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Keller @ Large: No Justice For Sampson Victims With Delayed Sentencing

BOSTON (CBS) -- Will there ever be justice for Jonathan Rizzo, Philip McCloskey, and Robert Whitney?

If those names don't ring a bell, that's unsurprising. They were the random, innocent victims of a vicious thrill-killer who slaughtered the three men over the course of six days back in 2001.

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Keller @ Large: No Justice For Sampson Victims By Delaying Sentencing

The killer, who confessed to the murders, is named Gary Lee Sampson, and if that name does ring a bell, that too is unsurprising.

Since he was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers eleven years ago, Sampson has become a celebrity of sorts within the holier-than-thou community of anti-death-penalty fanatics, who believe that no crime ever warrants capital punishment and are intent on using every trick in the book to make sure their view prevails over the majority who disagree with it.

These folks are not to be confused with those who sincerely oppose the death penalty on pro-life grounds or who find it unjust because of legitimate concerns about its faulty application.

Their views, while debatable, are certainly reasonable.

But there's nothing reasonable about the continuing effort to deny Sampson his well-deserved date with lethal injection.

Sampson's new lawyer, an anti-death-penalty fanatic from Texas, told a judge yesterday she couldn't possibly be ready to re-argue his sentence next year – eleven years after his original death sentence.

That is flat-out absurd.

But it speaks to the frame of mind of those who care way too much about a stone killer's alleged rights, but care nothing about justice for the victims and their survivors.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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