The Real Walking Dead

 “We all gotta go some time.” It’s not just a cliché; it’s reality. Immortals do not walk this earth. Most people don’t usually know when or under what conditions the Grim Reaper will come calling. Clayton D. Lockett knew both when and how he would die. A jury of his peers had decided his fate in August 2000.

Eighteen year-old Stephanie Michelle Neiman had no inkling when or how she would die before June 7, 1999. Just the month previously Neiman had graduated from high school. She had her whole life ahead of her. She also had no idea the gruesome method her death would take.

Authorities in Perry, Oklahoma say the crime spree started when Clayton Lockett drove his younger cousin Alfonzo Lockett, 17, and Shawn Mathis, 26, to the Perry, Oklahoma home of Bobby Lee Bornt, 23. Bornt owed Clayton Lockett money.

Bornt was tied up and beaten, authorities said, while his 9-month-old son was in the house witnessing the beating. During the assault, Neiman and an 18-year-old friend stopped by Bornt's house, authorities said. "It was bad timing," Perry police Lt. David Farrow said.

Neiman's female friend told authorities she was pulled into the house and hit in the face with a shotgun. With a gun at her head, she was forced to call Neiman inside. Neiman also was hit with the shotgun and suffered a cut near her left eye.

But that was only the beginning of the nightmare that would end her life. The three men, Clayton Lockett, Alfonzo Lockett and Mathis took turns gang raping and sodomizing Neiman and her friend. According to Bornt, when Neiman refused to give Lockett the keys to her pickup truck or promise that she would not go to police after her assailants beat and assaulted her, Lockett took Neiman to a shallow grave that one of the co-defendants dug. Bornt said he saw a flash from a shotgun that Lockett carried, and heard Neiman scream.

Bornt testified that Lockett came back to the road where the co-defendants were holding him and another female and told them the shotgun was jammed. Lockett found a file in Bornt's truck and fixed the shotgun, and then returned to Neiman, who was groaning. Bornt said he saw a second flash of gunfire, and then heard no more groaning. Bornt and his then 9-month-old son and the other girl were released after promising they would not go to police.

Although Lockett’s cousin and Mathis were tried and received lengthy sentences, Clayton Lockett was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Nearly fourteen years later Lockett’s date with the executioner came due.

Lethal injection executions throughout the country have been jeopardized by the lack of approved drugs to “humanely” dispatch convicted killers. But Oklahoma would try a new method on Lockett and a second killer Charles F. Warner, also scheduled to die that day.

First, a strong sedative would be injected to put the subject to sleep then two more drugs would paralyze him and stop his heart. It seems that somehow, the sedative did not completely knock Lockett out, and he began to writhe when the other drugs were injected. At one point, the execution was halted. Lockett died of heart failure 43 minutes later. Warner’s execution has been put on hold pending an investigation.

Did Lockett suffer before dying? I certainly hope so. This pillar of the community gave no such consideration to Stephanie Neiman when he shot her with a shotgun, buried her alive, then shot her again when he heard her groan. Did Neiman suffer while she was sodomized and endured gang rape by these three choirboys? To my way of thinking, Lockett could not suffer enough.

And what of the other upstanding citizen scheduled for death that day? Charles Warner was convicted of raping and murdering 11-month-old Adrianna Waller in 1997 in Oklahoma County. He was convicted in 1999. Adrianna was the daughter of Warner's live-in girlfriend. During the sentencing phase, jurors heard testimony that he had previously sexually and physically abused his ex-wife and a five-year-old girl. Warner's seven-year-old son testified for the prosecution that he had witnessed his father abuse Adrianna on previous occasions. During the ultimately fatal attack, she was sexually molested. She had a six-inch skull fracture, a broken jaw, three broken ribs, bruised lungs and a lacerated liver and spleen.

God forbid Mr. Warner should suffer the same fate as Clayton Lockett.

This unfortunate event – unfortunate for society, not the convicts – has added fuel to the anti-capital punishment movement in this country and probably across the globe. There are countries where death by hanging is still practiced, others engage in stoning and beheading those convicted of crimes. Yet, we Americans yearn for a “humane” way to rid society of the worst of the worst killers.

I could elaborate on the misdeeds of the 754 killers on death row in this state, but I can assure you they are guilty of no more “humane” means that that of Lockett and Warner.

Presently, California is sitting on its thumbs waiting for the “approved” drugs for lethal injections. They ain’t coming folks. Drug manufacturers, mostly European, are intentionally withholding the only drugs on the approved list. Meanwhile, we pay each day for room and board for the most despicable form of humanity while allowing them to breath air that could undoubtedly go to better use.

And Heeer's Yer Bonus

 Taxes are a pain. It is sad to see a percentage of our hard-earned dollars siphoned off, even if it is to run the government.  When those who do the siphoning get huge bonuses for doing their job, it is a double dose of sadness. But when our money goes for bonuses to IRS employees who have been disciplined, that is outrageous. Then, to rub salt in the wound, the IRS actually pays bonuses to those employees who cheat on or have not even paid their taxes! That is beyond outrageous; it should be criminal.

No folks, I’m not delirious. This was the report of a March 2014 audit released by the TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION, or TIGFTA. You can get the full report on-line at http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2014reports/201410007fr.pdf .

“… between  October 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012, more than 2,800 employees with recent substantiated conduct issues resulting in disciplinary action received  more than $2.8 million in monetary awards, more than 27,000 hours in time-off awards, and 175 quality step increases. Among these, more than 1,100 IRS employees with substantiated Federal tax compliance problems received more than $1 million in cash awards, more than 10,000 hours in time-off awards, and 69 quality step increases within a year after the IRS substantiated their tax compliance problem.” (Italics are mine.)

You read it right, 1100 IRS employees have either cheated on their taxes or illegally paid no taxes. And they received a bonus! Imagine what would happen if you or I did the same. I can assure you we would not get a bonus check from the government.

According to the report, “For Fiscal Year 2011, the IRS awarded almost $92 million in cash and almost 520,000 hours of time off to 70,500 of its approximately 104,400 employees. For Fiscal Year 2012, the IRS awarded $86 million in cash and almost 490,000 hours of time off to 67,870 of its approximately 98,000 employees. These awards are designed to recognize and reward employees for their performance.”

Who actually receives these bonuses? “IRS employees may be classified in five categories for the purpose of issuing awards: Senior Executive Service (SES), bargaining unit, non–bargaining unit, management, and Chief Counsel. … in FYs 2011 and 2012, bargaining unit employees received $63.5 million and $63.8 million in cash awards, respectively. The average value of an award granted to a bargaining unit employee was $944, while the average was $14,000 for SES employees who received awards.”

That’s right union employees were paid bonuses! I have to wonder if this was part of the bargaining contract. I have never heard of private sector union employees getting a bonus. It might exist, but it never happened in any union I was forced to join, and no union member I know of has ever received a bonus. But we pay every IRS union member an average of $944 a year extra just to reward him or her for his or her “performance.”

Apparently, we pay our employees (the IRS people are in essence our employees) bonuses to squeeze us for more money, yet many of these IRS agents can’t even do their own taxes right or have intentionally avoided paying taxes altogether.

It sure makes me feel better about paying taxes. Maybe we should get a bonus just for paying our taxes.