byrd's fate was sealed after co-defendant John Brewer and Byrd's attorneys produced so many conflicting stories at an 11th hour hearing that the magistrate concluded Brewer's testimony was simply unbelievable. (Brewer, serving a life sentence for his role in the crime, had asserted that he was the killer.)
Byrd was a bully. This was a man who, three years after the murder, mailed a grotesquely threatening letter to Tewksbury's widow. "I know a lot of people who would like to date your little girl," he wrote. "If you can understand what I'm saying, I can make your world a living hell." He later apologized for that letter, saying it was written at a time when he was filled with hate.
His final words Tuesday, if not hateful, were certainly angry. "The corruption of the state will fall. Gov. Taft, you will not be re-elected," he said. "The rest of you, you know where you can go."
So there it is. John Byrd was duly tried, convicted, sentenced and now executed for the murder of Monte Tewksbury, a good and decent man.
Byrd was a criminal, not a martyr.