The last victim of
Spree Killer, Nikko Jenkins was Andrea Kruger, who was shot dead on August 21, 2013.
We, the comrades of Unit 1012, want Jenkins to face the death penalty for his
crimes. That is why we endorse Nebraskans for the Death Penalty and we give our
strong support and compassion for the loved ones of Andrea Kruger, so we
encourage those who are Nebraskan registered voters to sign the petition. Do
learn from how Proposition 34 was defeated on November 6, 2012.
Let us not forget
Andrea Kruger and also the other 3 victims of Nikko Jenkins.
 |
|
Andrea Kruger
|
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.radiantbeams.org/wfdata/frame1209-1164/pressrel3.asp
Death Penalty: A Grandmother's Plea
Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
by man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made he man.
-- Gen. 9:6
She's buried in a tiny, windswept
cemetery, not far from her home, and not far from the intersection that night
in August 2013 when she was shot dead, twice in the head, once in the neck and
once in the shoulder.
Andrea Kruger was driving home from
work to tend a sick child. She stopped at a northwest Omaha 4-way stop. She was
ambushed by Omaha habitual criminal Nikko Jenkins and a carload of accomplices.
They wanted her 2012 Chevrolet Traverse in order to carjack and rob people at
the upcoming Lil' Wayne concert downtown.
According to trial testimony, Jenkins
pulled Mrs. Kruger out of the car and took out his weapon. She screamed,
"No! No! Please don't!" but he shot her anyway. He roared off in her
car and the accomplices followed. They later quoted him as saying, "That
dumb (expletive) just laid down on the ground."
Andrea Kruger was not an expletive.
Andrea Kruger was not just a crime
statistic.
Andrea Kruger will never, ever be
forgotten. Never!
She is the face of the Nebraska murder
victim - the face of innocent, vibrant, caring, creative, positive,
constructive, hard-working human life, snatched away by the heinous and evil
act of murder.
Look at her face in the photo, with her
husband MR, son Jadyn, and daughters Hartley, left, and Ava. Can you imagine
going through life, knowing this happened to your wife or your mother?
At the time, Andrea's husband,
Michael-Ryan Kruger, said, "My kids had the best life because they got to
spend all day with their mom. Go to the pool, the children's museum, the
zoo."
The couple had just celebrated their
wedding anniversary. "She's generous, she's outgoing, funny,"
Michael-Ryan said. "When she enters the room it's like okay, 'Andrea is
here.'"
A news account put it this way:
"He never could have imagined that his family would have to deal with such
a nightmare and that he would be left to answer the children's questions. 'Who
took Mommy? Why did they take Mommy?'"
At least, it was thought, there's the death
penalty. There will be justice.
In Nebraska law, there are
"aggravating and mitigating" factors which must be weighed in
deciding which murderers get a life sentence or a term of years for their
crimes, and which ones get sentenced to death. In this murder, it appeared the
aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones. Jenkins, who also confessed
to three other murders just days after his release from prison on other
charges, is awaiting sentencing as we speak.
But now the Nebraska Legislature has
three times voted to repeal Nebraska's death penalty law. The governor has
vowed to veto it, probably this coming Tuesday. But if the senators vote to
override his veto, the death penalty will be no more. The 11 men on Nebraska's
Death Row would all have their death sentences commuted to life. The worst
sentence Jenkins could get would be life in prison.
He gave Andrea Kruger death. But he
would get life.
Do you think God's design includes a
sympathetic, tolerant, accepting attitude towards evil murder? That we should
shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh, well. Poverty . . . substance abuse . .
. bad peers . . . he couldn't help becoming a murderer, and she was just in the
wrong place at the wrong time."
Or do you agree that God's very
favorite thing is innocent human life, especially soft-cheeked little children
and their gentle, caring mothers, and protecting that innocent life from
depraved monsters who would slaughter them without remorse, or at least
severely punishing those who do, is Job One in a civilized society?
