The least society can give victims of violence is justice

This was started as an editorial about the senseless murder of a hard-working Youngstown real estate agent.

But before it made it into print, the city registered yet another senseless murder under entirely different circumstances.

Vivian Martin, 67, owner of Essence Realty, was strangled inside a house she was trying to sell on Nelson Avenue last Monday. After she was killed, the house was set afire.

Thomas J. Repchic, 75, was fatally wounded in a hail of bullets fired from a passing car at his older Cadillac as he drove away from St. Dominic Church on Saturday. His wife, Jacqueline A. Repchic, 74, who worked at the church, was wounded.

Either of these killings met a standard for senselessness that shocks a community. One involves preying on a group of business people who by the nature of their work must be prepared to extend themselves to anyone who seeks them out. The other involves discharging a firearm in a wanton disregard for life.

Police have already made arrests in the death of Martin, and it appears that the men who killed her had also targeted other women real estate agents. Their mug shots could appear in the dictionary next to the entry for cowardly.

In the case of Repchic’s death, police haven’t yet developed a motive, but they do have a description of the car and its occupants, they know something about its movements and Mayor Jay Williams has announced a $10,000 reward fund. Men who put such a low value on life as to do what these killers did should be concerned about what any of their friends might do for $10,000.

Society still loses

The shame, however, is that no matter how quickly these killers are brought to justice, or how severe their punishment might be, two productive lives have been snuffed out.

There are those who would maintain that every life is precious, and it is wrong to compare the value of one to the other. To suggest that the lives of Vivian Martin and Thomas Repchic are not of greater value than the lives of their killers defies logic and is an assault on the concept of an orderly and productive society.

A community cannot long survive, much less prosper, without people like Martin and Repchic. It is in danger of ceasing to be a community when predators and drive-by shooters are allowed to roam the streets.

Ideally, families and social networks combine to raise adolescents and young adults who have learned right from wrong and live accordingly. When that doesn’t happen and good people are harmed or killed, it takes a strong police force and an efficient legal system to bring criminals to justice. And when the law allows the administration of the ultimate punishment in the case of aggravated murder, that’s what the punishment should be.

Nothing will restore the lives of the good people who died last week, but it is possible to punish those who took those lives and to send a message that society will make every attempt to protect the good and punish the evil.