Critics Slam ACLU After Statement Advocating For Brutal Killer

Although well-intentioned Americans disagree on the ethical implications of capital punishment, few individuals on either side of the debate would actively advocate for a death row inmate convicted of heinous attacks and brutal murders.

The American Civil Liberties Union, however, appeared to do exactly that after Duane Owen was put to death in Florida, nearly 40 years after assaulting and killing two individuals — a teen girl and a 38-year-old mother of two. He was also convicted of two other attacks in which the victims survived.

Ignoring the gravity of the crimes for which Owen was executed, the leftist ACLU posted a tweet that focused entirely on the inmate’s self-assessed gender identity.

“The state of Florida never provided medically necessary gender-affirming care to Duane Owen — causing her enormous suffering,” the organization wrote, using female pronouns to refer to the killer.

As a result, the ACLU concluded that authorities “violat[ed] her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment for the more than 30 years she was in state custody.”

The organization wrote in a subsequent tweet, the organization cited “legal papers” in which “Owen wrote that she ‘should be accorded the essence of human dignity and be allowed to become who she was meant to be before her death.”

Of course, the psychiatrists called to evaluate Owen’s came to a much different conclusion, insisting that complaints of schizophrenia and gender dysphoria were all a part of an “act” on Owen’s part. 

The ACLU’s tweet on the matter was inundated with disapproving responses and many prominent conservatives shared their reactions in tweets of their own. 

The advocacy group Gays Against Groomers expressed dismay that the ACLU is “very upset” over the supposed plight of a convicted killer, calling its leaders “monsters” and adding: “This is not parody.”

For her part, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey wrote that the “only injustice in Owen’s case is that it took the state 40 years to execute him.”

Political columnist Wesley Yang took a more holistic approach to denouncing the ACLU’s stance, writing that it “is working tirelessly to ensure that a delusional echo chamber — in which the suffering of a male serial rapist and murderer of women denied ‘medically necessary gender affirming care’ takes priority over his victims — encompasses the world and is mandated by law.