Loyd case: ugly politics of life and death

If ever a man deserved to die, it would certainly seem to be Markeith Loyd.

He stood directly over a police officer — a mother, wife and mentor — and shot her dead, according to authorities.

This was after they say he also shot and killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Loyd has expressed no remorse. He has oozed contempt for human life. Everything about him seems foul.

Yet the politics surrounding his prosecution are foul as well.

State Attorney Aramis Ayala blindsided Central Florida when she announced that she wasn’t seeking the death penalty for Loyd — taking an anti-deathpenalty stance she had never been courageous enough to reveal when running for office.

In doing so, Ayala rang a proverbial dinner bell for publicityhungry politicians all over Florida.

From Orlando to Tallahassee, legislators and other pols tripped over themselves to get in front of a camera and profess their outrage.

Many had never paid a lick of attention to the crime that happens on the streets of West Orlando — much less endeavored to do anything about it. Yet suddenly, with a dead cop involved, they wanted the world to know how much they cared about “justice” on the mean streets of Orlando. It was all so … naked. I actually share Ayala’s professed objections to the death penalty. Not because I sympathize with scumbag murderers, but because executions have been wrongly ordered too many times. And because they are too costly. And applied unequally. I’d rather see sleaze rot in jail than have taxpayers spend twice as much money on a flawed process.

But the difference between Ayala and me is that I have publicly professed my objections for years.

Ayala did not … until after she got elected. She ambushed the cops and sheriffs she has to work with — and picked a dog of a case as her coming out.

She can’t claim her election was a vindication of her opposition to executions because she kept that opposition a secret until after liberal billionaire George Soros helped buy her this post.

So now we have a prosecution-by-press-conference mess.

Legislators screamed. The attorney general tweeted. And the governor intervened to give the case to another prosecutor likely to seek death.

Is this mess our new normal? Can other victims of crime in Orange County expect Seminole County legislators Bob Cortes and Scott Plakon, for instance, to also stage media scrums on their behalf?

Or is that kind of effort re-

served for the crimes guaranteed to score TV time?

Plenty of people are to blame for creating this circus.

Blame Ayala for not telling the voters where she stood.

Blame the media for not telling them either — and for not even raising this as an issue.

Blame Soros, who managed to buy this post for Ayala with a nasty campaign that portrayed her opponent — pro-deathpenalty incumbent Jeff Ashton — as a bigot.

Blame Republican operative Bill Vose — the man who helped rig the election for Ayala by running as a write-in, which had the effect of denying all Republican and independent voters the chance to even cast ballots in the race between Ashton and Ayala.

Blame Republicans for being unable to field a competent candidate.

And blame politicians like Gov. Rick Scott who profess their love for executions, but who refuse to back efforts to make sure we’re executing the right people.

See, that is one of the most troubling things about the death penalty: We know we sometimes get it wrong. Florida has overturned more death-penalty convictions than any other state in America. Yet the politicians have largely ignored suggestions from the state’s own Innocence Commission to make sure we get it right.

Most states have stopped executions because of the flaws — the inaccuracies as well as the disproportionate way men, minorities and poor people are sentenced to die. Still, I understand people’s desire to kill. What I don’t understand is advocating executions without also advocating ways to make sure we’re not executing the wrong people.

There’s a lot to be enraged about Loyd’s case.

I’m mad that Orlando lost a servant officer; a mother and wife.

I’m mad that most people don’t even know the name of Loyd’s ex-girlfriend. (It was Sade Dixon, by the way. And she left behind two children.)

I’m mad that Dixon’s death wasn’t enough to get many people’s attention.

I’m mad that vileness like Loyd even exists.

I’m mad that Loyd helps make the case to keep the death penalty … and yet also mad that some people can’t look beyond their emotional reactions to see capital punishment’s systemic flaws as well.

And I’m mad at the people who play politics with crimes … and that voters so often reward them for it.