Brianna Victoria Cole was nine months old on December 20, 2002, a few days from her first Christmas. Her father Benjamin Cole was playing a video game. Brianna began to cry, which interrupted her father’s enjoyment of his video game. In response he broke her back, and resumed playing his video game as she lay dying.
Fast forward almost twenty years later and Benjamin Cole finally paid the penalty yesterday for his murder of his infant daughter.
Brianna Cole’s aunt and uncle — sister and brother to her mother — witnessed Thursday’s execution because they said it was best that Brianna’s mother not be there.
At a press conference afterward, the two lamented that so much attention is paid to death row inmates, while victims often become footnotes in news coverage and court hearings along the long road of carrying out a death sentence.
Their blonde, blue-eyed infant niece was killed, they said, just days before her first Christmas and a scheduled family holiday gathering where they were to meet her for the first time.
Instead, the first time Donna Daniel of Broken Arrow said she lay eyes on the child, she was in a casket.
“She died a horrific death. This man abused her prior to what he did to kill her — and he gets off easy and gets to get a little injection in his arm and go to sleep,” said Daniel, adding that Brianna should be 20 years old now. “We have this little girl we never got to see grow up. She will always be a part of our family.”
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor said in a written statement: “Justice is now served for Brianna Cole and the people of Oklahoma. Nothing can fill the void experienced by the loss of a loved one and this does not bring Brianna back to her family. Our hearts and prayers are with them.”
Go here to read the rest. Justice delayed is justice denied, but Brianna Cole finally received a poor fragment of justice yesterday.
Cole reportedly used the full two minutes allotted for last words on a “rambling,” sometimes “raspy” voiced stream of consciousness prayer.
Go here to read the rest. The murderer’s attorneys attempted to have him avoid the death penalty by alleging mental illness, an effort rejected by court after court as two decades passed. Brianna, if she had lived, would be looking forward to her twenty-first Christmas in this Vale of Tears.
Mr. Shea is beneath contempt. Fortunately for him, most of us who are the targets of his vile hatred are actually Catholic, which means we pray for his conversion of heart, repentance, and eternal salvation.
An evil man murders his baby, and Mark’s first thought is to savage his culture war enemies.
Lord have mercy.
Mr. Shea is a very sick individual.
Mentally unstable.
Profoundly disturbed.
Prayers for his return to the confessional. A minimum of an hour of examination of conscience, hopefully, will melt his cold heart prior to confession.
As for the Cole family…my prayers.
Mr. Cole couldn’t convince any judges he was crazy. Mark would have a much better chance. I think his twitter feed alone would be sufficient for the task.
This man should have been put in front of a firing squad a dozen years ago. Our court system is a scandal. (And no, schizophrenia wouldn’t explain why he murdered his daughter).
If anything deserves the death penalty, it is the deliberate killing of a child. I’ve said, publically, I could be an executioner for someone who commits a murder for pleasure, because he wanted to see how it felt to kill someone, or someone who deliberately kills a child–assuming proof beyond any reasonable doubt. There is nothing shameful about being an executioner in those situations. I’d pray for the person I executed, and try to see that that talked to a priest before I swung the sword or flipped the switch.
BPS:
Last weekend I had the joy of holding my two-month-old grandniece. I lost a sister at 9 months to ALS. Dante would entomb this inhuman monster in the frozen basement of his Inferno, with the betrayers of their own kin.
I could flip that switch, too.
Support for infanticide is only a small step for pro-abortion, poseur catholics, e.g., Marx Che.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of the catholic Left?
T. Shaw does.
Mr. Shea needs an exorcism and his Bishop needs a pair.
Anything less than the penalty of death for the murder of a child is a failure of Justice. It deprives the dead child of his/her just due and also deprives the murderer of the penalty he/she has earned by their taking of the life of the most innocent. A failure to both parties. The 20 year delay is inexcusable. One of the four Sins that cry out to Heaven for Vengeance (or has that word been canceled also).
One of the four Sins that cry out to Heaven for Vengeance (or has that word been canceled also).
Rigid Rigid Rigid…. Come on JRP..
Pastorial. Remember.
Let their own conscience be their guide, formed or not.
Hell? Really….
There was a time when defending the Truths of the Faith and the focus of the Salvation of Souls was a priority from Rome.
Seems the planet needs salvation..
Seems the sins of the flesh have taken back the steering wheel and lead the way to a hell that is doubtful.
No doubt about it.
We are living in extraordinary times.
After reading Shea’s vile comment, I feel the urge to go rake out my corral. Just to feel clean.