OPEN FORUM: Facts death penalty opponents don’t want you to see

By ANNIE BLACK

Nevada Assemblywoman

The Legislature is considering two bills to eliminate the death penalty in Nevada. And the arguments are as old as they are uncompelling.

The “racist” argument ignores the fact that of the 12 killers executed in Nevada since 1976, nine were white and only one black. Regardless, this issue isn’t, and shouldn’t be, about the killer’s race, but the killer’s guilt.

The “cost” argument is due to killers being allowed to abuse the criminal justice system to delay having their sentence carried out. Once executed, the taxpayer cost to house, feed, clothe and provide medical care drops to zero.

The “no deterrent” argument is a smoke screen. Fact is, every executed murderer has been permanently deterred from ever killing again. And make no mistake, killers sentenced to life-in-prison have killed while behind bars.

In fact, the Associated Press reported in February that “An Indiana inmate convicted of a 2002 triple murder fatally stabbed one corrections officer and seriously injured another at the maximum-security prison where he’s serving a 130-year sentence.”

But the worst part about the organized campaign to eliminate capital punishment for the most heinous murderers is how they show such compassion for the killer while conveniently overlooking what the killer did to get on death row in the first place.

Two examples…

1.) On January 20th, 2008, a college student named Brianna Denison was kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered by James Biela, who is currently on Nevada’s death row. Her murder was committed just two months after Biela brutally raped at gunpoint another college student in a UNR parking garage.

Miss Denison’s body, clothed only in socks, was found weeks after the murder in a snow-covered field near a Reno business park under a discarded Christmas tree. She had been smothered with a pillow, raped, and ultimately strangled to death.

DNA evidence conclusively proved Biela was Miss Denison’s killer. He was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death by a jury. Bri was only 19 years old with her entire life ahead of her.

But James Biela gave her the death penalty. He should get the same. And the sooner the better.

2.) In the early morning hours of June 3, 1999, Zane Floyd walked into a neighborhood grocery store in Las Vegas and brutally executed four innocent Nevadans with a shotgun, including a mentally disabled young man and a 60-year-old grandmother who begged for her life.

After his arrest, Mr. Floyd told a detective that he “looked right at her and I just blew her head apart.” One of the police officers who captured Floyd at the scene of the bloody rampage recently wrote me recently about the incident. Floyd said to him, “I probably shouldn’t have done that. She reminded me of my mom.”

There is no doubt about Mr. Floyd’s guilt. He was given a fair trial and sentenced to death by a jury. Considering the circumstances, it was the right and proper sentence.

What’s not right is the ability of these murderers to string out the execution of their sentence for years with endless appeals, as has been the case for Floyd. It’s now been over 20 years since his murder spree.

Addressing our broken appeals process is what we should be doing today, not eliminating the death penalty for murderers who showed no such mercy or compassion for their victims and the victims’ families.

Annie Black is the Nevada State Assemblywoman representing District 19 which includes Mesquite and Overton. You can get more information and subscribe to her AnnieGram newsletter by visiting www.AnnieBlack.net