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Death RowContinued from Page 1sentenced to death in August 1982 for the March shooting of Garlandite Robert Patton Hill, 20, declined Wednesday to be interviewed.Hill’s body was found at a construction site in Irving March 5. His hands were tied behind his back, and he had been shot in the head five times.McKay was arrested two days later while driving Hill’s car. A .38-caliber automatic pistol was also in McKay's possession. Officers said the gun was later determined to be the murder weapon.McKay was convicted due to testimony from his roommate, who said McKay bragged about the shooting soon after the killing. During the trial, defense attorneys argued McKay should not be convicted, saying the state had not rehabilitated him when he was imprisoned for prior convictions.Jay Byrd, a prison system employee in the public affairs office, said McKay refused to be interviewed.He just said he didn’t have anything to say. All we can do is tell them a reporter wants to see them — we can't make them come out of the cell if they don’t want to talk to the media,” Byrd said.However, O’Brien agreed to talk about McKay, offering comments on the death penalty as well. O’Brien said he and McKay share the same recreation period and are acquainted.“David seems like a nice young man. He’s said the only times he got in dutch, Jn trouble that is, is when he was messing with drugs,” O'Brien said.There’s some in here I won’t associate with, but he’s not one of them,” he added.After McKay was convicted in August 1982, Hill’s father, Robert Hill, told the Daily News he felt the sentence was fair. Quoting a Biblical verse in Genesis, Hill said “If you take a life, you should be prepared to give your own.”O’Brien said he disagrees with the eye-for-an-eye theory of justice, charging it points out a conflict between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.The Old Testament teaches ven-genance, but in the New Testament we’re taught to love and forgive,” he said. “You can take almost anything in the Bible and find a way to argue it means one thing or another.”The state shouldn't kill the men on death row to fttow us that killing isn’t right,” he said.“IT’S NOT right to kill, I’m not arguing with that. But what is war except killing and no one who’s ever gone to war knows why they’re out there, he said.Testimony during McKay’s trial included statments from defense attorneys and witnesses that he should not be held accountable for the murder due to his 10-year criminal history. Defense attorneys argued the state had failed to correct McKay’s criminal behavior in connection with previous convictions.“If they say he’s not rehabilitat ed, I have to ask why WfifS he ftei1^ the first time,” O’Brien said.“There are some men here who feel like they already have twt^ strikes against them, and putting them here in a regimented life can cause them to rebel even more,” he said.O’Brien said he also has reservations about lethal injection as a means of carrying out the deathnenalt.vIt’s a rhore ‘humane’ way, he said, gesturing quote marks. He likened the process to that of dealing with a horse with a broken leg.“Do you get a .38 and go blow its brains out, or do you call the vet and have him come and give the horse an injection?“This way society still gets its revenge, but there’s no bugged eyes and boiling brains and burning skin like with the electric chair — it’s clean. That makes it easier for people to accept the killing because that’s what it still is,” he said.CLARENCE BRENDLEY, a Death Row inmate for the past two years, agreed with the idea of executions as revenge. He was convicted for rape and murder by strangulation.“This is revenge. If you take someone’s life because he killed someone, you’re committing a crime same as he did,” he said. This way (lethal injection) is still killing.”Ironically, O'Brien is an adamant supporter of the legal system whichAnti-abortionists claimWASHINGTON (UP1) TheRoman Catholic bishops’ top pro-life lobbyist says the anti-abortion movement won a key victory when House Democrats scrapped a proposed rule change that would have made it more difficult to win consideration of proposed amendments to the I S. Constitution.Father Edward Bryce, director of the bishops' Office for Pro-Life Activities, said the decision by the Democratic Caucus to scrap the rule change was a victory for those whoconvicted him. He says his higher-than-average education level and strict upbringing taught him respect for the law.His first reaction to his son’s death was “this terrible rage, that I wanted to grab a shotgun and go kill whoever did this, but I realized you can’t do that, it’s not acceptable in society.”Many of the other inmates do not have the education to channel their anger constructively, he said.My rage now is based on the indignation of the system, not the way it works, and I believe in it. It’s the best system there is, and it sure beats anything they’ve got in Russia and China,” he said.“The worst thing that being here can do to me is sour my attitude, but I won’t let that happen — I don’t believe all people are cold and insensitive.“I think life is worth fighting for if you make it worth fighting for,” O’Brien said.key victoryseek to protect unliorn children by constitutional amendment.”The rule change aimed primarily at the New Right and its legislative tactics — would have sharply increased the number of signatures of House members necessary to discharge a constitutional amendment from a hostile committee and bring it to the House floor.The National Conference of Catholic Bishops is a longtime supporter of a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions.Daily News Photo By LEE LAIRD FREE RIDE— Tanya Dorso, 22 months, rides to the car with her * 1 _____• ! • * j___t____-r I_____i r _ _ r * nl_________1 O .. I # I : ~ ~
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