Miles's blog

On the last day of this month, Judge Elizabeth Senterfitt will have to decide whether David Sparre should die.  There are lots of reasons to think that he should.  Twelve jurors who heard his murder trial have recommended that Sparre should be executed.  And I am willing to bet that if you polled the readers of the leadarticle in today’s Florida Times-Union, a majority would agree.

Sparre did not merely plan to meet a woman for sex and then kill her.  He stabbed poor Tiara Pool 89 times, finally slitting her throat when she stopped resisting.  Why did Sparre kill Tiara Pool?  For the sheer joy of it.  “I wanted to try something just to see how it felt,” he wrote in a letter intercepted by the authorities.  “I did it for the rush.  I enjoyed it and I hope to do it again.”

Shakes you up, doesn’t it?  All of us in prosecution have seen our share of psychopaths who kill for little or no motivation—from malevolent types like Francisco Martinez, for whom little Brandy DuVall represented a threat of punishment, to just plain evil Nathan Dunlap, whose plans to rob a Chuck E. Cheese’s included the murder of four employees—but rarely have we seen murderers who kill just for the sport, and who are brazen or crazy enough to brag about it and announce their intentions to do it again.  That a human being could be this twisted and barbarous is chilling. 

 

Sparre had the poor sense to commit this murder in Florida which actually carries out the death penalty.  Of course, he will sit on death row for a decade or more while the legal maneuvering to save his worthless life makes its way through the courts.  I have no doubt tons of paper will be submitted claiming this or that aspect of a sad life led to his unfortunate condition and that executing him is unnecessary and just as wrongful as his act of murder.  Sparre, by the way is 20 years old.  Do you think the courts will be forced to listen to drivel about young, unformed brains being incapable of fully appreciating the severity of stabbing someone 89 times?

Life without parole is not the same.  People kill in prison, both other inmates and guards.  Sometimes they escape.  Sometimes they get pardoned.  Is there any circumstance in which you think this guy should ever see the light of day?  Can anyone claim he can be rehabilitated?  The kind of mentality that kills for fun can never be changed.  He is hard-wired to be dangerous.  Society need to execute him in its own defense.  As long as he lives he is a risk to others around him.

Had this happened in many states, including perhaps in Colorado, the prosecution would not or could not have sought the death penalty.  For most prosecution offices the extreme expense and demand on resources of a death penalty case, coupled with the unsure result, rules out any attempt to seek execution.  Having talked to many prosecutors of death penalty cases, most say they want to never have another one.  The strategy of the defense bar to make a death verdict as costly as possible as a deterrent to its use has been spectacularly successful.  It’s just not worth it, most D.A.’s think.  For any jurisdiction outside a metropolitan area, the mere dollar cost makes the death penalty a practical impossibility, but even for major offices, committing the resources it takes in both time and dollars, has meant that for most murders, a discussion of the death penalty never takes place, even at a preliminary level.  

Of course, the potential of facing a death penalty has resulted in some murderers pleading guilty and agreeing to a life sentence, sparing everyone the trauma of a trial.  But when you read about the David Sparres of the world it gives you pause.