DEATH ROW--death penalty in America

[Duchess]

I'm glad he's dead. He should have been executed the very first time he murdered someone.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Good start for the year. Hopefully many more to follow

[HairOfTheDog]

The Storey's Over -- Missouri



It's been a long one...

Walter Storey was 22 years old, going through a divorce, already drunk, and looking to rob his neighbor for beer money when he killed her back in 1990.


He entered the home of his neighbor, ^ Jill Frey - 36, and beat her severely. Then, he slashed her throat.

The next day, he returned to her home where she lay dead, cleaned up the scene and removed evidence from under her fingernails.

The following day, when she failed to show up for work as a Special Ed teacher at the school, Jill Frey was discovered dead in her home. Fortunately, Storey had failed to notice a very clear palm print he'd left in blood on her dresser and he was quickly identified as her killer.

Storey went to trial, was convicted, and was sentenced to death. BUT, the conviction was overturned due to attorney misconduct and errors, and Storey was tried a second time. He was again convicted and sentenced to death. BUT, the conviction was overturned due to errors made by the judge. So, he was tried a third time, convicted again, and sentenced to death yet again.

Early this morning, 25 years after the murder, his final appeal (which claimed secrecy in Missouri's death drug process could result in Storey feeling pain after the lethal injection) was denied and he received the lethal injection of pentobarbital. He sang briefly after the injection and died 9 minutes later.

Jill Frey's brother was present for the execution; he expressed sadness that his parents died before they could see their daughter's murderer put to death.

[HairOfTheDog]

Is it Time to Abolish the Death Penalty in America?

Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to review a case brought by death row inmates accusing the state of Oklahoma of violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The case came after Oklahoma's execution of inmate Clayton Lockett, who was seen writhing and clenching his teeth after being administered a lethal three-drug combination. Lockett ultimately died 43 minutes after he was administered the drugs.


Attorney General Eric Holder ^ expressed his belief yesterday in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty pending the Supreme Court's decision on the use of lethal injection drugs.

While Holder clarified that his personal views -- which he stated at National Press Club luncheon -- are not part of an ongoing Justice Department review of state execution practices, he was obviously politically motivated to go on record opposing the death penalty before he vacates his powerful position (in my opinion). He'll be stepping down as soon as his successor, Loretta Lynch, is confirmed.

Holder said that the "inevitable" possibility of executing an innocent individual is what makes him oppose capital punishment. "Our system of justice is the best in the world. It is comprised of men and women who do the best they can, get it right more often than not, substantially more right than wrong," Holder said. "There's always the possibility that mistakes will be made ... It's for that reason that I am opposed to the death penalty."

"I think that the issue is made real when you look at some of the things that have happened in the states over the last year or so, where you had these botched executions, where you had an inability to get the appropriate drug," Holder told The Marshall Project last year. "We've had doctors unwilling to participate in the process. I think this is pushing this country toward some really fundamental questions about -- even though, you know, people still support the death penalty by 55 percent, or whatever the number is -- some fundamental questions about continued use of the death penalty."

Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17...01062.html

[Midwest Spy]

Sounds like the real question concerns the method by which we're executing people, not if the death penalty should be abolished.

Firing squad is always pretty effective, as is hanging. The electric chair was probably the cruelest of all, and I understand why that's no longer an option.

However, anyone on death row is there for a reason. They've committed the worst crimes and deserve their punishment.

We're worrying so much about them that it really becomes laughable.

If there's any dispute about someone's guilt they simply don't get the death penalty. That's pretty easy.

[Duchess]

However, anyone on death row is there for a reason. They've committed the worst crimes and deserve their punishment.

We're worrying so much about them that it really becomes laughable.

If there's any dispute about someone's guilt they simply don't get the death penalty. That's pretty easy.

I agree with all of this.

I can hardly believe that any courtesy at all is extended to those who have been found guilty. I'm speaking directly to those cases where there is no doubt at all about their role in whatever filthy thing they did.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah, Holder has put forth two reasons to lobby against the death penalty, MS.

1. Cruel and unusual punishment resulting from the death-drug secrecy and the "botched" longer-than-expected execution of Lockett.
2. No human system/process is error-free and it's inevitable that innocent people will be put to death.

The first one doesn't move me. I understand why some people consider being put to death as punishment to be cruel. But, it defies logic, in my opinion, to insist that being injected with drugs as a means to facilitate that death is cruel (even if it takes 45 minutes for the prisoner to die). I see it as a comparatively merciful form of homicide.

As for the second reason for opposing the death penalty, there's no arguing Holder's point. Human judgment is sometimes flawed and too many errors have been made in handing down (and sometimes carrying out) the death penalty against people who were later exonerated. I agree with you MS in that the death penalty should only be in play when there is a validated confession to a capital crime, irrefutable physical evidence exists (like surveillance video of the crime, definitive DNA evidence against the suspect...), or the suspect is accused of committing multiple violent crimes and the combination of all physical, circumstantial, and witness testimony is overwhelming. But even then, the question of the criminal's mindset and motives can mitigate the punishment.

