Executions largely confined to the southern US

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Only fitting that the most backwards, Republican part of the country should still be the only part using this 18th century punishment.


http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/2/3/224738/1484

The Meaning of Lower Death Penalty Stats
By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty

Time Magazine reports on declining death penalty numbers, saying a shift has developed against capital punishment.

Last year saw just 37 executions in the U.S., with only 111 death sentences handed down. Although 36 states and the Federal Government still have death penalty laws on the books, the practice of carrying out executions is limited almost entirely to the South, where all but two of last year's executions took place. (The exceptions were both in Ohio.)

Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy isn't as positive about the meaning of the decline:

The last few weeks of January 2009 brought seven executions (five of which were in Texas), the most in any concentrated period since June 2007. In addition, there are two executions scheduled for tomorrow (one in Tennessee and one in Texas). Also, Virginia's legislature recently voted to expand that state's death penalty law.

Death penalty opponents do see a shift. Time notes: [More..]

Death penalty opponents say the use of DNA evidence, which has led to a number of prisoners being released from death row, is a big part of the reason for the decline in executions generally. "That's had a ripple effect," says Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based advocacy group. "The whole legal system has become more cautious about the death penalty. Prosecutors are not seeking it as much. Juries are returning more life sentences. And judges are granting more stays of execution. Last year there were over 40."

I think economics weigh in as well. People are starting to realize the enormous cost of death penalty trials and appeals and realizing that life without parole is an effective punishment tool. Look at the trend in various states this year:

In 2007 New Jersey became the first state in 40 years to abolish its death penalty. In that same year repeal bills were narrowly defeated in Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico, all of which are revisiting the issue this year. Now the focus is on Maryland. After years of failed attempts by death penalty opponents to bring a repeal bill to a vote in the state legislature,

Texas and the South will always be an unfortunate anomaly. But I agree with Time, in the rest of the country, the pendulum is shifting in the right direction -- against the death penalty.

 

[cawacko]

How are you going to kill all the conservatives then without the death penalty?

 

[Cancel10]

Death sentences are still handed in down in many liberal states including California, Oregon and Washington. However, the legal procedures in these states tend to be more favorable toward trial lawyers as opposed to victims and their families, explaining why death sentences aren't handed down as quickly as in more conservative states. It has nothing to do with being more "civilized." If I'm not mistaken South Korea and Japan also carry out executions. Do you believe these countries are uncivilized?

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

How are you going to kill all the conservatives then without the death penalty?

Exceptions.

 

[cawacko]

Exceptions.

Cool

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Death sentences are still handed in down in many liberal states including California, Oregon and Washington. However, the legal procedures in these states tend to be more favorable toward trial lawyers as opposed to victims and their families, explaining why death sentences aren't handed down as quickly as in more conservative states. It has nothing to do with being more "civilized." If I'm not mistaken South Korea and Japan also carry out executions. Do you believe these countries are uncivilized?

Absolutely.

South Korea is more civilized than the US, however, being that it hasn't executed anyone in more than 10 years.

And about victims, if someone in my family was murdered, there is nothing less that I would want than for conservatives to spit on their grave by executing someone because of it. The death penalty in the modern world is wholly and completely unnecessary. You guys like to use victims as human shields for your barbaric beliefs and the hard-ons you get from the death penalty. So when a victim agrees with the death penalty you shout it from the roof tops, but when they don't you tell them to shut the fuck up.

 

[Cancel10]

Absolutely.

South Korea is more civilized than the US, however, being that it hasn't executed anyone in more than 10 years, and Japan executes fewer people per a capita than than the US also. So the US is still more uncivilized than any developed nation.

And about victims, if someone in my family was murdered, there is nothing less that I would want than for conservatives to spit on their grave by executing someone because of it. The death penalty in the modern world is wholly and completely unnecessary. You guys like to use victims as human shields for your barbaric beliefs and the hard-ons you get from the death penalty. So when a victim agrees with the death penalty you shout it from the roof tops, but when they don't you tell them to shut the fuck up.

