Paul Derengowski, ThM
Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. is dead. After sitting on death row for 20 years for the execution style murder of a store clerk back in 1994, he is finally dead.
But, his death did not come with a few complications, and now his attorneys are whining that he did not die in the peace and comfort that they thought he should have.
You see, the State of Alabama decided to use the drug midazolam to render him unconscious before administering lethal doses of rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride to finish him off.
Midazolam has been challenged before as being ineffective at sufficiently causing capital criminals from being able to drift away into a deep sleep where they will not suffer any effects of dying.
In Ron Smith’s case, after being administered the sedative, he was semi-conscious of what was going on when prison officials further administered the death drugs.
So, Ron “heaved” and “coughed” for 13 minutes, while officials poked, pinched, and probed him to see if he was still alive.
Ron’s attorneys argued that he “was not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure.”
Several questions came to mind, as I read different accounts of this story, which made me wonder: what about the real victim in all of this; you know, the guy that Ron Smith brutally murdered, Casey Wilson?
According to official court documents,
Between three and four a.m. on November 8, 1994, Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., Jay Zuercher, and Chad Roundtree were riding in a vehicle when they decided to rob a Circle C convenience store in Huntsville, Alabama. They parked the vehicle behind the store and Smith went inside…Once inside, Smith pulled a gun on Casey Wilson, the lone clerk, and asked Wilson to open the register. When the register would not open, Smith forced Wilson into the restroom, pistol-whipped him, and shot him in the left arm. Leaving Wilson in the restroom, Smith then returned to the cash register where he tried to gain access. Unsuccessful, he then looked under the counter where the safe was located and appeared to manipulate the safe’s combination lock.
Smith then returned to the restroom where Wilson was located and apparently fired the killing shot into Wilson’s head. Smith then retrieved spent shell casings from the floor and stepped out of the restroom. Zuercher, also in the store by this time, stole a pack of cigarettes. Smith and Zuercher then exited the store. Before leaving the premises, however, someone remembered that the store had security cameras and Smith ran back into the store twice, ultimately using his gun to gain access to the store’s videocassette recorder. Smith took the recorder and tape and three accomplices drove away.
Question #1: Did Smith’s defense lawyers, along with the ACLU (who was also protesting the “agonizing” Smith endured while laying on the death gurney) ever stop to think about Mr. Wilson, while he was laying in his own pool of blood, on the restroom floor, in the convenience store?
Question #2: Did Smith’s defense lawyers, along with the ACLU, ever stop to think about how much “agonizing” their client has caused Casey Wilson’s family, friends, and acquaintances ever since Smith was arrested, convicted, and sentenced, which includes the inane appeals that followed to have his sentence reduced to life in prison?
Question #3: Did Smith’s defense lawyers, along with the ACLU, ever stop to think that whole goal of the death penalty is to cause death, whereby the state metes out the ultimate justice upon those who deserve its mandate due to the culpability of their heinous actions against God and humanity?
Question #4: Did Smith’s defense lawyers, along with the ACLU, ever stop to think that by trying to mitigate any apparent discomfiture of physical death, such mitigation really amounted to a foolish circus act when considered in light of both their client’s actions that put him in the death chamber, as well as in the face of eternity, in the first place?
Question #5: Did Smith’s defense lawyers, along with the ACLU, ever stop to think that even if their client had slipped into the deepest-seated coma ever experienced by mankind, whether drug-induced or by natural causes, death was imminent and the real torment for his disgusting deed was only about to begin, to which they had zero say in the matter?
I could go on, but it appears that the real issue here has nothing to do with remembering the victim or serving justice, but to make a mockery out of both.
As a civilized society, if we would demand that our lawmakers and lawyers would cease the inanity of protecting the guilty, while damning the innocent, we would not have to concern ourselves over whether to execute anyone or not, let alone when it occurred, whether the criminal was comfy and warm with his “My Pillow” tucked under his head and his “Sleep Number Bed” was turned down to 50, as he/she was about to die via lethal injection or firing squad (the State of Utah still allows the latter).
Good riddance to Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. and shame on all the lawyers, liberals, and loony tunes who tried to defend him!
He, finally, got what he deserved, and so will they, one day, should they stay their courses of trying to execute the perfect execution, which really amounts to mocking what law and order were supposed to be all about, or the punishment of those who break the law and cause undue suffering toward persons attempting to keep it.
