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A defensible penalty

Sir Mario Owens deserves the needle but should not get it

Rocky Mountain News

Published June 18, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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All crime comes down to theft - theft of property, theft of reputation, even the theft of life. But when a witness is killed to prevent his or her testimony, more than a life is taken. As devastating as such an act is personally, it also strikes at the American system of justice, the very marrow of our civilized society.

So when Sir Mario Owens shot and killed Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, in June 2005 - just days before Marshall-Fields was slated to testify in the 2004 killing of Gregory Vann - Owens didn't simply snuff out the promising lives of two courageous young people, he also put all of us in jeopardy.

It's little wonder, then, that an Arapahoe District Court jury on Monday delivered a unanimous verdict of death for Owens after earlier finding him guilty of first-degree murder in the slayings of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe.

Make no mistake: We remain opposed to capital punishment for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Colorado almost never executes anyone - the last inmate to face the needle was Gary Lee Davis, in 1997.

Owens' appeals will likely go on for years or decades, meaning Colorado will spend a sizable sum in legal fees that could have been saved if the state did away with the death penalty and made life without the possibility of parole its toughest criminal punishment.

But a life sentence isn't the most severe penalty available to prosecutors. And if anyone deserves the maximum, Owens clearly does.

Already serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of Vann, Owens' cold-blooded attacks on Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were described in searing terms during his trial.

Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were shot while sitting in a car at an Aurora intersection. A baseball cap found at the scene amid 14 spent shell casings carried Owens' DNA.

Even as we acknowledge the premeditated, ruthless nature of the attacks, asking the state to take Owens' life will never compensate for the lives he took. How could it? His life isn't worth a millionth part of Marshall-Fields' or Wolfe's lives.

Meantime, the case once again points up a weakness in Colorado's criminal justice system, a weakness we addressed two weeks ago: the state's unassuming and underfunded witness protection program.

Aurora police and Arapahoe County officials insist they would have provided protection for Marshall- Fields had he requested it. It's clear now in hindsight that that protection should have been extended in the weeks or days leading up to his testimony even if he did not request it.

Of course it's possible that law enforcement officials might not have fully understood how serious the situation was. As we wrote on June 3, "Until legislation passed in 2006, local law enforcement received no regular training about when to call on the witness protection program to provide help in specific cases."

Unfortunately and ironically, it took the tragic deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe to inspire this legislation - sadly, too late for them. But, we hope, not for the next intrepid witness whose civic-minded grit we should both encourage and defend.

Comments

  • June 18, 2008

    6:33 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

    "he also put all of us in jeopardy" if we follow the misguided direction of the RMN and not kill him. He deserves to die and soon. Bleeding heart librals want to kiss and make up. Forward69 has the right idea.

  • June 18, 2008

    6:43 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ItsJustme writes:

    Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised, Froward69!

    What is this editorial writer, 16 years old? Equating murder with theft, ridiculous! And this ridiculous argument: "We remain opposed to capital punishment for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Colorado almost never executes anyone..." So if we executed 100 murderers a year,then you'd be in favor of the death penalty? Somehow I doubt it. No, the death penalty should be given more often and carried out quickly, within months if not weeks. Then you would have a real deterent to murder, although that is not the only justification for the death penalty in my mind. It is also justified simply for justice - the proper penalty for the crime. And please, spare me the trite argument that an eye for an eye makes us both blind. If you had any understanding and wisdom, you'd know that this LIMITS punishment. It's not acceptable to take a eye for a tooth, for instance. You can only take an eye for an eye. Just as society can (and should) take a life for a life.

  • June 18, 2008

    11:55 a.m.

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    MrPeabody writes:

    I used to be a proponent of the death penalty. I no longer am, as evidence mounts across the country of people on death row exonerated from wrongful convictions by DNA evidence. Either the technology was not available when they were convicted, or the testing just was not done. I can imagine no greater injustice than having the state take your life for a crime you didn't commit.

    However, if there EVER was a case to be made for the death penalty, it is absolutely in just this sort of a case, which undermines our entire system of justice.

    For thugs who live by the creed of the street - "you snitch and you die" they need to understand that by carrying this out they are putting themselves squarely in the cross hairs of capital punishment if it can be proven that they have killed a witness.

    The mother of Owens lamented that the state was doing to her son what he had done - take a life. Sorry for your loss, mother, but not as sorry as I am for the parents of the two victims of her thug son. Fields, to his credit, was trying to do the right thing. Wolfe just happened to be with him but they both died for no good reason except a thug wanted to silence a witness against himself. For me, the seriousness of this crime ranks right up there with killing an officer of the law and should deserve the harshest of penalties.

    I DO agree that Colorado needs to look into really funding a statewide witness protection program. That would be money well spent.

  • June 18, 2008

    2:28 p.m.

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    Shadow writes:

    I found this editorial to be a little hard to follow. Other then the making murder a less offense and likening it to the theft of a candy bar.

    Yes murder is a theft of a life. It is usually premeditated that forces a society to extract the harshess penalty there is. The call for the life of the one who committed this act.

    For those who think capital punishment is unhumane. I ask them if locking a person in a room that is 8 by 10, restricting his contact with other humans to looking through a small window and being outside for one (1) hour a week is this humane?

    If a person comites the vile act of murder incold blood does he rerserve the right to continue as if nothing happened?

    Is it fair to take a person who stole a loaf of bread with that of a person who calculated the snuffing out of anothers life? Then treating them the same?

    I do not see that pouring more money into something without any teeth is going to be effective. Wouldn't it be more prudent to see that justice is carried out in a timely manner. Demonstrating that if you do the crime you do the time and are held reponsible? In other words carry out the sentance and do not let it drag out for years in appeals.

  • June 18, 2008

    5:44 p.m.

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    anarchist writes:

    Shadow posts in part, "In other words carry out the sentance and do not let it drag out for years in appeals.", agreed, all that does is let them steal my candy bar and wallet if they spend 20 years on the taxpayers dollars.

  • June 20, 2008

    8:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    gary writes:

    Do the crime...pay the price...

    Take a life....give your life...

    It is only fair.

    The death penalty needs to stay

    But, it needs to be enforced. Give them their due.

    Execute them in a timely manner.

    Nuff Said!