Capital Murder?/Attempted Murder?

If we can’t do the right thing, or if there is no right thing to do, let’s at least do something. It won’t help the matter, but it will make us feel better, and in the case of the state legislature, make them look good…or so they think.

Rep. Phillip Pettus is again seeking to add one more capital crime to Alabama’s long list. It didn’t work last year, but he thinks it might this year. Or perhaps he thinks it will keep on making him look good so that he can say he at least did something.

No, adding the capital element to domestic killings won’t stop anyone from committing the crime. Any honest person in law enforcement can tell you that. No one has ever raised a shotgun to fire at his/her partner and stopped, thinking about the consequences. It just doesn’t work that way.

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Speaking of consequences, we’ve been asked why J.J. Common was charged with attempted murder. After all, if he couldn’t hit his intended victim in 15 shots, was he actually trying to kill the woman who allegedly owned him money?

We’re guessing he was only trying to scare the woman, but judging from a Lauderdale case from a few years ago, the attempted murder charge will stick. A man in Florence stood ten feet away from his victim, fired six times into the sidewalk, and was later charged with and convicted of attempted murder.

After 15 years of dealing with J.J., we’re pretty sure that Franklin County is tired of him. If it takes a jury trial to put him away, the county just may be up for it—no plea bargains offered this time.

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News flash: J.J. has a “good heart.” Haven’t we heard that before about other sociopaths?