Pushback

Do you people understand the cost of warehousing individuals who have decided that Society is a resource to be raped & plundered as they choose? I believe the national average is over $35,000.00 per prisoner. Do you realize how many decent law-abiding citizens wring out their daily living at well below that income level? Our prisons are overcrowded, we've become more concerned about the rights of the criminal than the victim. We now have the means via DNA testing to solidly convict so the question of possible innocents going to the gallows is a moot point. So many people whine about how uncivilized it is for us to kill those who violate the innocent, so many whine about the proliferation of guns while the thugs who commit these crimes have no respect or concern for the law or even decent behaviour. Until we make the deterrent strong enough, we won't discourage them in any way.
Why not give the convict the option of redeeming themselves by volunteering for medical testing thereby shaving years off the process of researching new drugs or medical procedures? Either that or carry out the sentence within a one year window.

i once served on a jury that acquitted a man for aggravated assault. A few years later he kidnapped a teenage girl and murdered her parents, I feel I failed the system and contributed to the second crime!

i once served on a jury that acquitted a man for aggravated assault. A few years later he kidnapped a teenage girl and murdered her parents, I feel I failed the system and contributed to the second crime!

The death penalty is not enforced enough, if some one is dumb enough to get involved with drugs, alcohol, etc...and then kill someone, they should go from the court room to the chair and die immediately. We let these prisoners sit on death row, they get 3 meals a day, a roof over their head, they can watch TV, they can go out and exercise...they are taken care of for years, before they are put to death if they ever are. All this while the victims family has to deal with the loss of a loved one...our justice system needs refinement.

I must have missed it ... when was it that it became OK to shift responsibility for your actions to someone else? I committed a crime - it was because I was unloved as a child. I burned my house down because I left it with appliances on - it is the appliance-maker's fault. I burned myself with hot coffee, which I asked for - it is the restaurant's fault for giving me hot coffee without a warning label. Etc. One of the biggest faults of the justice system, and society in general, is not taking responsibility for one's actions. I guess I live in a society populated by mostly small children.

I say a "Eye for a Eye". The problem with this country is that once a person is convicted he is allowed to appeal until the cows come home. If I was in the position to change those laws, one appeal only and no more than 30 days after the appeal is either denied or allowed the sentence would be carried out. This would change a few would be crooks if they knew that Justice would be fast, quick and no chance to get out of it. When we have people dying in prison from old age and these individuals are on Death Row, then the system is quite the laugh........ If they stabbed someone 27 times in the back, let them die the exact same way.

It's God's job to forgive, it should be our job to arrange the meeting.

I have maintained for years that the death penalty should be swift and sure. No it is not a deterrant to crime because it is not applied properly. I agree 100% that if all appeals had to be exercised within 30 days after the end of the trial and then judgment is meted out within 30 after the appeals are heard then it would then become a deterrant. Criminals know that they can kill someone and will not be truly punished because our legal system is broken. We have given over the power to the criminal and have forgotten about the victim and their families. What is just about a young girl being stabbed 17 times twenty years ago and her killer still being alive - there is nothing just about that. When and only when we decide to make our legal system work and apply the death penalty as it should be applied will it work. I only pray that it happens in my lifetime.

The problem with crime and punishment is there is no causal relationship with the action. It's like spanking a child for something they did 5 years before. It serves no purpose in terms of education of the individual or as a deterrant in society. The take by criminals (when they think long enough to have a take) is that even if they get caught they will be bounced aroudn in the system until h*ll freezes over and nothing much will happen except "3 hots and a cot". The action and the punishment must be related to each other or the cause/effect relationship fails.

As to the drama of trials, we can thank the fact that juries react to this sort of thing or it would not go on. I have long wondered if jurors should not have professional training and be paid to perform the duty like other professionals - although that would require a constitutional amendment. There are far fewer hystrionics in bench trials because judges have heard it all.

While those who are not lawyers concern themselves about the mental status of the former abused child/alcoholic/mental patient the bottom line is that the law does not distingish between them and the "reasonable person." Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to murder and insanity must be so severe that someone is incapable of understanding what they are doing or conform their actions to the law. Few meet that standard. Therefore, except for children and the profoundly retarded, we're all culpable for what we do and if death is the penalty to be had for it then legally it is applicable.

