Q

uite a lot has been written about California’s budget debacle - a $24 billion, growing hole - and its impact on the poor, state employees, our highways and waterways, and the viability of our counties and municipalities (who fear Sacramento will be stealing their surpluses).

But there may be good news in the budget melt-down … if you’re planning on committing a capital crime any time soon.  From Steve Greenhut’s column in yesterday’s OC Register:

During a recent budget meeting, [OC District Attorney Tony] Rackauckas was grilled by [OC Supervisor John] Moorlach’s chief of staff, Mario Mainero, over the cost-effectiveness of pursuing the death penalty in so many cases, even though that penalty is virtually never actually imposed in this state. Mainero believes that the D.A.’s office spends unnecessarily on death-penalty prosecutions, a contention certainly up for debate, but at least we are now having important debates about how departments spend their money.

It seems hard to believe that matters of such import would hinge on the number of bucks in the coffer, but then, everything about California nowadays seems a bit hard to believe … unless you factor in the fact that the Dems have complete control of Sacramento.

ichard Cooey had an unpleasant meeting just after he was declared dead by prison officials in Ohio monitoring his execution this morning.  Let’s pray God treated him better than Cooey treated the two young women he raped and murdered back in the 80s.

Cooey’s death sentence was carried out following Supreme Court rejection of the worst cry-baby defense I’ve ever heard:

Earlier Tuesday the US Supreme Court rejected Cooey’s last-ditch appeal arguing that due to his obesity and the medicine he was taking, his execution would amount to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional. …

Cooey had argued that his weight would make it difficult for Ohio authorities to find a vein to administer a lethal injection, causing him unreasonable suffering.

He further claimed that his migraine medication could interfere with the anaesthetic used in the execution which he said could lead to his being subjected to an “agonizing or excruciatingly painful” death. (source)

According to witnesses, Cooey’s death proceeded uneventfully, with no evidence he was in pain.  As if we care.