What a civilized nation we are. We execute blind and deaf 76 yearolds.

[cantstandbush]

What a model of civilized, humane ideals!

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Jimmy Carter's book has an excellent chapter on the Death Penalty.

I encourage all proponents to read it.

[mrcheerful]

2. Why are you surprised? My state has never had the DP yet when

a 5 year old black kid got his hands on a gun, took it to school and shot a 5 year old white girl every news paper was calling for the death plenlty and making it retro-active. In another words, the people of the state wanted to try the 5 year old as an adult so they could execute the 5 year old.

[marmar]

3. But yet there is a great deal of support for it in this country...

I just don't understand it. This is the only so-called advanced Western country with a death penalty, yet there's no big hue and cry against it. Most protests against U.S. executions happen in Europe. How we've justified this to ourselves in our national psyche baffles and saddens me. :cry:

[raccoon]

8. And even MEXICO doesn't have the death penalty! nt

[CBGLuthier]

4. I may be against the death penalty

But I will not shed one damn tear for that miserable piece of shit.

People who murder 17 year old girls don't raise a fuckin bit of sympathy from me.

[qanda]

5. Did I hear this correctly...

His heart actually stopped working a few months ago and they revived him so they could execute him later? I was still a little sleepy this morning and so I'm not sure I heard that right.

[mrcheerful]

6. Yes they did, it is required by law that if a person on

death row dies they have to do everything in their power to bring them back. One of these days we will get a case that a brain dead person will be kept alive so the state can end his life. BTW, its also why they swab the arm to kill germs before inserting the needle.

[Silverhair]

9. Yes, they do swab it, for a reason.

If there is a last second reprive, then the technician must have followed proper procedure so that he would not then have an infection.

BTW - There actually have been last second stays. In the case of Caryl Chessman, in I think 1960 (Not sure of date) a judge at the last minuted ordered a stay. His clerk dialed the prison, but dialed the wrong number. He had to discover his mistake, and then redial for the gas chamber phone. He was then too late. The pellets had already dropped into the acid under the seat.

[Silverhair]

7. Yes. He still had not exausted his appeals.

There was the possibility that he might get his sentence commuted.

[Silverhair]

10. If he had been executed promptly, he would have been in better health.

He was already serving a life sentence for murder when he was paroled and then began to murder those who had testified against him.

The process took over 20 years, giving him time to become old and frail. A prompt execution would have taken care of that.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. He was never paroled

He sent a recently paroled inmate to carry out a contract killing in 1980. He was already serving a life sentence for murder. The three people he had executed had all testified against him. They were all in their teens and 20's. This was very much a local story for us. Fran's Market was a local, rural market. The kind where if you couldn't afford the groceries you needed this week you could pay them next week. One of the victims was the owner's son.

I'm not defending the death penalty but when this guy ordered the hit he was 50 years old. He cut short the life of 3 young people. Like the poster above, I'm not shedding a tear for this guy.

[Thtwudbeme]

12. I am not shedding a tear for this guy either. I am crying for the blood

on the hands of the citizens of the United States for failure to recognize that the DP does absolutely nothing in terms of determent from committing crimes in the first place, the expense involved, and the barbarity of state sanctioned killings.

Stephanie

[Silverhair]

13. Thanks for the correction. Article I read about him had it wrong. NT

[Le Taz Hot]

14. The media gets it wrong.

Go figure. :sarcasm: ;-)