Why I believe in the death penalty

Prosecutors: Fla. girl raped, buried alive


HOMOSASSA, Fla. - A 9-year-old girl who was found dead last month had been raped and bound and may have been buried alive behind the mobile home where her alleged killer was living, state prosecutors said in newly released documents.

Jessica Lunsford's body was found March 19 buried, sitting and clutching a purple stuffed dolphin just 150 yards from her house in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa, according to the documents released Wednesday.

The body was wrapped in two plastic trash bags knotted at her head and feet in a grave covered by a mound of leaves, the state attorney's office said in the documents.

Jessica was found wearing shorts and a shirt - different from the pink nightgown her family said she was wearing when they reported her missing Feb. 24, the documents show.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11446216.htm

I wouldn't even care if the child weren't killed.

I just don't want his death mandated by the government. I think there is a difference between the outrage and bloodlust I feel over a story like this, and government mandated killing. But that's just my perspective.

The moment you give the government a mandate to kill is when you allow it to be misused as well. It's a very fine line. There are many instances where you would personally feel that a person shouldn't live, but a government cannot make such a decision. An individual can't make it either, because if (s)he does then it's upto the government to lock the person up.

...or double park

:grr:

By my method of DP would be tar & feathering

:shrug:

disembowelment for people that double park

:D

Cletus

Those guys should have their eyelids cut off.

...just to help clean out the gene pool

How does this justify the state killing its citizens?
(and yes, it was a heinous, horrible crime deserving of maximum punishment)

At what point is making this person do hard time for the rest of his natural life without possibility of parole not enough punishment?
Should he be tortured, too?
Should we become like him?
And yes, society should pay to feed and clothe him precisely because he is as much a product of society as anyone else.

In no small way, IMO, the state becomes, ethically/morally at least, just such a killer when invoking the death penalty.

Cletus

Sending a child molester to prison probably will kill him, at the hands of his fellow inmates.

This is a bit of that conventional wisdom that I can't cite any real references for, but apparently the one thing prisoners overwhelmingly agree on is that child molesters deserve to be killed. And they're willing to act on that belief. Remember Father Geoghan?

but if you lock him in solitary and forget about him, he might as well be dead to the world anyways.

It's not worth it because there are innocent people on death row, and even if it feels good killing this sicko (a problem in in itself, it should never feel good to have someone killed, and if it does, I think we need to re-examine ourselves), it is not worth sacrificing those other innocent souls. I believe that killing someone for killing does not solve anything, other than accomplish another act of violence. We also know that the death penalty is not a deterrent, and it is actually more expensive. It is a greater punishment for someone to be alive in a cage forever than to have a quick death. The only reason I can see people liking it is the revenge aspect, and I don't think that is worth it. We are better persons than this guy, lets not lower ourselves closer, even if it is just a little bit closer, to his kind.

people were wrongly convicted. I'd much rather sentence them to hard labor and solitary confinement, with no luxuries. Scum like this guy should be locked in a dark cell and thrown some bread and water every now and then.

I always think of the poor shmuck who has to flip the switch. What if I'm wrong and there's a God who would punish a person for flipping that switch? I can't live with the idea that guy is flipping the switch for me. If I want someone dead, I'll kill them myself.

If I were given 100% latitude to dole out whatever sentence I felt appropriate, I would sentence the bastard to being strapped down and locked in a room with the father.

All the father would have is a blow torch and a pair of pliers. He'd have one week to do as he pleased.

when they make ordinary citizens, not connected to the family of the perp or victim execute the person involved. And not this pansy stuff with the computer controlled injections. A lottery for every man and woman over 21 and you have to execute them at close range, look into their face when you execute them. Maybe then people would never accept that killing is right no matter who does it.

These people should get life in prison. And I don't think they should be allowed to be raped or murdered there, either. There is always a chance that the person convicted might be innocent.

Life in prison with no possiblity of parole for any kind of crime like this, first offense.

I can't bear to see one more child die at the hands of a previously convicted sex offender.


I really don't see that republicans care at all... HR 1528, introduced by Sensenbrenner, would mandate minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders which are longer than most rapists spend in jail (IIRC, avg. 7 years - ?).


"Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) also has an action alert on this bill. Here are the gory details, courtesy of FAMM:

* Makes the federal sentencing guidelines a system of mandatory minimum sentences through a "Booker-fix" provision.
* Creates new mandatory minimums that further erode judicial discretion.
* Eliminates the safety valve for low-level drug offenders.
* Makes virtually every drug crime committed in urban areas subject to "drug free zone" penalties that carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.
* Punishes defendants for the "relevant conduct" of co-conspirators that occurred BEFORE the defendant joined the conspiracy.

As written, H.R. 1528 would:

* Effectively make the federal sentencing guidelines a system of mandatory minimum sentences through a "Booker-fix" provision. This provision forbids judges from departing below the guideline sentence in all but a few cases.

* Make the sale of any quantity of any controlled substance (including anything greater than five grams of marijuana) by a person older than 21 to a person younger than 18 subject to a ten-year federal mandatory minimum sentence.

* Create a new three-year mandatory minimum for parents who witness or learn about drug trafficking activities, targeting or even near their children, if they do not report it to law enforcement authorities within 24 hours and do not provide full assistance investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting the offender.

* Create a new 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for any parent committing a drug trafficking crime in or near the presence of their minor child.

* Mandate life in prison for persons 21 years or older convicted a second time of distributing drugs to a person under 18 or convicted a first time after a felony drug conviction has become final.

* Increase to five years the federal mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, college, public library, drug treatment facility (or any place where drug treatment, including classes, are held), or private or public daycare facilities - in short, almost anywhere in cities across the U.S.

* Eliminate the federal "safety valve," granting it only when the government certifies that the defendant pled guilty to the most serious readily provable offense (the one that carries the longest sentence), and has "done everything possible to assist substantially in the investigation and prosecution of another person," and would prohibit the federal "safety-valve" in cases where drugs were distributed or possessed near a person under 18, where the defendant delayed his or her efforts to provide substantial assistance to the government, or provided false, misleading or incomplete information."

But state-sanctioned killing doesn't make this particular crime any less horrible. And revenge won't bring back Jessica Lunsford. If we desire to kill, too, in order to assuage our grief and anger, then we are absolutely lost as civilized people.

Make no mistake: If that had been my daughter, or my wife, my beliefs would be tested to the core. I would be severely tempted with the desire to kill in revenge.

This is a very tough issue, but, in the end, I believe we must turn away from the cycle of killing. This is not to say that the truly guilty should not be harshly punished. In this case, the perpetrator should never be able to walk freely ever again, as long as he lives, with zero chance for parole.