That's Why It's Called The Death Penalty

Pick your poison, noose, amperage, caliber, axe or sword - it is called  the death penalty and not the death deterrance. We do not execute people because it deters others from committing the same crimes. We do it because they deserve to have their lives taken from them and perhaps others will learn from this. If not, they will meet the same fate.

In Florida this fate has been awaiting Oba Chandler for some time.

The criminal justice system often is not perfect, but justice cries out for Oba Chandler to take his last breath Nov. 15 for the horrific murders of an Ohio woman and her two teenage daughters on Tampa Bay 22 years ago.

The latest development in one of the region's most ghastly cases occurred last week when Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Phillip Federico turned down a last-gasp appeal by Chandler and his attorney. Chandler, whose death warrant was signed by Gov. Rick Scott, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15, but Federico's decision has been appealed.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer sentenced the former aluminum contractor to death in 1994 after a jury recommended he pay with his life for killing Joan Rogers and daughters Michelle and Christe, who had been vacationing in the Tampa area, in the spring of 1989.

Their bodies, nude from the waist down, were found in the bay bound with ropes and duct tape, and with cement blocks tied around their necks. They had been lured on a sunset boating cruise by Chandler.

According to trial testimony and forensic evidence, the three either were strangled or drowned after more than likely being sexually assaulted. And they probably saw the one before them being thrown overboard.

Scripture tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23), but He does delight in justice. For 22 years the Rogers family has been waiting for justice. Give it to them. And give it to Chandler.