Is capital punishment the answer? Absolutely

Six-year-old Cassandra "Casey" Williams awakes after having a slumber party with her mother and two siblings. Her mother and siblings aren't awake yet, so little Casey goes downstairs to turn on cartoons until everyone gets out of bed.

When she gets downstairs, the man who was allowed to stay over last night is there. He strikes up a conversation with little Casey, who believes that this morning will be like every other.

But this morning would be different. This morning 26-year-old drifter Johnny Johnson manages to lure young Casey from her home -- while her family is still sleeping upstairs. When her feet begin to hurt, he carries the child on his back.

Johnson takes Casey to an old glass factory and leads her through a series of underground tunnels and ovens until he feels sure that she won't be able to find her way out (just in case she runs) and where he is sure no one will hear her screams for help.

Little Casey is probably getting scared by now. She may even be crying and asking Johnson to take her back home. She is probably remembering everything her mother told her about strangers (even though this is the same man mom and grandpa let stay the night last night) and thinking of how much trouble she is going to be in when she gets home -- but little Casey never makes it back home.

Johnson begins making sexual overtures at the six-year-old.

"Do you want to see my genitals?" he asks her while he pulls down his pants, exposing himself.

She is too young to understand exactly what he wants, but she knows to fight. She begins telling him no, probably screaming it at him, and fights him off as best as a six-year-old can a grown man. He pulls off little Casey's underclothes and she begins to fight harder.

But her apparent lack of interest in him begins to enrage Johnson. Apparently he was expecting a much warmer reaction from the little girl. He reaches down and grabs the first thing his fingers come into contact with -- a brick.

Little Casey is apologizing at this point, for what, she doesn't know. She only knows that she has made this man mad and she is scared. But Johnson doesn't listen to her pleas as he brings the brick down on the back of her fragile skull.

Using the brick and a large rock, Johnson bashes little Casey in the head until her chest rises and falls for the last time. He then uses bricks, rocks and leaves to cover her small body and takes himself to the Meramec River to wash away the evidence.

By this point, Casey's mother, grandfather and father have gathered a search party to look for the missing girl. They look everywhere but there is no sign of her -- or the man who stayed as a guest in their house the previous night.

Finally, a searcher enters the glass factory. And that is where he will find a pile of stone and brick with five small toes sticking out. Little Casey has been found -- broken and bleeding, never to laugh again.

*

This happened in July 2002 in Valley Park. Johnson was recently sentenced to death after a jury deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours to find him guilty. They recommended the death sentence and the judge took their advice, calling this the most "grisly" murder case he has ever seen in that area.

After the sentencing, Johnson's brother, Bob Johnson, leaves the courtroom in tears shouting, "They're all murderers."

Excuse me? They're murderers? What about the little girl who will never get to go to prom, never get to graduate or celebrate her wedding day or hold her own child in her arms and know the kind of love that a mother feels?

Can you honestly tell me that this man does not deserve to die? That instead, we should let him sit the rest of his life in a jail cell receiving three meals a day and free health and dental services? Is that justice?

According to a study entitled Death Row USA that is conducted by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Capital Punishment Project, the number of people on death row has seen a decline in the past few years. Dropping from 3,692 in 2003 to 3,503 in 2004 and 3,455 as of Jan. 1, 2005.

California, Texas and Florida lead the nation for the number of death row inmates with 639, 447 and 382 respectively. There are currently 54 women on death row and 79 "juveniles," meaning that the crime they committed was performed before the age of 18.

The peak of executions came in 1999, when 98 death row inmates were executed. In 2004, 59 were put to death. Missouri currently has 57 death row inmates and has the fourth highest number of executions since 1976 in the nation. Since that time, 61 executions have been performed in Missouri while California has had 11, Oklahoma has had 75 and Texas has had 339.

Since 1976, the majority of executions have come in the style of lethal injection (782), however, 152 have been electrocuted, 11 received the gas chamber, 3 were hung and 2 were placed before a firing squad. Nebraska's only choice of execution is electrocution.

An October 2004 Gallup Poll found that 66 percent of Americans support capital punishment, but that in cases where life without parole is given as an option to death row, only 50 percent of Americans support the death penalty.

Let me state, without question, that I am of the 50 percent of Americans who think these sickos should die, unconditionally. I'm sure that this statement will find me in hot water with more than a few people, but such is the life, huh?

My problem with the whole death row system is that I don't think these bozos should be allowed to sit in a prison cell for several years, then be offered their choice of a last meal and so nicely be put to death.

What did little Casey eat as her last meal? What was the last thing she said to her mother, father, siblings or grandfather? What was the last thing they said to her? As the parent of a six-year-old daughter, it makes you wonder. Did they remember to tell her that they loved her? Did she know that to her parents, she was everything? I'm sure that these are questions that her parents are plagued with.

I believe these lower life forms -- I won't refer to them as animals because even animals don't kill for pleasure -- should be taken out of the courtroom right after sentencing and face the same form of death that their victims faced. Period. If you bash in the head of a six-year-old with a brick and rock, buddy, you are going to get the same thing in return.

I am aware that since 1973 more than 100 people have been released from death row because of evidence proving their innocence. But with today's forensic evidence advances, you can usually prove a person is guilty beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt. And for these people, why should they be allowed to sit around in a jail cell, taking up much needed space and be allowed to clog up the court system with mindless appeals that will amount to the same ruling they have already been given?

Rip their life from them the same as they have ripped the life from an innocent person. Don't allow them the gift of several more years when they weren't decent enough to offer the same to their victims.

Many will say that my opinion will make me no better than those like Johnson and I find that to be a lot of crap. I don't pick on innocent people who have done nothing. I just don't believe in supporting someone in a prison somewhere who has no problem beating in the head of a six-year-old because she doesn't find the sight of his genitalia arousing.

People like Johnson are beyond disgusting and deserve no better than what they have given. So ask yourself this, what would your feelings be if the toes sticking out of the mound of rocks and debris belonged to your daughter?

Sacha Champion may be reached via e-mail at schampion@dailystatesman.com