Travis S. Anderson
Phil 260
Final draft

Should Jon Sayers Die?

You Be the Judge!

It's 0800hrs on Tuesday, you just arrived at the Whitman County Sheriff's office getting ready to go out on your patrol as a reserve officer. At the Sheriff's office you talked to Sergeant Jones and he tells you that the West side of the county needs so me patrolling. You get into reserve car number 230. You then radio dispatch "1 Robert 70, 10- 8." Dispatch responds "Copy 10-8 at 0823." You are in service heading to highway 26 from Colfax. Approximately 20 minutes later you hear the emergency tones go over the radio "beepbeepbeepbeep" then the dispatcher says "Whitman County, local patrols shots fired near LaCrosse." Your heart skips a beat and your adrenaline starts pumping. You hit your lights and siren and radio dispatch "1 Robert 70 from 26 at mile marker 108." Dispatch responds "0852, also the reporting party stated that the shots came from the vicinity of the school." You reply "copy." After going code 3 for about 18 minutes you arrive at the school. Your back up, Sgt. Jones, is coming from the sheriff's office and is about 2 minutes out. Two minutes later Sgt. Jones arrives and you both get out or your respective vehicles. As you are heading towards the school's office you are constantly looking for someone with a gun, but everythin g seems normal. Sgt. Jones and you arrive at the office of the school and proceed inside. Once inside you see the principals secretary and the principal laying face down on the ground with their hand tied behind their backs and their feet bound together . The principal and his secretary were shot in the back of the head execution style. There was a large pool of blood around the principal. You check his vital signs. "Nothing! he's dead!" you tell Sgt. Jones. Then you check the secretary's vital sign s and find there is a faint heart beat. Sgt. Jones radios dispatch "1 Sam 5, get the Med Star to the school, NOW!" The secretary regains consciousness and says "Jon Sayers." Then she passes out again, only to never regain consciousness again-- she died 4 hours later at the hospital. Sgt. Jones uses his cell phone to call the sheriff's office. He asks them to look up the name Jon Sayers. They tell Sgt. Jones that Sayers is a resident of LaCrosse. Sgt. Jones sends you to the address given to him by t he sheriff's office. You respond to the address and notice that someone is home. You exit your vehicle and knock on the door of the house. A man comes to the door. You ask him his name. He says "Jon." The you ask his last name and he says "Sayers." You then ask if you can come into the house. He says "sure." When inside you notice file folders laying on the floor. Next to the file folders is a brown leather purse. You ask Sayers who owns the purse. He says it is his daughters. You ask if you can look at it. He gets nervous. Then you ask him if he has something to hide. He says "No!" You re-ask if you can look at the purse. He says "yes." You pick it up and it has a wallet inside. When you open up the wallet you find credit cards and a Washington State Driver License that belongs to the principal. You place Mr. Sayers under arrest for investigation of murder. You handcuff Sayers and read him his rights. He then freely tells you that he went to the school to steal some confidential re cords that accuse Sayers of beating his daughter. When he was at the school he got some resistance. So he bound the principal and the secretary. After they told him where the file were located he started to taunt them. He was telling them that they ar e going to die. He said they will never see their family or kids again. Then he put his gun to the back of the head of the principal. He said to the principal that you are going to die... soon! He cocked the hammer of his Ruger Superblack Hawk .44 cal . and fired. Blood and gray matter flew out of the front of his head on covered the office area. Then the principal falls forward with his face smashing on the ground and blood pouring out like water out of a broken levee. The secretary starts to plead for her life. Jon Sayers said that he walked over to her a cocked the hammer again and shot. She had moved her head slightly so the bullet traveled through her lower head and through her jaw. She fell and acted like she died. Sayers stated that he to ok the file folders, then grabbed her purse and took the principals wallet and put it in the purse and fled home. During the trial Jon Sayers plead guilty to one count of capital murder and one count of attempted murder. The prosecution and the defense argue in the court about whether they should sentence Sayers life with out parole or death. The prosecution starts the argument by saying Jon Sayers deserves the death penalty. Mr. Sayers, in the act of committing a burglary, murdered someone. By executing Sayers we will deter others from killing. This is just like jail time. Others see tha t crime does not pay so they will not commit the crime. In our day people kill other people with no regard for life. We must show that our society values innocent life more than the criminals who take that life. Once someone takes a life we should not let them live out theirs. We should act swiftly and execute the people who are guilty of capital murder. The defense gets up and argues that point. Mr. Sayers' attorney says that jail time and capital punishment is not a deterrent. People who commit these crimes do not think about their own possible death or jail time. The only people deterred by the thr eat of death or jail time are the people who would not, under normal circumstances, commit these crimes. I don't steal. However if I was walking down the street and I saw a car with the window open and a 100 dollar bill laying on the seat I would be tem pted to take the money. But since I would not like to go to jail I would decide not to steal the money and therefore the threat of jail acted as a deterrent. The prosecutor then jumps up and says that the death penalty is a deterrent by your own words. I also believe that the death penalty is retribution. According to a famous philosopher named Kant and his categorical imperative #1 "One should never choose something for himself that he would not want as an universal law that everyone must follow." I would argue that you must never take an innocent life. Someone who has killed no longer is innocent therefore can, and should, be executed. We, as a people, should execute anyone who is convicted of capital murder. By executing anyone found guilty of a capital murder we also improve the deterrent value of the death penalty. People will see they have no chance of life in prison if they commit a capital murd er and they will think twice before killing. The defense in one last chance to save Mr. Sayers' life points out that the money it will cost tax payers will not be worth executing Sayers. It will cost hundreds of thousands to keep Sayers' alive for life, but it will cost millions to execute him bec ause of the appeals process. The prosecutor stands up and says that the defense is correct. In terms of money it would be cheaper to keep Sayers alive. The prosecutor says "What about the chance that Sayers will kill again in jail? Just because someon e is put into prison for life does not mean that they will not kill again." There have been Corrections Officers killed in prisons. There have been other inmates killed by people who were sentenced to life in prison instead of death. Is this worth the savings? Is one innocent human life worth that small savings? NO! The prosecutor introduced his idea for saving money. Put the execution on pay-per-view. The pay-per-view execution can show the whole story. They can start with the killing, then the trail, then finally the execution. Talk about the innocent victims and their families. So how the families' life has been changed because one person decided their family member. The death penalty is what America wants and needs. Moral values and ethics show that there is nothing wrong capital punishment, they actually show that the death penalty is a good punishment for unspeakable crimes. Whether the death penalty is used as a deterrent or a punishment or both it is what is needed to take care of the criminals we have in society today that we don't want here tomorrow. How many innocent victims has Ted Bundy killed in cold blood since he was executed? None, and that is why t he death penalty works so well, there is no possibility of parole or escape.

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