The more people pay attention to the death penalty and the more they know about it, the less they like it.

The death penalty is not reserved for the worst of the worst. It is shrouded in secrecy and imposed on people who are represented by bad lawyers and whose juries do not hear about factors that would mitigate the punishment.

As Matt Wells, deputy director of the anti-death penalty group Reprieve US, explained in a statement, “Sprees like this were more common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when execution figures peaked, before their steady decline, as the horrific reality of the death penalty became better understood.”

Hmm, who held the presidency at that time?

The article’s first example of a case that will convince me the death penalty isn’t used for the “worst of the worst” is a man who raped a 15 year old girl, then stabbed her to death. The article implies his recent diagnosis with autism diminishes his responsibility for those crimes.

From Wikipedia:

Roy Lee Ward, who claimed he was looking for a missing dog. He then forced himself inside, cut the phone lines, and attacked Payne with a knife and dumbbell. Payne was then raped and mortally wounded by Ward, who stabbed and battered her multiple times.

The Wikipedia article goes on to describe her injuries in detail; they’re horrific.

What I’m taking from the Boston Globe article using this case as an example of the death penalty being applied to someone sympathetic is not that but a false and defamatory portrait of autism. Autistic people know as well as anyone else that it’s bad to rape and murder children.

I’m against the death penalty in practice because it’s often applied to those least able to defend themselves in court rather than those whose crimes are most vile, but I won’t be shedding any tears for Roy Lee Ward.