A sigh of relief heard across Virginia
 

Man executed in 1992 found to be guilty after all, despite maintaining his innocence until the end and the recent hype over his new DNA test

Personally, I'm against the death penalty for the sheer impracticality of it all, but this quote from the article cracked me up:

So are informants and witnesses with an axe to grind or something to gain. :(

This is where someone jumps in and says, "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out", right?

I'm sure UG will be here any minute, Patrick. As soon as he gets through killing a few ragheads for democracy. :right:

I have a hard time explaining my feelings on the death penalty.
My 17 year old sister was raped & murdered just about 10 years ago. We've never found her killers. If and when we find them - they will be lucky to get the death penalty.

On the other hand, my husband works for both the prosecution & the defense on the very same kind of cases, and I can't tell you how many times it's come out that the person in custody (usually prison by the time he gets involved) is actually innocent.

I would fully support the death penalty if we had a better justice system.

Oh, my! That is awful! I am so sorry! Yes, I can understand why you would have mixed feelings about the death penalty When it comes to vengence, I've always though life in a max security prison as Bubba's boy toy would be a better revenge than a quick and easy death, but I've never walked in the shoes of someone like you.

There is also that nagging problem that the person just might be innocent.

Innocent of that crime. I often wonder how many people are convicted of crimes the didn't commit because they were charged with a crime they can't defend against in lieu of a crime the police and procecutor are "sure" they committed but can't procecute. I hope that made sense. I know it's not right but it would be justice....at least poetic.
I might be persuaded by that if you could guarentee he would be Bubba's boy toy and not Bubba.....and it didn't cost me $50k for every year he survives. :mad:

Which is why a guy with a record of petty theft is more likely to be sentenced to die for a crime he or she didn't commit than someone with no criminal record. That's not justice, that's a sick joke.

Then there is also the problem of idenity theft. I don't think ID theft is a factor in too many wrongful charges of murder, but it certainly can be a factor in other crimes.. I know where-of I speak:

4 years ago someone stole my purse which contained among other things, my passport, my driver's licence, my social security card, and an unfilled doctor's prescription. They went on quite the little crime spree as me and I am still having difficulty clearing up the wreckage after THEIR party - including a number of odd aliases and 20 counts of prescription drug fraud. :mad:

Can you back that up. You don't think a person with a long rap sheet is more likely to commit a capital offense? Especially if it's a series of things like purse snatching, burglary, car theft, etc rather than say check fraud or embezzlement. I certainly do, which would explain your "statistic". :eyebrow:

Actually, what I more have in mind right off is dipping the biggest such rag in cold water and snapping Marichiko on the butt. (Insert appropriate smiley.)

It's only impractical when you spend 20 or 30 years not killing somebody.

I think I heard a news story headline recently ... something about some guy who has been on death row so long he's trying to get his sentence commuted to life because he's too old to be executed?

Yeah, they executed him anyway. (The CNN article's already been taken down or I'd link it.) But I totally agree, the 20-30 years of legal appeals is what I'm against, and if they can't keep that under control, then I figure let 'em live. Whatever costs me less.

Another murderer brought to you via Fresno, California. This lowlife was finally executed this morning. All kinds of protestors hanging around and family members talking about how "unfair" it all was, kissing the old boy goodbye and telling him they loved him... it totally made me sick. This scum had his son's girlfriend murdered for snitching on his gang of robbers, then while in prison for life on that charge he ordered the murders of 3 other people here because they might be witnesses against him on his appeal. Up to the last minute there were still lawyers talking about his "possible innocence" and how further appeals should be heard. There is no excuse for this monster having been kept alive - longer, in fact, than all but one of the parents of his victims.

We can only hope that 25 years from now we will not be hearing still one more appeal on behalf of Fresno murderer Marcus Wesson, who ordered the sacrificial slaughter of 9 of his children who were born from incest. We have to hear all the time how his remaining 10 or so children say he was a loving and religious father and he has been unfairly accused :mad:

Clarence Ray Allen's execution attracted a lot less attention -- I suppose because there was nothing Nobel about him. The local paper treatments of the execution are rather instructive: the Los Angeles Times put the headline, on the fold, "Murderer Exhausts His Pleas for Mercy," while the local Ventura County Star puts it below the fold, headlined "With appeals over, Allen is executed by lethal injection," capitalization as in the originals.

They're expecting to execute Allen's accomplice Billy Ray Hamilton, paid by Allen to murder no less than eight witnesses to Allen's crimes. He got one on this list, murdered three other people too, and was caught with seven to go.