Some cases I have to support the Death Penalty, like this one

[jseankil]

The rapist/killer has 3 daughters of his own as well.

...........
SARASOTA, Florida (AP) -- The brother of a man accused of abducting and killing Carlie Brucia wiped his eyes Wednesday as he recounted his sibling's account of sexually assaulting and killing the 11-year-old the girl.

John Smith testified that his brother, Joseph Smith, told him that he had "rough sex" with Carlie and then strangled her

His brother told him he had intercourse with the girl and made her perform oral sex. Davis left the room crying, and the brothers cried and "were hugging each other close," John Smith said.

After leaving the jail, John Smith and Davis drove to a nearby church where Joseph told him they might find Carlie.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/10/video.abduction.ap/index.html

[meegbear]

1. Agreed 100% ...

and welcome to DU.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. These ARE the cases that make you re-examine your personal morality

[chelsea0011]

3. Painful to watch yesterday. And why is there a trial. There is no

evidence to show him innocent. Did the D.A. offer no plea for taking the death penalty off the table?

[kestrel91316]

7. Defendants do not need "evidence to show innocence". The burden of

proof is on the prosecution, and the defense is making them prove it in court.

Innocent until proven guilty. It's the American way. We can handle it. After all, we all would want the same for ourselves.

[Broken_Hero]

4. Yes...

I agree with you on this, death penalty...but again, i think the death penalty should be allowed...but again, i haven't seen any threads discussing the death penalty issues, but i have only been on this site since May of this year....

Article, very sad...

And welcome to DU....:) :hi:

[Bill McBlueState]

5. so you're not *really* opposed at all

Either you think it's wrong for the state to kill someone, or you don't. You appear to set your personal bar higher than some as to what you think deserves death, but you still support using the machinery of the state to end lives.

[jseankil]

9. Yes, you are right.

I see no reason why an animale like in the story above has any right to exist.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. The point is that the form of your argument is silly

When you pose it as "cases." Here's another one...here's another one...here's another one. Everyone knows that there is horror and despicable violence. That's beside the point.

You either argue this thing at the level of principle, or you go sail. Multiplying examples is a stupid and fruitless way to go about it, since you're never interrogating anything at the level of principles that way.

[jseankil]

17. Well you need to know the reason i'm against the death penalty in general

That being the fear that an innocent could be put to death by error. Self confessions of a crime and details provided in the self confessions eliminates that error from occuring.

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. No one has ever admitted to crimes they didn't commit?

Confessions have never been forced from innocent people?

As an atheist, I don't believe in heaven or hell. This guy is not going to burn for eternity. So why, if punishment is the object, should he get the boon of an early death? Let him spend the next sixty years in a 6x8 cage, thinking about what he did that put him there.

That is real punishment.

[I Have A Dream]

28. I agree with you. n/t

[chelsea0011]

20. I agree with you. We can all pick cases that would make it easy to

agree with the death penalty. The challenge is staying true to your convictions. The state has or will put innocents to death. This environment makes it impossible for me to accept the death penalty in all cases. I have no problem putting people away for life with no parole. That's a harsh punishment.

[murray hill farm]

22. yes, u are right!

taking the life of another is killing...if one justifies killing another for one reason or another..then we are no different than the man whole killed this child...u are just saying that you believe that killing is sometimes OK...or it is ok to kill someone if we do it in a civilized and legal and professional and agreed upon situation...except...well...this guy probably thought, for him..this was one of those OK times to rape and kill...he even, it seems bragged about it to his brother. "reason", like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Given that, for every reason u state, i too feel that in this case..and with this guy...i kind of would like to be the one who pulls the switch..or injects the injection. hearing this story...almost causes that reaction instinctively. i wouldnt, in reality do it....but i do understand the reaction.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. This man is seriously mentally ill

He needed help a long time ago. Killing him will only rid us of ONE sick man.

Reaching out and finding these people before they can hurt anyone would be a much more effective tactic, IMO.

[Gman]

10. Jesse Jackson used to preach about how

it's so much easier and much cheaper to fix these type problems on the front end (when they're kids) than when they've already killed or otherwise committed a crime and are in prison.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Very true

Killing him is a bandaid.

