EDITORIAL FRANK INJUSTICE.THEODORE Frank died last week at age 65 of natural causes on California's Death Row. If ever one man was a good argument for the death penalty, it was Frank.He is also the best example of why the death penalty appellate process should either be fixed or the joke that is the death penalty be laid to rest. Frank was convicted and twice sentenced to death for kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. 2 1/2- year-old Amy Sue Seitz in 1978 from her baby-sitter's front yard in Camarillo. Her body was found later in Topanga Canyon. She had been force-fed beer, tortured with locking pliers Noun 1. locking pliers - pliers that can be locked in place pair of pliers, pliers, plyers - a gripping hand tool with two hinged arms and (usually) serrated jaws plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one , raped and strangled stran·gle v. stran·gled, stran·gling, stran·gles v.tr. 1. a. To kill by squeezing the throat so as to choke or suffocate; throttle. b. . The Seitz family has endured 23 years of injustice while Frank's lawyers made a mockery of the appellate system. In one of his appeals, Frank argued that the length of time he spent on Death Row appealing was itself cruel and unusual punishment Such punishment as would amount to torture or barbarity, any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community. . Frank's dying of natural causes 23 years after being sentenced to death for one of the most evil crimes in Ventura County's history is an outrage. We either have a death penalty or we don't. Death Row should not be a retirement home for people like Theodore Frank, who commit truly heinous hei·nous adj. Grossly wicked or reprehensible; abominable: a heinous crime. [Middle English, from Old French haineus, from haine, hatred, from crimes. |
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