Enough Is Enough!

In early September 1993, seventeen-year-old Christopher Simmons, of Fenton, Missouri, had an intriguing thought.  He suggested to his friends, Charlie Benjamin (age 15) and John Tessmer (age 16) that it might be fun to commit a burglary and then murder their victim.   Benjamin and Tessmer were not enthusiastic but Simmons persisted, assuring his friends that because they were juveniles they could “get away with it.”   

And Simmons knew exactly how he wanted to do it.  As he visualized the crime, they would burglarize a home, tie up their victim, drive their victim to a bridge, and toss them into the water, bound hand and foot – a slow, agonizing death.

Simmons, Benjamin, and Tessmer met at 2:00 AM on the morning of September 9, 1993, but Tessmer decided not to participate and returned home.  Simmons and Benjamin then drove to the home of their randomly selected victim, Shirley Crook, and gained entry through a rear window that was left cracked open.  

The intruders then made their way to Crook’s bedroom, awakened her, and rolled her onto the floor.  And while Benjamin stood guard over the terrified woman, Simmons found a roll of duct tape which they then used to bind her hands behind her back.  They also placed strips of tape over her eyes and mouth.   

When she was firmly bound they walked her to her car and placed her in the back of the mini-van.  Simmons then drove Crook’s car to a railroad trestle in Castlewood State Park, near Ballwin, in southwest St. Louis, County.  Arriving at their destination, Simmons and Benjamin found that Mrs. Crook had freed her hands from the duct tape and was in the process of removing the tape from her eyes and mouth.

Using the strap of her purse, the sash from her robe, and some electrical wire found nearby, they rebound the woman and forced her to walk to the railroad trestle.  At the trestle, Simmons hog-tied her, hand and foot, with the electrical wire, covered her entire face with duct tape, and casually threw her from the bridge into the fast flowing Meramec river.  Shirley Crook was alive and conscious when she was thrown from the bridge.  She died a horrific death.  

Simmons and Benjamin bragged to friends about their escapade and Simmons was taken into custody at his high school the following day, September 10.  He was convicted of first degree murder in 1994 and was sentenced to death.  And after the appeals process was exhausted the State Supreme Court set his execution date for May 1, 2002.

However, as Simmons was advancing through the appeals process a wave of political change was sweeping across Missouri.  After twelve years of Republican rule in the governors’ mansion, Missourians elected liberal Democrat Mel Carnahan to two successive terms, 1993-2000, followed by Democrat Bob Holden for a single term, 2001-2005.  With that change in political leadership, the court system changed, as well.  

In 2003, in a 4-3 decision, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision and set aside Christopher Simmons’ death penalty, reducing his sentence to life in prison, without possibility of parole.  It is that reversal that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to challenge in its highly controversial decision of Monday, February 28, 2005.

The four Missouri Supreme Court justices who voted to save the sadistic killer’s life were Justices Laura D. Stith, appointed by Democrat Governor Bob Holden in 2001; Ronnie L. White, appointed by Democrat Mel Carnahan in 1995; Michael A Wolff, appointed by Democrat Mel Carnahan in 1998; and Richard B. Teitelman, appointed by Democrat Bob Holden in 2002.

The three dissenting Justices were Justices Duane Benton, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., and J.J. Price, all appointed by Republican Governor John Ashcroft in 1991 and 1992.

Could there be any clearer example of why we can never entrust Democrats with the responsibility for selecting and appointing judges to the highest courts in the land?  When  Carnahan and Holden were running for office, Republicans knew what kind of judges they would appoint.  Why didn’t Democrats know that?  Or did they think their votes for Carnahan and Holden were of no consequence?  Well, now we have a consequence.

When will rank and file Democrats finally understand that their party elites are radical liberals?  When will they swallow their foolish pride, and say, “Enough is enough!?”  Those who voted to elect Carnahan and Holden are now complicit in a terrible miscarriage of justice.  As they go to sleep each night, may they have visions of Christopher Simmons sleeping peacefully in his soft, warm prison bed.