Woman with 70 IQ set for Va. execution

So was the person she arranged to have killed. So, what's your point again?

 

. . . and while what Jay posted is truly compelling enough to turn me against the death penalty, this is what keeps me for it. I get tired of those who are truly horrible people who kill and stand behind the "two wrongs don't make a right" and "you should hold yourself to a higher standard than I did for me" argument. Somehow, these murderous pigs turn it wround on you, when it is really about what they did.

 

Sorry, it was pecan pie and a Virginia tale about a hoops playing death row inmate, who, well ya'll can read ...

I got a better idea. Instead of killing her, how about we get a dentist to cut out her teeth — so she can't do any damage — have a doctor cut out her ovaries — so she can't get pregnant — and drop her off in the general population at a male prison and have her be a real life sex toy.

 

Getting rid of the death penalty isn't about saving them. It's about saving me.

 

You did see the picture of her, right?

 

My mom's uncle worked at Rahway Federal Penitentiary (sp?) (Where Stallone filmed Lock-Up) and he said the guards were the most scared of the inmates who had life with no chance of parole because they weren't afraid of anything because they had nothing to lose.

 

I have cousins who live in Rahway (not at Rahway, mind you). That's where they filmed Scared Straight, too.

In my state, we are currently going through the Steven Hayes/Josh Komisarjevsky trial (for those not in the know, these two guys broke into a random home, beat a father (a respected doctor) and raped and killed his wife and two teenage daughters, and then set the home on fire). It is hard for me to think of anything but the penalty after reading about the particulars.

http://www.courant.com/community/cheshire/cheshire-home-invasion/hc-hayes-autopsy-testimony-0924-20100923,0,5495905.story

 

Heinous crime. Obviously. And there have been countless others that were just as horrific, just as heartbreaking. My problem with the death penalty is that there have been crimes just like that where the person who was originally convicted was eventually exonerated. And surely there have been innocent people who were put to death for crimes that had people calling for blood, crimes that had people fantasizing about how they'd personally love to use the syringe, or pull the switch or take an ax to the criminal's head.

We had a thread on it last year, but I don't know how anyone could read the New Yorker piece on Cameron Todd Willingham and not come away thinking that - in at least one case - the government executed an innocent man. At least with life in prison, there's always a chance to right a wrong.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/

What if those 17 people had just been put to death right away, as those with the bloodiest revenge fantasies routinely call for? And how many innocent people were executed before DNA was used and groups like the Innocence Project started their work?

 

One rationale for the death penalty is that its absence makes cover-up killings cost-free. Suppose criminal X commits crime Y which carries the distinct possibility of life without parole. Criminal X has an incentive (i.e., reduced likelihood of conviction) to also kill any/all witnesses to the crime. With a death penalty being part of the punishment continuum, the benefit (greater chance of getting off) comes with the "cost" of a greater likelihood of paying the ultimate price.

Of course, this presumes that killers accurately weigh costs/benefits. Pretty sure that's a shaky assumption at best.

 

I'm sure the same could be said about death row inmates.

 

Surprisingly, he said that wasn't the case.

 

She could have been a good one :'(