Condemned child murderer Richard Allen Davis gave his first media interview after being sentenced to death to "Hard Copy" -- and promptly got sued by California Attorney General Dan Lungren. The suit cites the "Son of Sam" law that prevents prisoners from profiting from their crimes. But the real profiteers are tabloid journalists and ambitious politicians for whom the death penalty has become a modern-day Roman circus. PNS associate editor Michael Kroll, former director of the Death Penalty Information Center, is a Bay Area writer.

Why did "Hard Copy" interview condemned child murderer Richard Allen Davis on television? "To show the public inside the mind of a monster," explained the TV show's spokesperson Gary Rosen -- with a straight face and dollar signs in his eyes.

And why did California Attorney General Dan Lungren sue Davis over the unpaid interview? "You don't make money off killing little girls," explained Lungren -- with his jaw set firmly and the Governor's mansion in his eyes.

In fact, ambitious politicians (a redundancy) and tabloid journalists (an ever-expanding category) have perfected the art of hypocritical pieties in defense of their own self-interests. The truth is that both "Hard Copy" and the Attorney General are equally guilty of exploiting for profit the tragedy of Mr. Davis' life, the terrible crime of murder, and the state's a-death-for-a-death response.

For "Hard Copy" -- Mr. Rosen's high-minded rationale to the contrary -- the goal is ratings which translate into money which translates into power. For Lungren -- his mock shock to the contrary -- the goal is also ratings which translate into (electoral) power which translates into money. Both men understand that in this country, at least, sex and violence pay. Compared to the profits these men hope to reap, Mr. Davis is a piker.

Ironically, it is the death penalty itself that is largely responsible for propelling the pathetic Richard Davis to the status of celebrity which, in turn, gives opportunists like Rosen and Lungren the vehicle they need to drive their self-serving ambitions in style, always careful to describe their purpose in phrases of selfless sacrifice: "We're doing it for the public good."

Of course, even if the death penalty were abolished today, the power hungry would find other ways to exploit the pain and suffering of the powerless -- both the Polly Klaases of the world, and the Richard Allen Davises -- for their self-interests. But as long as the death penalty does exist, it will always give a measure of power to nobodies like Davis, and draw the slimiest media hucksters and the most ambitious politicians like flies to garbage.

In the end, we all bear responsibility for the carnival that the demand for a public killing generates. Rosen and Lungren are clever enough to have the carnival's spotlights turned on them, but it is we who want the carnival. Television has become the Roman Coliseum, and death and destruction the titillation that gives those who hunger for power the chance to divert us by providing a Roman Circus.

Richard Allen Davis will not profit from his television interview. (Aware of the "Son of Sam" law that forbids prisoners from profiting from their crimes, Hard Copy announced that it was not paying for the interview but had, instead, paid a modest fee to an undisclosed recipient for family photographs.) Richard Allen Davis is a pathetic loser who has never profited from anything in his life.

Now that the People of California have deemed Davis life unworthy of existence and set in motion the machinery that permits us to kill him, the real profiteers are smacking their lips as they anticipate the killing they are about to make.