'He Is Not A Monster': James Holmes' Parents Plead For Son's Life

Huffington Post

The parents of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes begged Friday for his life to be spared through a plea bargain — a move that rekindled the long-running, emotional debate about whether the horrific details of the mass killing should be played out at his upcoming trial.

The statement released by Robert and Arlene Holmes emphasized a key legal issue in the tortured history of the case — James Holmes' mental state when he killed 12 people and injured 70 others, and whether he should die if convicted of the crime.

"He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness," the parents wrote in just their second public comments since the 2012 attack. "We have always loved him, and we do not want him to be executed."

Another Botched Execution - Arizona Inmate Takes 2 Hours to Die

Joseph Rudolph Wood III

LA Times

A convicted murderer in Arizona gasped and snorted for more than 90 minutes after a lethal injection Wednesday, his ATTORNEYS and witnesses said, dying in a botched execution that prompted the governor to order an investigation and the state Supreme Court to mandate that the materials used in the procedure be preserved. 

Joseph Rudolph Wood III's execution almost certainly will reinvigorate the national debate over the death penalty. He received an injection at 1:52 p.m. at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. The execution became so prolonged that reporters witnessing the execution counted several hundred of his wheezes before he was finally declared dead at 3:49 p.m. — nearly two hours after the procedure began. 

The incident comes in a year in which lethal injections had already triggered controversy over botched procedures and secrecy.

Any street junkie in the country could do a better job than these bumbling idiots in charge of the lethal injection protocols. And where are all the self-proclaimed Constitutional scholars.  Any hint of violating the 2nd Amendment and they're up on their high horse, but violating the 8th is no problem for them - the hypocrites.

Oh, and let's not overlook the fact that he was a lawful gun owner who turned bad.  He wasn't a gang banger or a drug dealer, nor was he a polite and respectful gun owner. He was another dangerous maniac who should have been disarmed before he went berserk.

Firing Squads in Utah???

Rep. Paul Ray, a Utah Republican legislator plans on introducing execution by firing squad after the botched Oklahoma attempt at lethal injection.

His reason is that it would be more humane, which shows some historical ignorance: in particular of the Holocaust.  The gas chambers were introduced as a more humane method of execution since the firing squad executions caused the soldiers to suffer pangs of conscience.

Of course, this method of execution didn't really have much of a deterrent effect as this resistance member demonstrates.

All in all, it sounds like a really bad idea and is getting a lot of play--mostly negative.

Although, I am sure there are enough blood thirsty people in the US willing to volunteer for this duty.

Florida Has Never Executed A White Person For Killing A Black Person

Think Progress

A better method of execution.

I understand that Wyoming Senator Bruce Burns is proposing firing squads for execution.  His reasoning is:

"The state of Wyoming doesn't have a gas chamber currently, an operating gas chamber, so the procedure and expense to build one would be impractical to me," said Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I consider frankly the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual, so I went with firing squad because they also have it in Utah," Burns said. He's introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10 in Cheyenne.

"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said. "The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows."

Actually, the guillotine is a much less expensive and cost effective method of execution. It has the additional deterrent value of being able to stick the criminal's head on a pole as a warning to others not to commit a crime. It was used in Europe well into the 20th century, which means that it may not fall under the constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments".

It's a win-win!

After all, see how well it worked after the French Revolution!

Should Maj. Nidal Hasan Be Executed for his Crimes?

 

The Washington Post

A soldier left for dead after being shot in the head. A widow whose two sons won’t have their father to take them fishing or teach them how to be gentlemen. A grieving father who includes himself and his unborn grandson in the death toll of the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood. 

Survivors of the attack and relatives of those killed testified Monday during the final phase of Maj. Nidal Hasan’s trial. Prosecutors hope the emotional testimony — from sobbing widows, distraught parents and paralyzed soldiers — helps convince jurors to impose a rare military death sentence on Hasan, who was convicted last week of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Texas military base.

The sentencing phase also will be Hasan’s last chance to tell jurors what he’s spent the last four years telling the military, judges and journalists: that the killing of unarmed American soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan was necessary to protect Muslim insurgents. But whether he plans to address jurors remains unclear.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Ziegler was among the first to testify, telling jurors how he was shot four times and underwent emergency surgery that removed about 20 percent of his brain. Doctors initially expected him to die or remain in a vegetative state.

Ziegler was hospitalized for about 11 months and had 10 surgeries. He is now paralyzed on his left side, unable to use his left hand, and blind spots in both eyes prevent him from driving.

“I think I’m hopeful I’ll continue to recover some movement, but eventually I’ll succumb to my wounds and I won’t be able to function,” Ziegler said.

