The Death Penalty in action - issues updates and the ongoing debate

[JohnLanders]

https://www.4029tv.com/article/us-ca...ades/33308823#

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. —
The U.S. has carried out the first federal execution in nearly two decades, putting to death a man who was convicted of killing an Arkansas family in the 1990s in a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest.

Forty-seven-year-old Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, died Tuesday after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Lee is the first death row inmate to be executed since 2003.

Lee's last words were: “You’re killing an innocent man.”

Lee's execution came over the objection of the victims’ family and following a series of legal challenges related to the raging coronavirus pandemic.

An Execution has taken place.

[Queena]

I'm against the death penalty. The way that this country seeks vengeance is so disturbing to me. Look on the comments of almost any news article and the public is talking about basically lynching the accused before a trial. It's sick. I'm sure that I'm alone in my thoughts. Tbh the death penalty reminds me of the lynchings that were used against my people. This is the only so called civilized country that practices the death penalty.

I'm quite sure that I will feel this way if something were to happen to someone in my family. I get no pleasure from death.

[puzzld]

I think this is a good way to look at the issue.

I have been on both sides of the issue in my life, and done a complete 180. I was pro death penalty back when I was in LE, but over the years started changing my mind. Now I am very against it for many reasons: possibility of innocence, cost for death row inmates is much higher than life in prison inmates, barbaricness of it.

When I lived in TX and was transitioning my viewpoint, I was talking with a bunch of coworkers about it and brought up the fact that if you support the death penalty you should be willing to advocate for death if your brother or mother was accused of a Capital Murder. They all got really mad and said "you can't bring family into this". That's the point though, you have to think about it like that in my mind, or you're a HUGE hypocrite. If it's good enough for every one else, then it's good enough for you and your family. I think looking at it from the victim's family viewpoint it also important...would you be willing to ask for no death penalty if your loved one was killed and you had been against the DP in the past?

I actually think we would be a lot better off as a nation if we would look at more things (abortion, immigration, etc) in this manner, but we as a nation want to pretend that it only happens to other people and doesn't affect us, so as a nation we develop very set in stone viewpoints on things we don't fully understand or think is beneath us.

It's just so pointless. The Ted Bundy's of the world are obviously not deterred by the possibility of the dp. And if it's not about deterrence, what's the point? Vengeance? We keep someone on ice for 16 years and then we put them to sleep? That doesn't seem very satisfactory to me. We spend a ton of money and for what.

If we want to reduce crime we need to find a way to deal with the causes. If we want vengeance, give the victims survivors the power to determine the punishment. (not practical, but...)

[Queena]

I agree with all of your points Puzzld and RBW. I take no pleasure in most deaths. Sure there are some that I do not feel sorry for, but if given the chance, I wouldn't kill anyone. Legally or illegally. I think back to the guy in Texas who was killed, and they used faulty science (it was a fire). Think about the people because of teeth marks. Or those who are only there based on eyewitnesses. It's such a slippery slope and I don't think that you can ever be 100% sure. I remember one guy who said that he was innocent right up until the very last moment. Years later DNA test says that he was guilty. Let's just do away with the dp and let them rot in prison.

[Angiebla]

I was reading about a 4 year old girl who was killed by her mother's boyfriend while the mother was out of town. She was tortured for 10 days. She had 66 bites marks, different degrees. She was hit so hard with an extension cord she had copper imbeded in her skin. She had over 144 injuries and a brain bleed. The forensic odontologist said he prayed she was dead because of her injuries.

That guy deserved the death penalty.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I was reading about a 4 year old girl who was killed by her mother's boyfriend while the mother was out of town. She was tortured for 10 days. She had 66 bites marks, different degrees. She was hit so hard with an extension cord she had copper imbeded in her skin. She had over 144 injuries and a brain bleed. The forensic odontologist said he prayed she was dead because of her injuries.

That guy deserved the death penalty.

Agree. I also feel that the guys who were responsible for the Petit family murders in CT deserve the death penalty.

[Angiebla]

Agree. I also feel that the guys who were responsible for the Petit family murders in CT deserve the death penalty.

Yes they definately did! I think one of them is off death row.

[jennafyre]

That is wild. The article stated that although a jury voted 11-1 for a life sentence, a judge overrode them and gave him a death sentence.

[raisedbywolves]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...e/75298897007/

Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri amid strong innocence claims: 'It is murder'

Missouri executed Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams on Tuesday in the 1998 killing of a former newspaper reporter despite a prosecutor in the case and the family of the victim saying his life should be spared.

Williams, who always maintained his innocence − a claim backed by not only his defense team but later prosecutors − is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the nation. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following the lethal injection, the Missouri Department of Corrections reported.

The execution came despite one of the prosecutors in the case saying that Williams' life should be spared because DNA did not connect him to the case. Critics are calling the execution murder.

[Bewitchingstorm]

There was another execution yesterday in Texas.

Texas executed Travis James Mullis on Tuesday for killing his infant son in 2008, making him the fourth inmate executed in the nation's busiest death penalty state this year and the 16th in the nation.

Mullis was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m., according to Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Mullis was convicted of murdering his 3-month-old son Alijah, who was molested, stomped to death and abandoned at the Galveston’s Seawall, a popular tourist destination just south of Houston. Mullis, who was 21 at the time, said he had reached a "breaking point" the day he killed Alijah after the baby wouldn't stop crying.

Travis Mullis used his last words to thank and apologize to loved ones, including the mother of his child and the victim's family.

"I do regret the decision to take the life of my son. I apologize to the mother of my son, the victim's family," he said. "I have no ill will towards the court, the judicial system, the prosecution or the execution protocol. The morality of execution is between you and God ... It was my decision that put me here. I'm ready Warden.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...n/75351792007/

[Bewitchingstorm]

Garcia Glenn White was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Tuesday for the murder of 16-year-old identical twin sisters 35 years ago. The execution makes him the sixth death row inmate killed in the U.S. in the past 11 days, an unusually large cluster.

White, who became the fifth man executed in Texas this year, confessed to murdering five people in a six-year period but prosecutors only pursued charges for the teenage girls. He was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m.

"I apologize, and I pray that you can find peace, comfort and closure in your heart for the wrong I have done and the pain I have caused you, and anybody else I’ve caused pain to," White said as he was strapped to the execution table, apologizing to some of his victims' family members. "I’m sorry for all the pain I have caused."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...s/75473668007/

[Angiebla]

Im glad they seem to have some guilt about what they did.

I know it wont bring the victims back, but at least they have justice.

Losing your temper with a baby doesnt cause you to molest them. And you dont accidentally kill 5 people.

Good riddance.