The question is whether we want to bother with the death penalty, which is irreversable and costly. Some days I am 100% against it as a waste of money. Other days I read about people torturing young children with stun guns and I find I vehemently disagree with the Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty cannot be applied to child abuse, child sexual abuse, and violent rapes.

how about life without parole. I mean WITHOUT ANY POSSIBILITY OF IT, you stinking liberal bleeding heart cat-herders, who would surely try to spring him within 2 months. What if it was your daughter? Oh, I forgot, you would have had her aborted to begin with, to save more room in the world for the murderers. Maybe the next "Billy" will be looking through your living room window, needing a fix. Hungry for a fix.

People are justifiably outraged at murder, but the reality is that the death penalty has never been applied to most murder cases. Only a handful of US states pursue it on a significant scale and therefore, rightly, opponents point to its arbitrary application based on geography. In those States there is clear evidence of bias (including bias against the poor who cannot afford to hire competent, motivated attorneys), prosecutorial misconduct, and wrongful conviction. The advent of DNA testing has revealed for all to see, the depth of the failure of the system. It is right to follow the example of international allies, and end this unfair, unnecessary and barbaric practice.

Terry, none of this would be an issue if it not for one simple fact: Slagle murdered Mari Anne Pope. I see the death penalty as accountability for his actions and nothing else. No one forced him to kill her, he chose to do it. People like you try to blame everything and everyone else accept for Mr. Slagle. You try to blame "The System," or "racism," or "Christianity," or anything else. The fact is he stabbed her 17 times and she died. Had he not killed her, he would not be in the situation that he is in. He is responsible for the position he is in now.

By the way Terry, I too am a minority, grew up poor and on welfare in a rough neighborhood in New York City, my mother was an alcoholic and drug addict. I was sexually, physically, and mentally abused. However, I chose to do the right thing. I worked hard, got my education, and I am proudly serving honorably, by choice, in the United States Armed Forces. So despite what you say, it is possible to be sucessful in life if you make the correct descisions. Sorry Mr. Slagle but you are getting what you highly deserve.

The only things I think are unjust about it is that people commit murders everyday without the facts being in question and don't get the death penalty and it varies by race of perpetrator and victim. Those are inequities in the system.
But........"Terry, none of this would be an issue if it not for one simple fact: Slagle murdered Mari Anne Pope."
All this worrying about rights God never gave the convicted and that have never been actually codified by any legislature anywhere, rather just made up by a bunch of confused nincompoops and do-gooders who think they know better than the jury put in place to decide. All for the greater glory of attorneys. Ridiculous.
Two other things, to me, stand out. One, the claim that the death penalty costs more than life without parole is unsubstantiated. Every primary source I can find says the exact opposite. Is this the old Hitler trick of repeating a lie until hoi poloi believe it true?
And, the claim that we have courts instead of blood feuds because we believe jurors are perfectly or at least highly rational. Wrong. That people are horrified by horrific acts is part of the process. Nothing rational about being offended, of course. No, the important difference isn't rationality, but one of prejudice. THe key word in the 6th is "impartial". "Rational" nor "smart" nor "generally well-informed", do not appear. And, since "rational" usually means "agrees with me" to most people, it's a good thing. Unfortunately, we now have the so-called 14th Amendment and a lot of activist judges who think they know better than the people. The People as opposed to hoi poloi, which is what we are now.

How the death penalty works? It works too slow. My son did not get the chance to see it work. He was 8 years old when he saw this monster murder a woman he dearly loved and she loved my children like the were her own. I am sorry but, Billy has lived way past his time. Who knows what Marnie would be today if she were alive. She was a beautiful person who helped so many people. There is not one day that goe's by that this family doesn't think of her and how Billy destroyed so many lives. The system is terrible for the surviors but wonderful for the murderer. He has no responsibilities in the world. Three hots and a cot. Where is the justice for Marnie?. Where is the justice for my son, who grew up always thinking that he had to defend women because as a child he could not help Marnie from the vicious Killer. Where is the justice for my daughter who is afraid to be alone to this day?. Billy knew what he was doing and God know's he will get what he deserves. I only wish this was done 19 years ago when it was court ordered. There is no need for all these appeals when there was no doubt that he was guilty. Billy lost all his rights when he made his decision to kill Marnie.

