Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino opens his film Pulp Fiction with this definition:

Pulp n.
1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter.
2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.
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An editorial in Wednesday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught my attention.

It addresses the reinstitution of the death penalty in Wisconsin.
"How to execute 'fairly'?" is not noteworthy for its anti-death penalty position or its supporting arguments.

What causes it to stand out is the two odd vignettes used to make the case for what the board believes is the arbitrariness of the DNA provision, designed to protect innocent people from being executed.

The board provides two scenarios as illustrations.

• A hit man enters a home and coldly shoots to death the man of the house. The wife and child show up unexpectedly, and the hit man offs them, too, so as not to leave witnesses. Being a professional, he's hip to DNA evidence and knows the precautions to take to avoid leaving any behind. He wears gloves, for instance, and makes sure he doesn't discard on the premises the tissue into which he had sneezed. He's nonetheless caught because, unbeknown to him, a hidden video camera that his initial victim had set up catches the entire episode.

• Two guys get into a bitter quarrel over money in the home of one of them. The visitor is packing heat and, in a fit of rage, pulls out his gun and shoots the other dead - his first killing - and then flees. His DNA, however, is all over the place - on the cigarette butts in the ashtray, on the tissue in the trash can, on the blood on the table where he had accidentally cut himself. Besides, it was no secret he was the visiting the house. The police arrest him.

Is this an editorial or a pulp fiction submission?
"[T]he hit man offs them, too... ."

"[H]e's hip to DNA evidence... ."

"The visitor is packing heat... ."

"His DNA, however, is all over the place - on the cigarette butts in the ashtray, on the tissue in the trash can, on the blood on the table where he had accidentally cut himself."
I can understand the need to provide examples to illustrate a point, but these are just weird. It's not the examples per se, but the writing style that seems so out of place.

This editorial has no name attached to it, but its author seems to be in the wrong profession.

It must be tough writing editorials when you're a frustrated crime novelist.