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".
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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
aquart
(69,014 posts)I'd be good with that.
The best way to go in all cases.
duhneece
(4,116 posts)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)You are however, quite wrong about what this man deserves.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)put him in prison, open population. No hurdle.
That will do it. No special treatment. There are lots of rapists in Gen Pop.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)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?
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Some even get visitation, forcing their victim to interact with them regularly.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/08/31-states-grant-rapists-custody-and-visitation-rights/56118/
http://www.sott.net/article/261445-Majority-of-US-states-allow-rapists-to-have-parental-rights-over-children
Egnever
(21,506 posts)can you share some links? If true i would like to start doing something to change it.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)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.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)The answer for barbarity is not more barbarity
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)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.
wryter2000
(46,076 posts)n/t
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)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.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)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)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)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)..... 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)It is not clear that causing a miscarriage amounts to a homicide for Constitutional purposes. It is murder under Ohio law.