The married father said he has trouble caring for his 10-month-old son, “like a normal father would,” and described his cognitive level as that of a 10th or 11th grader. He also said he has fought severe depression.

“I’m a lot angrier and lot darker than I used to be,” he said, adding that the injuries had “pretty much affected every facet of my personality.”

Shoua Her wiped away tears as she recalled how she and her husband, Pfc. Kham Xiong, talked about growing old together and having more children. Now, she said, their children know their slain father only through memories and stories.

“We had talked about how excited we were to purchase our first home. We talked about vacations and places we wanted to go visit. And all that was stripped away from me,” she said.

“Our daughter will not have her dad to walk her down the aisle. My two sons will never have their dad to take them fishing or (teach them) sports or how to be a gentleman.”

Capital punishment is state-sanctioned pre-meditated murder.  It's done for revenge, not justice.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a verdict.

Support for Capital Punishment is Waning

Ariel Castro, center, enters the courtroom for his arraignment Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, accused of holding three women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to hundreds of charges, including rape and kidnapping

The National Post

Public support for capital punishment remains strong, solidly 60% in both the U.S. and Canada, which abolished it in 1976, and came within two dozen House of Commons votes of reinstating it in 1987.

But there are signs this modern period of American justice might not last. In March, Maryland became the most recent of five states in six years to abolish capital punishment.

What these votes have revealed is a country formally divided, state against state, on a life and death issue.

Virginia, Ohio and national leader Texas are lined up against New York, New Mexico and Michigan, with California unsure where to stand, as it curiously registers death sentences but does not carry them out. Only nine states used it in 2012. It was 13 the year before. The national tally is 32 with, 18 without, and closing.

“I think what’s taking place is a gradual movement away from the death penalty that now has, by almost any measure, made it into an institution used by a minority of the population in a minority of the counties,” said James Liebman, professor of law at Columbia Law School in New York.

Werner Herzog's "Into the Abyss"

Virginia Executes Robert Gleason Jr.

The Washington Post reports

A convicted murderer who killed two fellow inmates while serving a life sentence and vowed to keep on killing unless he was put to death was executed Wednesday night in Virginia.

Robert Gleason Jr., 42, originally of Lowell, Mass., was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, the Associated Press reported.

Gleason pleaded guilty to strangling his cellmate, Harvey Watson, with a bedsheet at the Wallens Ridge State Prison in 2009, saying under oath that he timed it to coincide with the anniversary of the killing for which he was sent to prison in the first place, according to court documents.

Gleason later told the court that he “already had a few [other] inmates lined up, just in case I didn’t get the death penalty, that I was gonna take out.”

In 2010, he strangled another inmate through a wire fence in a recreation pen at the Red Onion State Prison, a “supermax” facility, according to court records. Prosecutors said he mocked the prison staff as they tried to revive Aaron Cooper.

Gleason also pleaded guilty to that slaying and was sentenced to death in both killings. Gleason was given a life sentence for the slaying of Mike Jamerson in Virginia’s Amherst County in 2007. Prosecutors said he carried out that killing to cover up his involvement in a drug gang.

I admit it's a dilemma what to do with guys like this. But, even a regular Otto Delaney should not receive state-sanctioned per-meditated murder just for the asking.  It's barbaric.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

300th Prisoner Exonerated by DNA Analysis - 18 from Death Row

The Los Angeles Times reports

A Louisiana man was released from death row on Friday after serving 15 years for a crime that DNA evidence shows he did not commit.

Damon Thibodeaux, 38, was the 300^th prisoner nationwide to see his conviction overturned based on DNA evidence, according to lawyers who represented him from the New York-based Innocence Project. He was the 18^th death row prisoner freed based on such evidence.

“This journey to freedom was a long time coming,” said one of his attorneys, Caroline Tillman of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, in a statement Friday. “The solitary conditions that Mr. Thibodeaux was forced to live under as a death row inmate were almost more than he could bear at times, but he never gave up hope that one day he would be free.”

The first and real reason we need to abolish the death penalty is because it's wrong. It's state-sanctioned per-meditated murder.  It can never be justified.

After that we have all these poor suckers who were wrongly convicted.  Thirdly, the cost is much higher than sentencing them to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Execution by Elephant

via The Oddment Emporium 

Execution by elephant was a common method of capital punishment in South and Southeast Asia, and particularly in India. Asian Elephants were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives in public executions. The animals were trained and versatile, both able to kill victims immediately or to torture them slowly over a prolonged period. Employed by royalty, the elephants were used to signify both the ruler’s absolute power and his ability to control wild animals.

