Dale Glading's Blog

America Has Grown Too Soft

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Comments: 2

Why is Sirhan Sirhan still alive while Giuseppe Zangara has been dead for 90 years? Please allow me to provide a little historical context before trying to answer that question… and to address what it says about America today.

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows (in the original spelling): In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court called the speedy trial protection a “vague concept” and sought to provide some clarification in its Barker v. Wingo decision. Two years later, Congress passed the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 which established two clear time limits: “The information or indictment must be filed within 30 days from the date of arrest or service of the summons; and the trial must commence within 70 days from the date the information or indictment was filed, or from the date the defendant appears before an officer of the court in which the charge is pending, whichever is later.”

Congress amended the 1974 law in 1979 with a provision to ensure that defendants are not rushed to trial without an adequate opportunity to prepare, setting that timetable at 30 days from the date the defendant first appears in court, unless the defendant agrees in writing to an earlier date.

OK, now that the preliminaries are out of the way, let’s take a look back at the events of February 15, 1933. For 144 years, Inauguration Day had been held on March 4th (unless it fell on a Sunday). However, after the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, that date was changed to January 20th.

That means that Franklin Roosevelt was the last duly elected president to be sworn into office in March instead of January. And so, when FDR gave an impromptu speech – from the back of an open car, no less – in Miami on February 15, 1933, he did so as the President-Elect and not as the President.

During the speech, an Italian immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen named Guiseppe Zangara climbed onto a metal chair so that, at just 5 feet tall, he could see Mr. Roosevelt. And not just see him, mind you, but fire his .32 caliber gun at the President-elect.

Fortunately for Roosevelt, Zangara’s first shot missed his target. However, as people grabbed for the gun, Zangara wildly fired four more bullets, striking five people including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Zangara was arrested and taken to the Dade County Courthouse, where he confessed to the shootings, saying "I have the gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents first and next all Capitalists.” After pleading guilty, Zangara was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

On his way out of the courtroom, Zangara told the judge, "Four times 20 is 80. Oh, judge, don't be stingy. Give me a hundred years."

Nineteen days after the shootings, Mayor Cermak died from peritonitis and as a result, Zangara was charged with his murder, sentenced to death, and placed on Death Row at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Ten days later, on March 20, 1933, Zangara was executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Let’s review the timeline. The shootings took place on February 15th and by the time Mayor Cermak succumbed to his wounds 19 days later, Zangara had already been tried, convicted, and sentenced to 80 years in prison. After Cermak’s death and the additional murder charge, only four days were needed to try, convict, and sentence Zangara a second time… this time to death… followed by his execution on March 20th.

That means it took just 33 days – less than five weeks – for Zangara to be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced twice on two different charges, and executed. That, my friends, is swift justice.

Sirhan Sirhan, on the other hand, fatally shot Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, and despite his recorded confession and there being a roomful of witnesses (including authors George Plimpton, Jimmy Breslin, and Pete Hamill; retired NFL player Rosey Grier; and former Olympic gold medal winner Rafer Johnson), it took 10 months to convict Sirhan. Six days later, he was sentenced to death in California’s gas chamber.

However, Sirhan sat on Death Row for three years until California’s Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the state’s constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, Sirhan’s sentence was retroactively commuted to life in prison… and there he sits, 55 years after committing one of the most cowardly and heinous crimes in U.S. history.

Had the same judicial parameters existed in 1968 as were in place in 1933, Sirhan would have been executed before the leaves turned color that same year. Instead, he survived just long enough to see his sentence commuted, allowing him to file countless appeals over the past five decades while living at taxpayers’ expense.

Sadly – and infuriatingly – Sirhan’s case is no longer an exception to the rule, but the rule itself.

On April 15, 2013, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev denotated a pressure cooker bomb hidden in a black backpack at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding 260 more. Tamerlan was killed during a shoot-out with police, but Dzhokhar was apprehended and went to trial. It took until April 8, 2015 – almost two years after the bombing – for him to be convicted on 30 counts and another two months for him to be sentenced to death on 17 of them. And yet, Tamerlan is still alive and well today, incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence CO.

When will America finally learn its lesson and expedite rather than delay justice? And when will rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and other thugs including looters be forced to think twice before committing a crime… knowing that the justice system will come down on them hard and with a vengeance?

Romans 13:3-4 reads as follows: “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval. For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.”

I don’t know about others, but I am sick and tired of criminals with rap sheets longer than a CVS receipt – and including multiple felonies – being set free to rape, loot, pillage, and kill again.

Of course, we see the same cowardice and leniency being promoted by President Biden as he looks the other way at escalating crime statistics and border crossings in America, all the while admonishing Israel to show restraint against the soulless barbarians who massacred more than 1,000 of their countrymen. Scores of innocent babies have been beheaded, countless women have been raped, and even the elderly have been abducted and held hostage. And yet, President Biden advises caution while offering tens of millions in humanitarian aid to Israel’s enemies.

If he thinks for a minute that the humanitarian aid will reach the noncombatant residents of Gaza, President Biden is an absolute fool. Just like most U.S. aid, it will be confiscated by those in power (in this case, Hamas) and never reach those for whom it was intended.

Folks, it’s time for America to get tough again… and that includes putting bite into our laws and enforcing them swiftly. Electing a strong-on-crime Chief Executive who will close our borders and stand by our allies instead of undermining them would also be a major step in the right direction.

It may sound callous, but when the proof is overwhelming, criminals should be tried, convicted, and sentenced within weeks or months, not years. And yes, their sentences – including the death penalty – should be carried out forthwith. In fact, give me a Bible and 30 minutes to lead the perpetrator to faith in Christ, and I’ll even volunteer to throw the switch myself.

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

  1. Monique Sullivan Monique Sullivan Agree comp
    letely. Thursday, October 26, 2023
  2. Dale Glading Dale Glading Thanks very much, sister! Thursday, October 26, 2023

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