KILLER IS NO SYMBOL FOR EXECUTION DEBATE

Wednesday's execution of Jerome Mallett brought a sense of closure for some to a 16-year-old wound suffered by the family of Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper James Froemsdorf.

Mallett slipped out of his handcuffs, shot and killed the trooper during an arrest near Brewer, Mo.

Mallet's last words, mouthed to Froemsdorf family members before the fatal injection was administered, appeared to be "I'm sorry."

The American Civil Liberties Union is using the case to start an anti-death penalty effort in Missouri.

ACLU members argue that Mallett, who was black, couldn't have received a fair trial before an all-white jury in an all-white county. The trial had been moved to Schuyler County on a change of venue.

Any jury would have convicted Mallett.

He consciously chose to execute an honorable law-enforcement officer who had a wife and three young daughters at home.

Jerome Mallett is the reason Missouri has the death penalty.

The ACLU had best look elsewhere for its poster child.