Rushing to die — 05/12/08

May 09, 2008 06:00 pm

— Marco Allen Chapman wants to die. He’s likely to get his wish, passing inmates who have been on death row for much longer, on his way to receiving a lethal injection.
So be it. As long has Chapman is sane — and a number of psychologists have testified that he is — we see no reason for the state to object to an earlier-than-expected execution date for him.
Although Chapman’s court-appointed lawyers continue to file appeals to delay his execution, Chapman is not helping their cause by insisting that he is sorry for what he did and deserves to die for those crimes. As far as he is concerned, the sooner he dies, the better it will be.
Chapman pleaded guilty to the 2002 stabbing deaths of two children after a two-day crack binge and asked for the death penalty. The judge granted his request.
Other states are moving quickly to resume the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the three-drug method of lethal injection in a case involving two Kentucky inmates. However, both those inmates are continuing to use every legal means available to delay their date with the deadly injection, and it likely will be a year or longer before they are executed.
That makes Chapman the most likely candidate to become the first person executed in Kentucky since 1999. His execution could come as early as next month, just 3 1/2 years after he killed the two children in Warsaw. Typically, it takes 12 years for an inmate to be given the death penalty and for the sentence to be carried out.
Chapman says that’s too long. “I don’t see why it should take so long. If a man is sane and competent, he ought to be able to get his wishes ... especially when you plea-bargain for it.”
Chapman admits to going into the home of Carolyn Marksberry, a friend of his family, tying her up, raping her and stabbing her before killing two of her children. A third child survived only because she played dead.
In a far more publicized case, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed a little more than five years after the bombing because he refused to bog the courts down with appeals. However, McVeigh thought his execution would make him a martyr and make him even more famous. Thus, he wanted it to be carried out quickly.
Chapman’s motives are quite different. He seems to honestly be sorry for his brutal deeds and believes he deserves to die. More important, state law also says he deserves to die. He’s likely to soon become only the third Kentucky inmate to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the ban on the death penalty more than 30 years ago.