Marnie made a decision not to drink alcohol and not do drugs on August 13, 1987 but maybe is she did, she wouldn't have felt the pain of the 17 improper stab wounds to her body.

You had to be in the court or in our shoes to know the person Marnie was. There wasn't a thing she wouldn't do for anyone. Why are we wasting time on this article about poor Billy. The story needs to be told about Marnie. I thank GOD that we had her in our life. So Terry, get in touch with me if you ever want to write a good article about someone that deserves one.

I grew up in Texas as a strong supporter of the death penalty. Then, when George Bush as head honcho in our state executed one of the finest Christian women ever to walk the earth, Karla Fay Tucker, I became an arch foe of the death penalty, and also an arch foe of Gov. now President Bush. I opposed the death penalty because it did not take into account the genuine repentance and reformation of SOME prisoners condemned to die. Those fine people should be put to invaluable use by the state talking to students in schools. They can tell the kids more about the wages of sin and more forcefully motivate them against an evil lifestyle than anyone else could ever dream of. So their lives should be spared permanently for the good of our children and society in general. An intelligent and morally responsible government would do that because their educational and spiritual benefit to the people outweighs by a hundred tons the example of their execution.

The problem with this is that when you have a moral troglodyte like little Georgie in position to make those life and death decisions, the virtuous die along with the evil. And the ignorant masses care only that another "criminal" has bitten the dust.

There is a vast difference between murder and killing. Murder is the taking of an innocent life. Karla Fae had become an innocent woman through genuine Christian conversion and proved it daily by her extremely effective counseling ministry through the mails. So George in cahoots with the corrupt legal system of the state of Texas and for political benefit murdered a woman innocent in the most profound sense that fateful day over 10 years ago. (Could God's judgement for that incredibly evil and stupid decision have anything to do with his lunatic decision to invade Iraq? Methinks it must have.)

Killing is another matter indeed. Killing is the taking of a guilty life. When someone invades my home, here in Texas we have the legal right to take that person's life in defense of our home and our own life. That is killing, not murder. When we take the life of an enemy soldier in a just war, that is killing, not murder. (The Iraq war is a just war but ignorantly conceived and foolishly executed beyond compare.) When the state takes the life of an evil criminal, it is not murdering him. It is rather exercising justice on him in behalf of the citizens of the state. We elected representatives who made the laws governing the treatment of criminals guilty of capitol offenses. I wasn't there to defend with deadly force the young lady attacked by that murderous youth. Had I been there, I would have dispatched him to hell instantly with my trusty 12 guage. So now the state is going to do to him as my representative what I would have legally done to him then...and that is not murder.

The death penalty is supposed to exist to rid our population of those who take innocent life like the young lady in the above story. With the passage of time and clearer thinking, I now once again favor the death penalty but only when it takes the genuinely repentant off the death schedule. Our legal system could make that possible were it enlightened to the need. As I keep up with the news day by day, it seems to me that the death penalty is exercised much too seldom, much too randomly and much too slowly to be just and a proper deterrant. It only deters those who are executed from the further commission of crimes. That also can be changed by representatives who are not afraid to act without reference to what is now considered to be politically correct. We desperately need men and women in public service who fully understand how totally vile evil is, and are willing to express that profound insight through the just and swift execution of unrepentant and unreformed killers. It is a further crime of serious magnitude that they are not killed in such a manner that their organs can be transplanted into law abiding citizens who need them. That would be the one good thing to come out of their entire existance.

I ardently hope that some day the death penalty will be extended to apply to those who murder innocent unborn or partially born babies. That has to be the most mindlessly brutal, viscious and heinous of all crimes and thus worthy in the most complete sense of being punished by execution.

it doesn't as we do not execute all convicted murderers in a timely fashion. There is no statistical perfection and executing all murderers quickly is ok by me. I don't mind revenge or deterrent for excuses but quick executions of all convicted murderers is for the best.