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'All I know is what I read...'
Here's a rundown of a few items in the news lately with my opinions thrown in for good measure. *** Alabama Attorney General Troy King has been ugly and vindictive in his differences with Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens Jr. over a capital murder case. King's actions reek of politics and old timey revenge tactics that have no place in the justice system. Owens had obtained murder convictions and death penalties for two young thugs who robbed and killed two people in a pawn shop murder in 1996. However, the U.S. Supreme Court recently released the younger of the two- the actual triggerman- because he was a juvenile, then 16, at the time. As a result of that decision, Owens moved to stay the death penalty of the other man, then 18, reasoning that if the man who actually did the deed wouldn't get the ultimate penalty, the accomplice shouldn't either. King promptly called a press conference and brought in the victims' families and made a big to do about pursuing the death penalty in the case, seeing that justice was served, etc. etc. He was especially critical of Owens, saying he was siding with criminals. When the state's district attorneys rallied to the defense of their own, the AG blasted them too. This is a no-win case because of the tragedy of the situation and the fact that a killer won't have to pay the ultimate price. But I have to side with Owens, a practical and seasoned prosecutor, in his reasoning that if the triggerman gets off, it isn't right to ax the accomplice. King, by the way, has never tried a capital case. It all smells of petty politics and that makes it even more tragic for someone of King's position. Owens, a Republican like King, endorsed Democrat John Tyson over King in last year's AG election. Perhaps that is really the basis for King's grandstanding. *** Speaking of death sentences, former Jefferson County Commissioner Chris McNair may have received one in a five-year federal prison sentence for bribery. McNair oversaw the county's $3 billion sewer project and was charged with accepting bribes from companies in exchange for sewer contracts. McNair is 81, so five years could be a lifetime. Ironically, the sentence was handed down the same week that McNair's young daughter was killed in the infamous 1963 church bombing in Birmingham. *** Last year, I think, someone called me and asked about Hispanic readers and if The Democrat printed a Spanish edition or carried Spanish advertising. I thought he was way out in left field and told him so. But have you noticed how, even right here in Clarke County, you see more and more Hispanics and hear Spanish being spoken more and more (and not just in our great Mexican restaurants in Jackson and Thomasville either). The Hispanic influence is much more evident in north Alabama. I read last week where the Crossville Elementary School in DeKalb County is the first school in the state to have a Hispanic majority enrollment. The DeKalb County Board of Education reported that 457 of Crossville's 900 students are Hispanic- nearly 53 percent. I won't get into the immigration issue here. It is far too complicated for these short tidbits. But even Alabama's demographics are changing as this "first" pointedly indicates. *** I don't understand why the U.S. State Department, touring U.S. officials, diplomats and others are using a mafia-like hit squad called "Blackwater USA" for protection in Iraq over regular military troops. Blackwater has come to the forefront and under a bit of fire lately for its trigger-happy aggressive manners. Even the Iraqis fear the private guard service, more so than our regular troops. Two questions beg answers: How much is this private company being paid for its services and, if Iraqis are so afraid of them, how come we aren't using them on the front lines in regular military service? *** Another child has died in a car seat in the backseat of a locked car in a hot parking lot. These are not children that were kidnapped but were supposed to be taken to daycare facilities by parents or other caregivers. Are we so preoccupied with our own lives, our businesses and more that we buckle a kid in a car seat with the intent of going by a daycare center and minutes later forget to drop them off and they die in the backseat? Accidents happen, certainly, but this is inexcusable. *** Let me stop and salute the cunning of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest 143 years ago this week. Forrest, facing a Yankee force overwhelming in size to his small Rebel army near Athens on Sept. 24, 1863, convinced the Union colonel that he actually had a force three times their actual size and that it was hopeless to wait on reinforcements. The Yankees surrendered. Gen. Forrest must have been a pretty good poker player too.
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
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