As soon as I saw there was a good
chance the state legislators would vote against the death penalty, I jumped
into the fray as a writer/researcher. I have tried to rebut the incredible lies
and distortions being spread by the anti-death penalty activists. Oddly, I have
yet to meet another Nebraskan who agrees with repealing the death penalty who
isn't already a political operative with an agenda or a scheme about this. All
the everyday people support it.
YES, the death penalty deters future
murders, as established by 28 studies.
YES, a death penalty trial and appeals
are more expensive than a similar murder trial in which the defendant gets a
life sentence. But after that, the decades of costly incarceration make it much
more expensive to house a lifer than to execute a death-sentence defendant.
YES, Nebraska has dropped the ball in
not being able to establish a lethal injection regimen once the electric chair
was ruled out of bounds. The European Union put an export ban on the chemicals
for political reasons, erasing our possible supply. So now, the average length
of time our Death Row defendants have been waiting is 15 years, vs. the
national average of 11 years. But other states, particularly Texas and
Virginia, have handled capital punishment very efficiently in the last 40
years. So can we.
I posted articles on http://oneminuteonmurder.com and have
maintained a Facebook page, One Minute On Murder. I've enjoyed making friends
with like-minded souls, who realize that the death penalty is the cornerstone
of government and was delegated to the civil magistrates in Romans 13:4.
Clearly, getting rid of it is the same as shoving God's moral authority right
out of our government. After that, it's a slippery slope toward ever-more
lenient and unjust punishments, such as the mass murderer in Norway who took 77
lives at a camp but was sentenced to the "max" in that country: 21
years in prison.
That's where we're headed. Norway
started by getting rid of their death penalty. See the progression? Innocent
life gets cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.
But despite all of the research and
discussions, what nails it for me was the phone conversation I was privileged
to have with Andrea Kruger's grandmother.
She is Karen Guarino of Fremont, Neb.
She had just returned from putting flowers on her granddaughter's grave this
Memorial Day weekend.
You might have read about Andrea's
mother, Karen's daughter, Teri Roberts, who, in a tragic "piling on,"
recently lost both arms and both legs after a rare attack of streptococcal
toxic shock syndrome. She had miraculously awakened from a coma four hours
before they were going to shut off her life support a few months ago. She is
now dealing with four new prosthetic limbs, has a good wheelchair, and recently
was blessed beyond measure to be given a high-tech van that will get her mobile
. . . and able to babysit her three orphaned grandchildren again.
Karen Guarino is proud of her
daughter's spunk, and says she has adjusted to the reality of her
granddaughter's murder. Not a tinge of bitterness or revenge is in her voice.
 |
|
Andrea Kruger and her family
|
But she makes no bones about it: she
wants the Legislature to KEEP the death penalty.
Mrs. Guarino puts it this way:
"If
they can prove something like that (murder), without a doubt, then the death
penalty is just something that even the Bible says we should do. Justice
demands that they execute.
"I
realize that it's not going to bring Andrea back. But if they repeal the death
penalty, then others out there will think, 'We're not going to have to pay with
our lives if we kill somebody.' The law will be, you can make other people
suffer terribly, but YOU won't have to. It's just so unfair to so many loved
ones who've lost someone to murder and have to live with the consequences of it
for the rest of their lives."
She
said, "My granddaughter is murdered. And he (Jenkins) is in there eating
three square meals a day, getting his clothes furnished, having access to
exercise and libraries, all the facilities that you and I have.
"God
gave us a brain to use, and a little bit of common sense. We should use them. I
don't think those legislators who voted for this are doing their job. Period.
Any of them! I just don't think they're out there for anything or anybody but
themselves. I don't think they care about the little guys. We don't seem to be
able to buck them - contradict them - get them to support us and represent
us."
She's
hoping and praying that enough senators will wake up to this, and vote with
their conscience to keep the death penalty.
A grandmother's outrage . . . a
grandmother's love . . . a grandmother's grief . . . a grandmother's plea for
justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment