news-record.com

I thought about starting like this: Death Row inmate Gary D. Greene cheated the executioner last week by dying of natural causes.

Garbage. A cliche. Hackneyed. And wrong.

Greene didn't cheat the executioner, who's probably delighted to be relieved of an unpleasant task.

The fact is, Greene cheated me. And you, and all the people of North Carolina.

He cheated the jurors who decided he deserved to die for the murder of his own father. He cheated the judge who pronounced his sentence and ordered his execution.

He cheated our system of law and order.

He cheated truth, justice and the American Way.

Darn it, the state was supposed to take his life. Instead, it let him die in his bed.

It's far from the first time. Just since 1977, at least 13 other prisoners awaiting execution in North Carolina have escaped punishment by dying before their appointed hour.

Ten have done so by natural causes, which I suppose they couldn't help, but three took their own lives.

As if murder wasn't bad enough, they compounded their crimes by killing again. It shows how little respect some people have for the laws of God and man.

"Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord" — words for which these death-dealing demons demonstrated their utter contempt.

When the law demands the ultimate penalty for the crime of murder, it must be obeyed.

The law does not mean that these evildoers should remain in prison, sleeping in a warm bed and eating three meals a day, until their release by their own mortal frailty. If that were the intent, they could have been sentenced to life without parole and locked in a cage safely away from decent society, forgotten forever.

The people of North Carolina are due more satisfaction than that.

Yet, the wheels of justice grind so slowly that criminals are liable to die of old age waiting for them to turn.

Greene illustrates the point. He murdered his father in 1986 and the next year was found guilty by a Caldwell County jury and sentenced to death. So far, so good.

By 1991, justice still had not been dispensed, creating an opportunity for judicial interference. Sure enough, Greene was granted a re-sentencing hearing. It took nearly seven more years, until 1998, for that to conclude with an outcome the same as the first.

This process should have been hurried. There ought to be someone in the judicial system who says, "Hey, let's move this along. We don't want this guy to kick off before we can kill him."

Failing that, his second sentencing should have put him on the fast track to the death chamber. Instead, it turned the clock back to zero. So, 10 years later, he still wasn't out of time. Except, well, he was out of time ... naturally.

So, why didn't someone at Central Prison recognize Greene's shaky health as an emergency? There should be a provision in capital cases for situations like this: When a condemned man is in danger of dying, he jumps to the front of the line. An "expedited execution" policy.

Suicides present an admittedly greater challenge. Guards will just have to do a better job of keeping Death Row inmates safe and healthy until their appointed day arrives.

Some people might say: Dead is dead. What difference does it make how an inmate dies as long as he's no longer drawing breath? Society is rid of him just the same.

You might as well question: Why prison? Why not sentence criminals to confinement in their own basement? Off the street is off the street. And that way their families would have to feed them.

No, justice demands the imposition of sentence as pronounced by judge and jury. A prisoner condemned to die should have execution carried out in a timely manner. No one should dodge his fate by dying first.

At the very least, if an inmate succumbs to natural causes prematurely, he should be given a shot of lethal chemicals immediately thereafter.

Better late than never for a deadly dose of justice.

Contact Doug Clark at dgclark@news-record.com or 373-7039.