Snohomish County Prosecutor Jim Krider, as he has many times before, made the tough but correct decision to seek the death penalty against Barbara Opel. The vicious murder she orchestrated involved several classic elements of capital murder; it was committed in furtherance of another felony, involved laying in wait, and was a murder for hire. As Krider pointed out, Opel also destroyed the lives of the five young people she recruited to carry out this horrific crime.
It is beyond distasteful that Ms. Opel’s defense lawyer claimed to The Herald, “It’s a damn shame politics is getting in the way of justice.” The damn shame is that Jerry Heimann was beaten and stabbed to death while his traumatized mother (that Ms. Opel was paid to care for) was abandoned in squalor for days. Justice will come only when Ms. Opel is convicted and pays the ultimate price for her savage crimes. As for politics, Mr. Krider’s opponent has not yet made her position on the Opel sentencing known, so it is absurd to suggest that he made this decision based on electoral calculations.
Bothell
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