Jack Trawick is not the most sympathetic example for those of us who oppose the death penalty. Trawick abducted 21-year-old Stephanie Gach near her Irondale apartment, tied her hands, taped her mouth, strangled her, stabbed her and dumped her body in an illegal trash dump off Grants Mill Road. Four months earlier, in June 1992, Trawick had stabbed 26-year-old Frances Aileen Pruitt 53 times; her body was found behind Hill Crest Hospital. Trawick claimed to have killed three other women.Not only did Trawick confess to these killings, he also begged to be sentenced to death, saying he would kill a prison worker or some "freeworlder" if he didn't get his way. In 1994, courts obliged, sentencing Trawick to death for killing Gach. Trawick is scheduled to be executed today. State prosecutors say there are no legal efforts to block his lethal injection.
It would be dishonest to suggest there's not part of us that confronts this day with one heartfelt reaction: Good riddance. Trawick is a monster of a man who not only terrorized and mutilated women but posted gruesome essays about his crimes and sold sketches that appeared to depict his victims. If that's the gut response from those of us who weren't personally touched by Trawick's crimes, we can only imagine the feelings of those who were -- those who knew Gach and Pruitt, those who loved them, those who lost these young women forever to a murderous madman.
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