Reynold's loony idea preceded Avery case

I believe I have done a disservice to State Sen. Tom Reynolds, R-Lunacy, by suggesting that the death penalty bill he is circulating was drafted in response to the Steven Avery case.

The Reynolds bill would require a criminal to score a hat trick -- rape, murder and dismemberment (not in any particular order) in order to hit the death penalty jackpot -- a ride on the gurney to the death chamber.

Sorry for the light tone. Killing people in our name is no joking matter. But is idea is so loony it is hard to treat it otherwise. Dennis York agrees.

A reader reminds me that Reynolds has been researching this particular bill for a long time. As Spivak and Bice reported, one of the off-kilter assignments Reynolds gave his staff was:

Surveying the worst of the worst inmates to ask them if they would have committed their awful crimes if the state had adopted a death penalty for anyone convicted of the unholy trifecta of rape, murder and dismemberment – Reynolds’ capital punishment plan.

This would have been a very fast survey, since Department of Corrections officials found that nobody currently serving time was convicted of all three felonies, according to memos released in response to an open records request filed with the state.

That news must have resulted in a collective sigh of relief in Reynolds’ office. Evidence: When a corrections official apologized last October for a delay in providing a list of convicted killers doing time in Wisconsin, it took (then-chief of staff Steve) Krieser all of a minute to fire back the following response: "No problem. Frankly, I'm in no great hurry to contact these people, for my part."

So, what's the harm, you might ask, if this death penalty doesn't even affect anyone? It's that Wisconsin, which has gotten along fine without a death penalty -- even for Jeffrey Dahmer -- would have it on the books. And once it's in the statutes, those who want the state to kill people will work in every legislative session to expand its scope.

If there's a bloodlust to kill something, let's kill this bill right now.