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July 6, 2005
Another Walking Argument for Capital Punishment
Posted by Dave Blount at July 6, 2005 6:54 AM
White Plains, New York is known by some as the City of Malls. Nearby Westchester County Airport is small, but features some impressive facilities, even including a homeless shelter. Since there isn't much to do at the airport other than wait for planes, the shelter's residents are bused into town and dropped off at the Galleria Mall, where they can hang out during the day before taking the bus back to the shelter. But even cruising the mall can get a little dull after a while if you have no money to spend, so last week a homeless man named Phillip Grant livened up his daily routine by stealing a knife from a department store and using it to kill a legal secretary named Concetta Russo Carriero in the Galleria's parking garage. (Thanks to Wiggins for passing along this source.)
This behavior was not out of character for Grant. Until being released on mandatory parole in 2003, he had been serving a 7–21-year sentence at Sing Sing on multiple rape and assault charges. He was denied parole nine times, and even had additional time added to his sentence when he took a pitchfork to a fellow inmate. Classified as a Level 3 (high risk) sex offender, he took up residence at the Westchester Airport Shelter after his release. He was kicked out last spring for refusing to take a mental health evaluation, but apparently continued to stay at a drop-in center at the airport.
Grant was bused to his hunting grounds flying more red flags than a May Day celebration in the Soviet Union. But all he did was kill someone, so it's only a matter of time until they have to let him out again. To their credit, prosecutors are attempting to put that day off for as long as possible. Given the ridiculous system they work in, they are compelled to accomplish this by ridiculous means: it appears that Grant may be charged with a hate crime.
Unlike typical murders, which are motivated by love and affection, prosecutors may argue that this murder was a hate crime because Grant is black and allegedly was looking for a white victim. The point of asserting that the crime was racially motivated is that it would allow them to increase his minimum sentence.
Although it is nice to be reassured that you don't have to be white to be charged with a hate crime, the notion that killing people is somehow more wrong if you can inject race into the issue is absurd, not to mention unlikely to promote healthy race relations. But hey, whatever it takes to keep Grant in cage a few extra months before they bus him back to the mall to kill someone else.
