Deathbed confession? More like a death row profession!

James Brewer has a few things muddled up. First he thought he was dying because he'd had a stroke. Then he felt confession was good for the soul so he confessed to a murder, after which his stroke symptoms miraculously vanished. However he had not died but remained firmly on Earth to await his fate. That fate could now be death row as an inmate.

The whole story is bizarre. Mr.Brewer is now 58 and apparently shot dead 20-year-old Jimmy Carroll who he thought had been trying to seduce his wife. That was in 1977 when Brewer would have been about 21/22. Two things occur to me. First, guns and hot-headed neighbourly disputes do not mix. Any short period of viewing Jerry Springer re-runs will immediately alert one to the level of aggression that "country folk" can engender. The second is that Brewer and his wife are now involved with church activity and Mrs.Brewer's Bible classes have undoubtedly rubbed off on him.

The irony of all this is that even if the stroke didn't kill him, the state is keen to have its go. Police detective Tony Grasso said, "He wanted to cleanse his soul, because he thought he was going to the great beyond." That in itself is no bad thing. It was good that he confessed. However, it's what happens next that is the issue.

Brewer will probably be charged and then put on trial. Will he be convicted on his confession alone? Maybe. A decent lawyer would probably plead that his client was temporarily insane at the time. Who knows? The thing is he is now in the system. If he is convicted he may end up on death row.

Death row inmate or a dying stroke victim in hospital? Brewer thought he was the latter, now he may the former. The American penal system holds much store in Old Testament style vengeance. Going on death row is a grim reality of this. If he does end up there he may be praying for another stroke. Sounds terrible, I know, but his future is probably better in the hands of the Lord rather than the hands of the warden of a correctional facility. And what a euphemism that is!