[Nikki Stone 1]

13. Does he have a documented history of mental illness?

Was he ever on meds?

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. You doubt he is ill?

How many sane well-adjusted people would do what he did to this little girl?

He could merely be a sociopath, which is technically not a mental illness. But there is treatment available for it as well.

We need to worry about preventing this kind of violence against our kids. Killing this guy gets ONE bad guy out of our hair. But there are plenty more.

[Gman]

8. Ok, but...

is this the act of a rational person or an irrational act brought on by some kind of chemical imbalance in his brain? To me, this is as irrational an act as anything. Why would a rational, thinking, reasoning correctly person do such a horrible thing? Rough sex with a 11 year old is rational? Do they choose to do this in a well thought out, rational way with sound reasons? Of course not. Obviously there was something awfully wrong with the reasoning that went into making this choice.

Since we cannot rule out that this guy's brain wiring is not right, we have to assume that it is not right. Therefore, we can only reasonably imprison him for life for the protection of the general public. Anything else is revenge which, as right as it seems, is wrong.

This guy's one messed up and sick dude and the community needs to be protected from him. But he shouldn't be put down just because he is not able to reason and act rationally.

[jseankil]

12. I'm not opposed to putting "irrational" people to death

if the crime fits the bill (raping/killing a child)

[Gman]

14. That's where we agree to disagree

because I think that's what we do to animals that behave badly. Not that what this guy did wasn't animalistic. But he is a human life too and I don't think the government has a right to take his life in revenge.

[Lex]

15. So we should kill mentally ill people who kill?

[MamaBear]

18. That's what I think, too.

Dangerous people need to be segregated from the general population. If our culture weren't so gung-ho about punishing drug users, there would be plenty of room in the system for this sort of individual.

It's hard to have a level headed discussion when a child has been killed. The reaction to that kind of crime is so visceral. But a lot of people would be happy to short circuit our system of justice in a case like this and just lynch the guy.

[kurth]

21. Cut him loose among the prison's general population

He won't live 12 hours. Problem solved.

[MercutioATC]

34. That was the idea I had...there are worse things than death.

He'd get a chance to experience a few of them.

[porphyrian]

23. The problem with the death penalty, although some disagree,...

...is less about putting convicted murderers to death as it is about the fallability of the legal system and the racial and class disparity of those who are sentenced to death. It's bad enough discovering people have been wrongly imprisoned, but wrongly put to death is completely unacceptable. It is also completely unacceptable that the rich can buy their way out of nearly any crime, while the poor are convicted more harshly, or that significantly more Blacks get the death penalty than Whites when there are eight times more Whites than Blacks in our country.

[I Have A Dream]

27. I agree with you. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

24. Illinois discovered that 13 out of 25 people on death row were innocent

I was damn sure they were all guilty. Then we also found out that the police were using torture to coerce false confessions from innocent people.

Don

[porphyrian]

29. And it was a republican governor who put a hold on executions. - n/t

[Bunny]

30. That situation in Illinois is what turned me against the death penalty.

[Jed Dilligan]

26. Why this case in particular?

I'm not criticizing, just asking. Stuff like this happens all the time. It's horrible but not exceptional. FYI, I only favor the death penalty in cases like Ken Lay's--a public execution for a crime against the public. The idea of putting people to death in secret chambers sickens me. If you want someone killed, you should be able to stomach the smell of his body hair burning and the shit coming out of his dying ass.

[Danger Duck]

31. What good does it do to kill someone in cold blood?

It doesn't work, it doesn't prevent crime, it's just revenge. Yeah, there's some people that deserve to die, but do you want to pull the trigger? Do you want blood on your hands? It's wrong to kill someone when you don't have to. You don't have to kill someone that is in prison, behind bars, and no longer a threat to the civilized world. Let them rot behind bars, and walk away. Better Karma.

[warrens]

32. Like abortion, DP should be rare

Saved for cases just like this one.

[Contrary1]

33. I'm against the death penalty...

in any situation. I understand how one might look at individual cases
and decide that execution would be the fitting punishment. I can't.

I figure you are either against capital punishment, or you're not.