Rivera gets death penalty -- bummer for the taxpayer > Rexroad.com

The front page of the Daily Democrat Thursday has a headline that reads "Rivera gets death penalty". Certainly the people of Woodland are divided on the issue of capital punishment like they are everywhere else in America.

For me it is a shame for several reasons. First, we have the victim. Rivera killed Merced Police Officer Stephan Gray in April 2004. Gray left a wife and a daughter that was in 7th grade at the time. The people of Merced lost an officer and has had the lives of two family members drastically changed as a reult of this crime. Imagine the life of that little girl to lose her father.

Then we have the family of Rivera. I don't know his family situation but he probably has some family members that depend on him too. They are now without him in their lives. However, this may be a good thing.

Finally, we have the taxpayers. Rivera will probably not actually face lethal injection for more than a decade. He will appeal, appeal again, and appeal again until millions of dollars of taxpayers money is wasted on a process that has thrown common sense out the window.

I am actually comfortable with capital punishment. I would sleep like a baby knowing that "society" took the life of Rivera. He had a chance to make something of his life. He did not. The world will be a better place without "Tao" Rivera and his like.

My overall analysis is that the opponents of capital punishment have won a war of attrition. They have worn down the system to such an extent that it isn't manageable and not worth the costs to put someone to death for crimes that are deserving of the ultimate penalty.

Rivera got the death penalty. In the end, the family of Officer Gray lost, the family of Rivera might have lost, and the taxpayers of California surely lost. Horay?

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