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dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:15 PM May 2013

Ohio prosecutors face hurdles in Ariel Castro death penalty pursuit

Source: Guardian

Ohio prosecutors will face a struggle to press death penalty charges against the Cleveland kidnapping suspect in relation to any miscarriages suffered by the three women he allegedly held captive for a decade, legal experts said on Friday.

If Ariel Castro is handed a death sentence for "aggravated murder", he would become the first person in the US to be put on death row under the country's proliferating and controversial fetal homicide laws. The provisions extend legal rights to unborn babies, in some cases – including Ohio – as early as conception.

The prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, that covers Cleveland, indicated on Thursday that he would pursue a possible death sentence against Castro, who is being held on $8m bail having been accused of kidnapping three young women for nine to 11 years each. Timothy McGinty said there would be a count for "each act of aggravated murders he committed by terminating pregnancies".

>

Ohio is one of at least 38 states that have some form of fetal homicide law on their statute books. In Ohio's case, protection for the fetus against violent attack has been incorporated into the state's general criminal laws since 1996, with the fetus being defined as a legal entity right from conception.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/10/ohio-prosecutors-ariel-castro-death-penalty

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Ohio prosecutors face hurdles in Ariel Castro death penalty pursuit (Original Post) dipsydoodle May 2013 OP
How about 300 years of solitary confinement? aquart May 2013 #1
Exactly. Gore1FL May 2013 #13
Solitary confinement is torture duhneece May 2013 #18
Okay, put him in general population. Fine by me. aquart May 2013 #21
just heaven05 May 2013 #2
Bam! bravenak May 2013 #7
As I posted on my OT HockeyMom May 2013 #3
Sadly enough many rapists do have paternal rights. bravenak May 2013 #8
I find this very difficult to believe. Egnever May 2013 #11
I edited the post with the link. bravenak May 2013 #12
Good... awoke_in_2003 May 2013 #4
dangerous precedent. oldandhappy May 2013 #5
+1000 n/t wryter2000 May 2013 #9
Surely any penalty would become the precedent ? dipsydoodle May 2013 #10
I can kind of see it christx30 May 2013 #17
Very careful statement. Thanks. oldandhappy May 2013 #19
The guy is a cowardly maggott cosmicone May 2013 #6
Imprisonment is the best punishment union_maid May 2013 #14
Prison for the restof his life GeoWilliam750 May 2013 #15
lots of cases of missing women in the Cleveland area ..... Botany May 2013 #16
SCOTUS requires a homicide for the death penalty. Deep13 May 2013 #20

duhneece

(4,116 posts)
18. Solitary confinement is torture
Sat May 11, 2013, 10:27 AM
May 2013

I don't want the state, any state, to kill anyone in my name, nor torture him. Nor do I want any inmate, another vulnerable population, to be anything but safe from other inmate predators. No one should be raped. No one 'deserves' to be raped, as I've heard others suggest for this monster, who I have to remind myself is a human being.
I do want him in prison for life.

aquart

(69,014 posts)
21. Okay, put him in general population. Fine by me.
Sat May 11, 2013, 12:42 PM
May 2013

You are however, quite wrong about what this man deserves.

 

HockeyMom

(14,337 posts)
3. As I posted on my OT
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:30 PM
May 2013

The STATE has the most complellng interests? The woman has no say in this if she didn't want to bear a rapist baby? Be very, very careful on this one becaues it can open the door as they say in legal jargon. Should rapists have paternal rights also?

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
11. I find this very difficult to believe.
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:47 PM
May 2013

can you share some links? If true i would like to start doing something to change it.

 

bravenak

(34,648 posts)
12. I edited the post with the link.
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:50 PM
May 2013

It makes me sick. I thought it was bullcrap when I saw it on law and order. So i looked it up.
It was worse than I imagined.

oldandhappy

(6,719 posts)
5. dangerous precedent.
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:38 PM
May 2013

Anyone caught doing an abortion could be sentenced under the results of this case. Put him in the clink for the rest of his life. No death penalty.

christx30

(6,241 posts)
17. I can kind of see it
Sat May 11, 2013, 10:19 AM
May 2013

Sex is legal. Sex without consent is rape, and therefore, illegal.
Abortion is legal. Abortion without the consent of the pregnant woman should be considered illegal.
Thinking about it like that would give someone more leeway for pentalities for barbaric acts. Punching a woman and having her lose her baby should be more than simple assault and battery.

 

cosmicone

(11,014 posts)
6. The guy is a cowardly maggott
Fri May 10, 2013, 06:41 PM
May 2013

he needs to be given several consecutive life terms with no parole.

I think all the death penalty talk is either a career advancement move for some DA or if I choose to be non-cynical, a bargaining chip sp that the guy would plea bargain for life without parole, thus saving the women the horror of testifying in court and having to verbalize dignity-stripping details.

I am hoping for the latter.

union_maid

(3,502 posts)
14. Imprisonment is the best punishment
Fri May 10, 2013, 08:19 PM
May 2013

And if he should experience some of the same sort of things he put those women through, when he was imprisoning them, well, that's just the way it goes sometimes. General population, no extra protection. Seems fair to me.

GeoWilliam750

(2,522 posts)
15. Prison for the restof his life
Fri May 10, 2013, 10:39 PM
May 2013

Probably in solitary because putting him in population is the same as a death sentence.

The impact of child and spouse abuse cascades across generations, burning like acid. Whilst not an excuse, if he was indeed abused as a child, it is yet another example of how abuse hurts so many more than just the initial victim. Abusers seldom completely reform, which raises the question of whether, in the interests of society as a whole, abusers should receive amongst the swiftest and longest prison sentences.

The other edge of the sword is that false accusations then carry an extreme threat.

Botany

(70,566 posts)
16. lots of cases of missing women in the Cleveland area .....
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:53 AM
May 2013

..... if they can tie Cruz to one and find the body then they could go
for the D.P. but if not it will be a hard sell but we do use the D.P. here
in Ohio all the time.

BTW I think locking him up and loosing the key would be good enough.

Deep13

(39,154 posts)
20. SCOTUS requires a homicide for the death penalty.
Sat May 11, 2013, 12:05 PM
May 2013

It is not clear that causing a miscarriage amounts to a homicide for Constitutional purposes. It is murder under Ohio law.

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