Cenk Uygur on the Texas Execution

The National Disgrace - Executing Humans

From the New York Times Opinion Pages

Marvin Wilson, with an I.Q. of 61, is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Tuesday. His execution would directly contradict the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that “the mentally retarded should be categorically excluded from execution” because of “their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment and control of their impulses.” The court should accept Mr. Wilson’s case for review and end Texas’s illegal defiance of its explicit holding that the death penalty for the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.

What do you think? Is this a national disgrace, or what?

Maybe it would be better to call it a Texas disgrace, since they are the most likely to partake in this travesty of justice.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Dubya Bush head on spike

Since one of the interests of this blog is capital punishment...

 According to this, it seems that the makers of Game of Thrones have apologised for showing a head on a spike that was similar to that of George Bush (AKA Dubya).
Looking at the picture, I'm not so sure about that.  Maybe it's wishful thinking on somebody's part.
Personally, I think brutal punishments as deterrence are much better than an armed populace for keeping people on the straight and narrow.  Sticking people in prison isn't as much of a punishment as a head on a pole, or putting someone on a gibbet.
*************************

I trust Laci won't object to me adding this image of parallel photos for comparison above, so people can draw their own conclusions.

Connecticut Abolishes the Death Penalty

The Guardian reports

 Connecticut has abolished the death sentence for all future cases, becoming the fifth state in five years to repeal the ultimate punishment as the abolition movement gathers steam across America.

The governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, described the death penalty as one of the "most compelling and vexing issues of our time", as he put his signature to SB280, rendering his state the 17th in America to make a break with judicial killings. The bill replaces the death sentence with life without parole for all new cases.

You know what's funny. Neanderthal gun-rights laws are coming faster than we can keep up with them, The Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground, for example, while examples of enlightened legislation like the abolition of capital punishment are few and far between.

What's your opinion. Is Connecticut doing the right thing?

Please leave a comment.

Rachel Maddow on the Death Penalty Reverse Trend

via Fuck Conservatives

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Arizona Executes Another Mentally Ill Prisoner

ABC reports on a case which could possibly make some less-committed anti-death-penalty folks question their beliefs. Not me, though.  I figure people who do stuff like this are mentally ill and should not be eligible for capital punishment.  What do you think?

The execution happened just a minute's drive away from the Blue Mist Motel, where on Jan. 13, 1984, he beat, stabbed and suffocated his adoptive mother, Roberta Moormann, 74, who sexually abused him into adulthood, according to defense lawyers.

He cut off her head, legs and arms, halved her torso, and flushed all her fingers down the toilet. He then went to various businesses asking if he could dispose of spoiled meat and animal guts before he threw most of her remains in trash bins and sewers throughout the dusty town, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.

Moormann was captured after he asked a corrections employee to dispose of what he said were dog bones.

He killed the woman while on a three-day "compassionate furlough" from the prison in Florence, where he was serving nine years to life for kidnapping and molesting an 8-year-old girl in 1972.

Ohio --- State-Sanctioned Murder of the Mentally Ill

The Washington Post reports

on yet another stain on the reputation of the freedom-loving state of Ohio where they prize individual rights so much.

Capital punishment is an abomination, but at least Reginald Brooks went out in style.

Dressed in the standard white T-shirt and blue pants, Brooks declined to make a final statement and remained silent as he received the lethal injection. Witnesses, which included his former wife and her sisters, had a view of his left hand, its middle finger raised. Prison officials said he was making the same gesture with his right hand.

Brooks’ actions appear to have been unprecedented since the state resumed executions in 1999. Condemned Ohio inmates in the past have criticized their sentences, professed their innocence, given angry final statements and pleaded to be spared, but never made an obscene gesture.

Brooks’ lawyer said the gesture reflected the inmate’s anger at the final set of court decisions.

“That was his reaction to how things had gone down in the last couple of days,” defense attorney Michael Benza said.

“Even Reggie, the mentally ill, paranoid schizophrenic, understood how wrong the process was,” he said. “It wasn’t to the family, it was to the system that had treated him so badly these last few weeks.”

Does it take a panel of psychiatrists to determine that he was mentally ill? From the act he committed almost 30 years ago to the very last moment of his life, wasn't it obvious?

What's your opinion? Even some people who favor the death penalty agree we should take care not to execite mentally handicapped people, isn't that right?

Please leave a comment.

Thom Hartmann on the Death Penalty

via Fuck Conservatives.

I don't think "murder" is too strong a word.

Dedicated to Troy Davis - May He Rest in Peace

via Criminal Wisdom