James von Brunn is a sick, mean old man. The 88 year old white supremacist’s heart was filled with a crippling hatred when he armed himself with a century old .22 rifle earlier this week and walked into Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum prepared to kill as many “blacks and Jews” as he could before dying with his “boots on.” He managed to kill a black security guard named Stephen Tyrone Johns before being critically wounded by other guards who shot him in the face.

            Federal authorities have not announced whether they will try the longstanding Nazi sympathizer, but media reports have stated he would be eligible for the death penalty if they do. In the grip of grief and shock, some natural opponents of the death penalty have expressed sentiments that a death sentence would be the only fitting punishment for this “act of terrorism.”

            In the first place, von Brunn will probably not live to see either a state or federal trial, much less survive the years of appeals involved in a death penalty case should he be convicted of capital murder. And if by some miraculous reason he should survive, would it be fitting for our society to strap a 90-plus year old man, no matter how offensive his personal and political views, to a gurney and fill his veins with a lethal cocktail of drugs.

            To characterize von Brunn’s crime as an “act of terrorism” is to undermine the very concept of terrorism. von Brunn and Scott Roeder, the killer of Dr. George Tiller, are not “terrorists” who committed horrific crimes in support of some radical political or religious ideology. They are both madmen who tried to cloak their crimes in fanatical ideologies in a vain effort to transform their madness into martyrdom.

            I’m convinced von Brunn was inspired by Roeder. On the morning von Brunn went into the Holocaust Museum on a mission of murder, CNN carried a report by one of its reporters who had recently visited Roeder in a county jail about how Roeder had boasted of the “many letters” he had received from “fans” supporting his actions. That was about all it would have taken to inspire von Brunn to put on his boots, grab up his old rirfle, and head out on his mission to kill “blacks and Jews” believing that would make him a martyr in the white supremacy and Neo-Nazi communities in this country.

            Both of these killers deserve nothing short of spending the rest of their lives in prison anonymity. The more media coverage they receive for their despicable acts, the greater the impact those crimes have on the lunatic fringe elements in our society. The death penalty should not even enter into the legal and public debate about what should be done with them. The people who support their sick ideologies are natural proponents of the death penalty while many of those who do not are natural opponents of the death penalty.  Roeder/von Brunn supporters will strenuously oppose the death penalty for them which could create the perverse reaction in many who do not support the death penalty to demand it in these two cases.

            Last November as our economy was on the brink of a free fall and after the election of our first black President I told my wife, Jodie, that we would see a marked increase in mass murders, murder/suicides involving family members, and violent hate crimes. There have been more than even I could have ever anticipated. The lunatics always seize on social chaos and disorder to impose their fanatical ideologies through violence on the rest of us. Nazi Germany was borne out of social chaos and disorder in the 1930s.

            There will be more Scott Roeders and James von Brunns before any semblance of order and stability returns to our society. I fear these lunatics will create a climate more favorable to the death penalty just as some States are seriously trying to eliminate the penalty because of its horrific costs. Death penalty opponents cannot fuel the backlash climate the lunatics will generate no matter how angry and horrified they are by crimes like those committed by James von Brunn and Scott Roeder.