NYT: In Rare Case, Vermont Jury Backs Death for a Killer

[DeepModem Mom]

In Rare Case, Vermont Jury Backs Death for a Killer
By KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: July 15, 2005


BOSTON, July 14 - A federal jury in Burlington, Vt., recommended on Thursday that a man convicted of kidnapping and killing a supermarket employee be sentenced to death in Vermont's first capital trial in nearly 50 years.

The defendant, Donald Fell, was found guilty last month of carjacking a 53-year-old Rutland woman, Terry King, on Nov. 27, 2000, as she arrived for work. Prosecutors said Mr. Fell and an accomplice, Robert Lee, abducted Mrs. King and drove her car into New York State, where they bludgeoned her on the side of a road in Dutchess County as she prayed.

Prosecutors said Mr. Fell stole Mrs. King's car to flee the state after killing his mother, Debra Fell, and her friend Charles Conway in Rutland hours earlier.

Mr. Fell and Mr. Lee were arrested in Arkansas three days later. Mr. Lee hanged himself in prison in 2003....

***

Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1987, but the federal government took jurisdiction of the case because the crime involved crossing state lines. In 2001, prosecutors brokered a deal in which Mr. Fell would be sentenced to life in prison without parole, but Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected it....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/national/15verdict.html

[praxiz]

1. Heartwarming.

It's heartwarming to see that such liberty and democractic-loving countries like Pakistan, Iran, China and THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA still know how to truly punish people.

[TahitiNut]

2. Only with the best of reasons of course ...

... just like the self-righteous rationalizations of any murderer. :grr:

[praxiz]

3. Kill the killer ... THEN .. kill the killer of that killer.

and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer... and then kill the killer of that killer...



Yeah, this won't end in tears, no way no way.

[TahitiNut]

6. "... even unto the tenth generation."

:-(

[DBoon]

4. The state can take away your life

you belong to the state.

[Bill McBlueState]

5. new england

Hopefully this will be the last time New England has to compromise its progressivism to satisfy a backwards federal government. But it probably won't be. We have something good going on up here, but Bush's bloodthirsty goons don't like it.

[Larkspur]

7. If I was on the jury, I'd most likely agree with the death penalty in this

case. These crimminals had a choice. They were not forced to carjack and murder Mrs. King. They showed complete lack of empathy for her life. I have no pity for them.

It also looks like Mr. Lee agreed with the death penalty, since he committed suicide.

[Melodybe]

8. Same here, I think that some cases deserve the death penalty.

Child molesters, people like Ken Lay who ruin literally hundreds of thousands of lives, Stalin, the earth is a much better place without them taking up precious oxygen.