I don't oppose the death penalty for proven especially-cruel killers. But, the process of prosecution, endless appeals, decades on death row....is so burdensome and costly that I wouldn't be disappointed if it was used much more sparingly, abolished altogether, or put on moratorium until the entire process could be overhauled in states that still use it. I don't believe that the death penalty is a highly effective deterrent to violent crime, as it stands now.

[Maggot]

Eric holder is a bumbling bureaucrat that wears rose colored glasses. He cannot fathom the truth and lives in a world of fantasy. But that's just my opinion. I think he is to complacent and politically motivated to the point of lacking empathy and holding self preservation first before duty.

[HairOfTheDog]

Dyin' Large -- Georgia

Meet Kelly Gissendaner.

Gissendaner is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Tuesday ²⁄₂₄ for the 1998 murder of her husband, Doug. Gregory Owen, her lover, carried out the actual killing, but he testified against Gissendaner and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Gissendaner was sentenced to die because she planned the murder. She had already divorced Doug Gissendaner one time and she told Owen the only way to get her husband out of her life was to kill him. If the execution is carried out, Gissendaner will be the first woman executed by the state of Georgia since 1945.

She's gonna make the most of it, though. She's already submitted her last meal request. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Gissendaner has asked for cornbread, buttermilk, two Whoppers with cheese and all the trimmings, two large orders of French fries, cherry vanilla ice cream, popcorn and lemonade. She also wants a salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots and cheese to be topped with Paul Newman buttermilk dressing.

[Duchess]

She looks mean & bitchy.

[HairOfTheDog]

^ She got her requested final meal, but she's still alive -- her execution was stayed due to a death drug appeal.

Meanwhile...

UTAH PASSES LAW TO ALLOW FIRING SQUADS TO FACILITATE EXECUTIONS



Yep, the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield, touted the measure as being a more humane form of execution.

'We would love to get the lethal injection worked out so we can continue with that but if not, now we have a backup plan,' Ray told The Associated Press.

Opponents, however, said firing squads are a cruel holdover from the state's wild West days and will earn the state international condemnation.

'I think Utah took a giant step backward,' said Ralph Dellapiana, director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He called firing squads 'a relic of a more barbaric past.'

[HairOfTheDog]

ADIOS, PENDEHO -- TEXAS

The state of Texas killed ^ Manuel Vasquez today. He was convicted of killing a woman in 1998 for not paying the gang's drug "dime" tax (10%).

Vasquez was a Mexican Mafioso hit man. He and some of his fellow drunken gang members busted in on the woman and her boyfriend in a hotel room where they beat the boyfriend severely and Vasquez strangled 51-year-old Juanita Ybarra with a phone cord. The boyfriend survived and testified against Vasquez.

Texas is reportedly only one execution away from running out of its supply of death drugs and, like Utah, considering alternate execution methods.

Next week, Randall Mays is set to die for a 2007 shootout where two East Texas sheriff's deputies were killed.

Utah's Legislature gave final approval Tuesday night to a proposal to allow executions by firing squad if there is a drug shortage. Legislation to allow firing squads also has been introduced in Arkansas, while a Wyoming firing-squad measure failed. In Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow the state to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates.

Is there any reason why a quick shot to the head should be considered an unacceptable or cruel means of execution as compared to lethal injection, in your opinion?

[HairOfTheDog]

TEXAS EXECUTES TWO COP KILLERS IN LESS THAN A WEEK

1.


On April 9^th, ^ Kent Sprouse (42) was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

Sprouse was the first inmate executed using chemicals from a new batch of drugs secured after a shortage of the necessary lethal injection chemicals threatened to stall executions in the nation's most prolific death penalty state.

He was was convicted in 2004 of killing 28-year-old police officer Harry Steinfeldt and 38-year-old man Pedro Moreno in 2002.

Sprouse's last words:
I would like to apologize to the Moreno family and the Steinfeldt family for all of the trouble I have caused them. I would like to apologize to my family for all of the trouble that I have caused them. I would also like to thank my family for all of their support. I guess that’s it.

[HairOfTheDog]

2.

Last night ^ Manuel Garza, 34, was pronounced dead of lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville at 6:40 p.m.

Garza was convicted in the February 2001 killing of San Antonio police officer John "Rocky" Riojas, 37, a member of an elite SWAT unit investigating property crimes.

Garza fled the scene of an investigation and then struggled with Officer Riojas when he was caught and tackled. Garza stole the officer's gun and shot Riojas in the head.

Garza's last words:
“I know you probably hate me. What happened between me and Rocky happened too fast. I didn’t know what happened. I wish y’all peace and love. I hope you have found God just like I have. God bless y’all. I will see you on the other side. I love you.”

[Duchess]

So many find God in the slammer. God, dat u?

[Blindgreed1]

So many find God in the slammer. God, dat u?

"naw my name's Leroy, but you gonna be callin me gawd by the time I git through witcha."

[Duchess]

Truf

[Midwest Spy]

So many on death row deny their guilt all the way to the end.

I was kind of proud of the first guy for acknowledging his wrong-doing.

[Duchess]

Do you believe everyone put to death is guilty?

[Midwest Spy]

Do you believe everyone put to death is guilty?

I'd think that since 2000 every person that's been put to death has been guilty.

I'd be pretty confident in that guess.