Nov. 3, 2007

Kansas

A matter of life and death

By Patrick Kelley, Emporia Gazette

THE JURY that decided the fate of Scott Cheever had a heavy burden. They
were asked to judge not just one man, but several.

The jurors judged the meth user and meth maker who shot and killed Greenwood
County Sheriff Matt Samuels on Jan. 19, 2005. They also had to judge the man
who sat in the dock in the courtroom in Eureka, sober and apparently
penitent.

If that weren't enough, the jurors were also asked to judge the children -
the fourth-grader who stole a pair of shoes from a classmate and told the
school principal that he took the shoes because his family didn't have any
money "because they spend it all on drugs." And the older boy, whose mother
tearfully admitted on the stand that she used drugs with her son and even
joined him in making meth.

Take a snapshot of any point in Scott Cheever's life, and it would be an
ugly picture, full of pain and degradation for him and for others. He was
raised in chaos and his whole life has been chaotic.

Juries deciding between life and death are often thought of as deciding
whether a killer deserves "a second chance." Reading the testimony in the
penalty phase of Cheever's trial, it is difficult to believe that he ever
had a first chance. From birth, he was betrayed and mistreated by those who
were supposed to care for him. He was brought up not to thrive, but to
self-destruct - and, perhaps, to destroy others.

Carrying the burden of Cheever's story of pain, betrayal and waste, the
jurors had to decide whether Scott Cheever should spend the rest of his life
- or most of it - in prison or be executed.

If he lived, he would live in the wreckage of ruined lives - his own and
others.

If he died, the whole sad story of his life would come to an earlier end.

In the end, the jury decided that what remains of Scott Cheever is beyond
repair and he should die.

Was it the right decision?

God knows.

But the jurors were the ones chosen to make it.

---

Source : Emporia Gazette

A matter of life and death | emporiagazette.com