I wrote last week about John Couey, the man who raped and then killed a nine-year-old girl, from the context in favor of his receiving the death penalty — not an easy view for me to take, but in this case I felt that was the most sensible approach.
He’s been recommended for death as of today.
The jury, on a 10-2 vote, brushed aside pleas for mercy and a life sentence from defense lawyers based on claims that John Evander Couey, 48, is mentally retarded and suffers from chronic mental illness. Jurors, the same ones who convicted him last week, deliberated for about one hour.
The judge doesn’t have to go with the jury’s decision, but ideally he will.
There’s no cause to celebrate this. But there’s no reason to stop it from happening either. There is no hope that this man can redeem his crime and there is no reason to keep him on the planet.
12:25 on August 8th, 2007
[...] The last time I wrote about John Couey was March of this year, after he’d been found guilty of the rape and ghastly murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford. The question at the time was whether he was mentally capable of understanding the magnitude oof his crimes; if he was, in short, mentally retarded and therefore unsuitable for killing. [...]