Do you live in the USA?

The overwhelming majority of Americans disagree with you, including the majority of victims' families. But, it's not really about what they "want" anyway. This isn't Burger King - you don't always get it your way. This is about justice and doing what is necessary to protect society from violent criminals, particularly ones who are very likely to reoffend (such as serial killers).

How do you feel about abortion?

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Do you live in the USA?

I live in Wiggins, MS.

The overwhelming majority of Americans disagree with you, including the majority of victims' families.

So it's about doing what's popular and not what's right, eh? That's what the founders wanted us to think like.

But, it's not really about what they "want" anyway. This isn't Burger King - you don't always get it your way.

One minute you're saying that the justice system is the way it is because it's "for victims" instead of "for trial lawyers", then you're saying that it doesn't matter what victims want? Let me guess, I assume that if a victim wants the death penalty they are "for victims", and if that victim doesn't they are "for trial lawyers"? The fact is, the pro-death penalty's peoples victim argument is an absurdly weak one, because the death penalty has never healed a heart or brought any sense of closure to anything ever, and some victims disagree with it anyway. There are few things in our system more HURTFUL to victims than the death penalty.

This is about justice and doing what is necessary to protect society from violent criminals, particularly ones who are very likely to reoffend (such as serial killers).

And how often are serial killers released in America? Unless you're talking about some flaw in an antiquated system of parole from decades ago, none. These days, it's difficult for even people who committed second degree murder to get released, and some states like Pennsylvania make life without parole mandatory for all offenses. Which is the cornerstone to my argument - the death penalty in America is simply unnecessary, and in any society in which it is absolutely unnecessary it quickly fades into oblivion.

How do you feel about abortion?

Sweet fetal justice.

 

[Cancel10]

So it's about doing what's popular and not what's right, eh?

That is not a premise of my argument. What I said was in response to your assertion that capital punishment is an extreme, unusual form of punishment. It is not. It is is accepted by a majority of Americans and Japanese as a proper sentence for the most heinous crimes. Even in countries where it is not part of their legal system, you will find widespread support for it. In France, for example, 42% favor reinstating the death penalty. As of 2005, 44% of Canadians and 49% of UK citizens support the death penalty. Are they barbarians?

Japanese citizens are actually more enthusiastic than Americans about capital punishment, with 82% support compared to our 64%. Does that make them more barbaric than Americans? By your logic, I guess that's how it flies.

That's what the founders wanted us to think like.

Nonsense. Most of the founding fathers hated democracy. Jefferson said, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." It is becoming clear to me that you know very little of our country's founding principles.

One minute you're saying that the justice system is the way it is because it's "for victims" instead of "for trial lawyers", then you're saying that it doesn't matter what victims want? Let me guess, I assume that if a victim wants the death penalty they are "for victims", and if that victim doesn't they are "for trial lawyers"? The fact is, the pro-death penalty's peoples victim argument is an absurdly weak one, because the death penalty has never healed a heart or brought any sense of closure to anything ever, and some victims disagree with it anyway. There are few things in our system more HURTFUL to victims than the death penalty.

Actually, you brought up the victims/families. I responded that whether the family supports or opposes the death penalty is irrelevant, as justice must be carried out regardless. Don't blame me for your own failed argument.

And how often are serial killers released in America? Unless you're talking about some flaw in an antiquated system of parole from decades ago, none. These days, it's difficult for even people who committed second degree murder to get released, and some states like Pennsylvania make life without parole mandatory for all offenses. Which is the cornerstone to my argument - the death penalty in America is simply unnecessary, and in any society in which it is absolutely unnecessary it quickly fades into oblivion.

And my response is that by taking the life of another human being, they have forfeited their own right to live.

Sweet fetal justice.

In other words, you oppose the killing of murders and rapists, while turning a blind eye the murder of the most innocent and defenseless amongst us. Care to shed some light on this glaring inconsistency?

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

watermark pwned!

watermark for the record lots of victims feel closure during execution.

