I skipped over a blog challenge prompt a couple weeks ago, because there was no social cause I felt so strongly about that I could write about it. I knew one would surface eventually.

I was correct.

Oh looky there, a social cause I feel strongly about–clemency.

First of all, let me start by saying I have no beef with the Innocence Project. Their mission is to see to it that people who have been wrongfully convicted get a second chance at a trial to prove their innocence. If they have the evidence to back it up and they know they can prove it this time around, by all means, go for it.

Do I believe that there are innocent people in prison? Absolutely. Do I think they have the right to petition for their freedom? Absolutely.

BUT.

Do you know what I also believe?

I believe that there should be no mercy or shortened sentences or time off for good behavior or any of that other BS when a person commits a crime that is CAPTURED ON CAMERA and there is absolutely NO DOUBT that the person participated in the crime.

And you’re damned right this sounds personal, because it is.

My brother was murdered while defending his wife and himself from 4 criminals. All 4 criminals are equally guilty of murder even if only one of them fired the fatal shot, because they were all there and they all had the same intention of robbing and harming the occupants of that business. All 4 criminals received similar sentences for the crime–25 to life, with a little added on to some of them.

It was pretty much a slam dunk for the court to convict the 4, because my brother had cameras installed everywhere inside and outside of the store. He caught them on camera casing the business the week before, he caught them arriving the day of the crime, he caught them raising guns and pointing them at his wife and knocking her unconscious, he caught the assailant’s gun movement that proved they fired the first shot, and he caught his own death on those cameras.

All 4 went to prison.

One died there.

Two are doing their time–not peacefully, judging by their discipline records, but they are serving their time and we don’t hear anything out of them.

But one of them really enjoys coming back to court. He’s filed multiple appeals and one of them made it all the way to our state supreme court–they promptly reaffirmed that he was right where he belonged. Now that he’s exhausted (I hope) his appeals as far as wrongful convictions, lousy legal representation, and all of that other malarkey, he’s pulled out another trick–filing for clemency.

This criminal happens to be the one who scored highest on the violence grid and deserved the greatest punishment due to his prior crimes, even if he didn’t fire the fatal shot. He had been convicted several months prior on a felony weapons charge and was not even supposed to have a gun, but that certainly didn’t stop him from walking into the store with his little silver pistol. At the time that my brother stopped their fun, these 4 had been on a bit of a spree for several weeks, and this particular criminal had shot a clerk in the head and nearly killed him and left him with severe brain damage.

He is not the type of person we want back in the community. And yes, he would go right back to the same community. He has petitioned our governor to grant him clemency and turn him loose after almost 10 years. He feels his sentence of 25 to life is simply too harsh and depriving him of his youth and his family and all of that. We are supposed to ignore that his actions have deprived the other clerk of any sort of meaningful life or chance at earning a livelihood and providing for himself and his family. We are supposed to ignore that his actions culminated in my brother’s death and lifelong trauma for the rest of our family. We are supposed to ignore that there is not a chance in hell that he will follow the stipulations of his release this time and not use a weapon. We are supposed to ignore what we saw plain as day on that video footage the day our lives changed forever.

So no, I do not feel that all criminals deserve a second chance or clemency. And I will continue asking family, friends, and community members to contact the prison review board and voice their opposition to this criminal being released early. No one else needs to be killed by this perpetrator.