I’m pro-death penalty, but I’d bet even some of the most ardent opponents of it would reconsider after reading this:
DES MOINES (AP) — A homeless man who’s a registered sex offender was arrested after police said he grabbed a toddler and sexually assaulted her in the men’s room of the downtown public library.
Police hailed library workers who pulled the girl away from the man as heroes.
James C. Effler Jr., 32, was charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree sexual assault and failure to comply with rules of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, because he was not living at the address listed.
Police said Effler grabbed a 20-month-old girl as she played near a computer being used by her babysitter. Library employees helped the babysitter search for the child before hearing the girl cry from the restroom, which was locked, police said.
Employees called police and removed the door handle to reach the girl, then held Effler until officers arrived, Capt. Kelly Willis said.
"Most of the police work was done by the library staff before we even arrived," Willis said.
The child was taken to a hospital for evaluation. The extent of her injuries was not made public.
[…]
When library workers heard the girl scream in the restroom, they saw an adult’s shadow on the other side of the door’s frosted glass, police said.
When they couldn’t force their way into the restroom, they called for a maintenance worker with a screwdriver, Willis said. Once the door handled was removed, they opened the door, pulled the child out and shut Effler inside.
I’m with Ace on this one.
Hat tip: Anchoress
Read the comments over at Ace. Seems everyone is for frying this bastard, but not before a torture session. I’m all for it too.
Comment by Denise @ 10/6/2005 - 9:57 pm
Hi, Sistertoldjah:
I dropped by The Ace and suggested a Jaccuzzi with part of an Outdated Nuclear Reactor Vessel being used as the tub.
With about three pounds of finely ground glass added to the soapy swirling suds.
Just to see which would end this creature’s life most quickly.
Cancer?
Radiation Sickness/Poisoning?
Internal/External bleeding?
Jack.
Comment by Jack Deth @ 10/7/2005 - 12:33 am
I can’t argue with you on this one.
Comment by Brian @ 10/7/2005 - 1:09 am
People like this sicko and their ACLU lawyer should find themselves lined up against a wall facing about a half dozen members of the community and their hunting rifles.
I’ve got spare .30-30 rounds with “satan loads”.
Comment by PCD @ 10/7/2005 - 8:43 am
BTW, my usual rule on cursing here at the blog has been waived for this particular post.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/7/2005 - 10:39 am
Why do we register sex offenders? Why do we even let them out. Forget the Supreme Court saying we can fry them, just lock their no good buts up for LIFE and I really mean life like until they are dead.
Comment by Bob @ 10/7/2005 - 4:37 pm
Well, I’m sure that the Sister Toldjah readers will disagree with me on this one, but being pro-life means being pro-life: lock him up in prison and throw away the key.
This case points to two real problems: one, why was he out of jail for a sex crime with a victim (a 31 year old woman) in just three years, and two, what good is a sex offenders’ registry if the registered offenders are not kept track of in some manner?
In the past decade or so, we’ve set up all sorts of registries for convicted sex offenders, but if they can simply register, and then leave the state (as this man did), it seems that the registries are of little use. (If you had to register as a pervert in Texas, and had no particular reason why you had to stay in Texas, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to move to Iowa than stay in Texas?)
Now, does this man deserve whatever happens to him, including death? Yup, sure does! But the question of being against capital punishment really isn’t about whether the criminals deserve it; it’s more about whether it is useful to society (and, if we have the power to execute someone, we have him literally helpless; we are not actually defending ourselves against him) and whether executing criminals actually helps our society.
I’d say that it doesn’t. The murder rates in states with capital punishment are generally higher in states taht do not, and Texas, which actually carries out the death penalty with more frequency than any other, has consistently had a murder rate higher than the national average.
(Statistics on capital punishment are available at the Death Penalty Information Center, a site opposed to capital punishment.)
But, more than not really being useful (would it really have mattered if we had just kept the fewer than 1,000 murderers executed since 1977 in jail rather than executing them?), I’d say that it is actually harmful to our society. We are saying, to our children, to everyone, that killing people who are causing us problems is a reasonable solution. The only difference between killing unborn children or people like Terri Schiavo and the convicted murderer is that some people believe they can find good reasons to kill some people, but not others.
Well, if we can find a good reason to kill James Effler, some other people found good reasons, motivated by sympathy, for starving Mrs Schiavo to death, and 1.4 million American women find good (or at least sufficient) reasons to kill their unborn children every year. Why ought our decisions, that men like Mr Effler ought to be killed, be of any greater import than the decisions of people like Michael Schiavo?
It’s a whole lot easier to simply be pro-life, period. That means that scumbags like Mr Effler wind up living, albeit in prison. But, in the end, we are better off letting them live, and retaining a logically consistent ethic in support of life.
Comment by Dana R. Pico @ 10/8/2005 - 10:14 am
Dana,
Thanks for your post - I’ve had debates in the past where the person I was debating brought up similar points … I’ll likely tackle the issue in a seperate post at some point in the near future. Thanks for taking the time to relate your thoughts, which I disagree with but respect nevertheless
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/9/2005 - 8:08 pm
This dude is a sick freak. People like him should get the death penalty. Anyone who sexually assaults a little girl like this is not needed in the world today.
Comment by Tyler @ 11/21/2005 - 9:44 pm