 

[Topspin]

well if we'd have declaired war on rednecks & skinheads after McViegh's bombing that wouldn't be the case today.

 

[blackascoal]

Absolutely.

South Korea is more civilized than the US, however, being that it hasn't executed anyone in more than 10 years.

And about victims, if someone in my family was murdered, there is nothing less that I would want than for conservatives to spit on their grave by executing someone because of it. The death penalty in the modern world is wholly and completely unnecessary. You guys like to use victims as human shields for your barbaric beliefs and the hard-ons you get from the death penalty. So when a victim agrees with the death penalty you shout it from the roof tops, but when they don't you tell them to shut the fuck up.

 

[blackascoal]

Do you live in the USA?

The overwhelming majority of Americans disagree with you, including the majority of victims' families. But, it's not really about what they "want" anyway. This isn't Burger King - you don't always get it your way. This is about justice and doing what is necessary to protect society from violent criminals, particularly ones who are very likely to reoffend (such as serial killers).

How do you feel about abortion?

I live in the USA .. and I agree with Watermark wholeheartedly .. and add that the US is the only western nation to engage in such barbaric acts .. and death sentences in America are not only barbaric they are quite often racist.

The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides

The results of two new studies which underscore the continuing injustice of racism in the application of the death penalty are being released through this report. The first study documents the infectious presence of racism in the death penalty, and demonstrates that this problem has not slackened with time, nor is it restricted to a single region of the country. The other study identifies one of the potential causes for this continuing crisis: those who are making the critical death penalty decisions in this country are almost exclusively white.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides

But none of this is news. These truths have been documented, studied, and proved factual for many years .. but racism in the American injustice system remains as infectious today as it ever was, because quite simply, white people don't care. As long as it's mostly black people facing this barbarism, white people don't give a damn .. too busy plastering Obama stickers on their cars and claiming racism is dead.

It is tempting to pretend that minorities on death row share a fate in no way connected to our own, that our treatment of them sounds no echoes beyond the chambers in which they die. Such an illusion is ultimately corrosive, for the reverberations of injustice are not so easily confined. -Justice William Brennan (1987)

So the fact that most Americans may agree with barbarism mostly practiced against non-white people .. that's hardly proof that it isn't simply an act of barbarism. Americans have practiced wanton barbarism since they first stepped onto these shores.

 

[uscitizen]

Bible belt and rascism.

 

[blackascoal]

Bible belt and rascism.

A demonstration that God and truth are often like oil and water.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

and yet, Texas is still thriving economically, better than the northern states. oh gee, whatever will you do?

 

[Cancel3]

There has never been a serious study (that I have seen) that shows capital punishment to be a deterrent to crime.

There is also the issue of cost to the tax payers. In that area, capital punishment loses as well. It is almost always more expensive to execute an inmate than it is to maintain them for the 40 to 45 years of their expected life span.


Life without the possibility of parole is a better way to go.

 

[leaningright]

A demonstration that God and truth are often like oil and water.

BAC, help me understand that one a little better please.

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

There has never been a serious study (that I have seen) that shows capital punishment to be a deterrent to crime.

There is also the issue of cost to the tax payers. In that area, capital punishment loses as well. It is almost always more expensive to execute an inmate than it is to maintain them for the 40 to 45 years of their expected life span.


Life without the possibility of parole is a better way to go.

I think most proponents of the death penalty view it more as an act of justice than a deterrent to crime. Any so-called deterrent is more of a bonus.

Though I would argue that in Singapore crime is heavily deterred due to their harsh sentences for a variety of criminal acts. However that's just assumption on my part.

I think you argument is flawed though because you could probably say the same thing for life sentences. There is no study to show it deters crime, therefore we should reduce life sentences?

 

[blackascoal]

BAC, help me understand that one a little better please.

No problem brother.

Belief in God does not require the recognition of truth, or justice, or even what is "godly." It only requires belief in doctrine .. thus quite often, believers in "God" are less godly, or god-like than those who do not believe in doctrine.

Thus, there is no mystery why the south, which has such an ungodly history, is also the most religious.