Death Penalty @ MindSay

Let me start this off by saying that I have always been against the death penalty. Are there people who should be put to death for the crimes they have committed against humanity? You bet there are. However, you have to ask yourself if it is worth it kill a few nasty people when there have been cases of innocent people who have been put to death. I don't want to see one innocent person die just to take vengeance out on a few.

This leads to another question. How can you call yourself 100% pro-life yet support the death penalty? And for that matter, how do you support pre-emptive war? Well, the obvious answer is that you can't. To do so would show the highest level of hypocrisy. Your true label should be anti-abortion. I believe that there are very few 100% pro-life people especially when it comes to politicians. The only one I know of is Ron Paul. The death penalty has been the only position that he has changed in his 30 years of public service.

I'm not asking you to change your stances. I mean, I would if I thought it would help. But at least change your label so you won't look like a hypocrite.

Bush OKs execution of Army death row prisoner
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_military_execution

President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.

With his signature from the Oval Office, Bush said yes to the military's request to execute Ronald A. Gray, the White House confirmed. Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.

"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

In the military courts, "Private Gray was convicted of committing brutal crimes, including two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. The victims included a civilian and two members of the Army. ... The president's thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous crimes and their families and all others affected."

Unlike in the civilian courts, a member of the U.S. armed forces cannot be executed until the president approves the death sentence. Gray has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.

Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed by presidential approval since 1951 when the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system, was enacted into law.

President Kennedy was the last president to stare down this life-or-death decision. On Feb. 12, 1962, Kennedy commuted the death sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a Navy seaman, to confinement for life.

President Eisenhower was the last president to approve a military execution. In 1957, he approved the execution of John Bennett, an Army private convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. He was hanged in 1961.

The death penalty was outlawed between 1972 and 1984, when President Reagan reinstated it.

Gray was held responsible for the crimes committed between April 1986 and January 1987 in both the civilian and military justice systems.

In civilian courts in North Carolina, Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms.

He then was tried by general court-martial at the Army's Fort Bragg. In April 1988, the court-martial convicted Gray of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. He was unanimously sentenced to death.

The court-martial panel convicted Gray of:

_Raping and killing Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of Fayetteville on Dec. 15, 1986. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol that Gray confessed to stealing. She suffered blunt force trauma over much of her body.

_Raping and killing Kimberly Ann Ruggles, a civilian cab driver in Fayetteville. She was bound, gagged, stabbed repeatedly, and had bruises and lacerations on her face. Her body was found on the base.

_Raping, robbing and attempting to kill Army Pvt. Mary Ann Lang Nameth in her barracks at Fort Bragg on Jan. 3, 1987. She testified against Gray during the court-martial and identified him as her assailant. Gray raped her and stabbed her several times in the neck and side. Nameth suffered a laceration of the trachea and a collapsed or punctured lung.

The six-member court-martial panel returned its unanimous verdict after about two hours of deliberations. The panel also reduced Gray from Spec. 4 to private, forfeited all his pay and ordered him to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.

Gray has appealed his case through the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (then known as the U.S. Army Court of Military Review) and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Services. In 2001, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Silas DeRoma, who left active duty in 1999, was one of several military attorneys who represented Gray on appeal.

"It's disappointing news, as you can imagine," said DeRoma, who now works as a regulatory attorney in Honolulu for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said the basis for some of Gray's appeals focused on the prisoner's mental competency and his representation at trial.

Bush got the secretary of the Army's recommendation to approve Gray's death sentence in late 2005. Since then, it's been under review by the Bush administration, including the White House legal counsel.

Complicating the administration's deliberation was a case under review this year by the Supreme Court.

The court ruled in April to uphold the most common method of capital punishment used across the United States. The justices said the three-drug mix of lethal-injection drugs used by Kentucky and most other states does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling in the case of Baze v. Rees cleared the way for a resumption of executions nationwide.

It was unclear where Gray would be executed. Military executions are handled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Bush's decision, however, is not likely the end of Gray's legal battle. Further litigation is expected and these types of death sentence appeals often take years to resolve.

The military also has asked Bush to authorize the execution of Dwight J. Loving, who has been at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since 1989 after being convicted of killing two taxicab drivers while he was an Army private at Fort Hood, Texas. But that request is not yet ripe for a presidential decision. The White House declined to discuss the case.

___

Associated Press Writer Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Ohio judge: State must change lethal injection law



http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-10-ohio-lethal-injection_N.htm?csp=34

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — A judge in Ohio says the state's method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs used in the lethal injection process can cause pain.

Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said Tuesday the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law.

Burge said Ohio must stop allowing a combination of drugs and focus instead on a single, anesthetic drug.

The ruling is likely be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio has executed 26 inmates since it resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999.

No appeal.  No protest.  No pardon issued a minute before midnight.

Today 8 death row inmates in the state of New Jersey played spectators to the sport of politics as Governor Jon S. Corzine signed legislation and made law, the abolishment of Capital Punishment.  At the mercy of no jurors or judge, the 8 convicted criminals were given a new verdict of life in prison without parole.    

According to Newsday, Gov. Corzine said:

“This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder”.

No wonder the Statue of Liberty’s ass faces that state. 

Congressman Ron Paul called for an end to the Drug War and a repeal of "most" Federal drug laws last night during the PBS Republican Presidential Debates hosted by Tavis Smiley.

 

"We have already spent over $400 billion since the early 70s and it's wasted money. Prohibition didn't work; prohibition on drugs doesn't work." Ron Paul cited the unfair disparity between the relative percentage of black drug users and blacks imprisoned for drug use. He called for equal justice under the law, giving example to the system's race-based "punishments."

 

"Blacks make up 14% of those who use drugs, yet 36% of those arrested are blacks and it ends up that 63% of those who finally end up in prison are blacks. This has to change. We don't have to have more courts and more prisons, we have to repeal the whole 'War on Drugs'-- it isn't working," Paul said.

 

While many other candidates admirably agreed that blacks were treated unfairly under existing drug laws, many of their solutions included suggestions for new courts, arbitration and rehab programs, not a scaling-back of the failed and hypocritical 'War on Drugs' or a repeal of drug laws.

 

"So we need to come to our senses...it's a disease. We don't treat alcoholics like this. This is a disease and we should orient ourselves to this," said Ron Paul. Paul was also asked about his support for the death penalty in regards to waning public opinion. He again cited unfair prosecution in the justice system.

 

"You know, over the years, I've held pretty rigid all my beliefs, but I've changed my opinion about the death penalty. For federal purposes, I no longer believe in the death penalty. I believe it has been issued unjustly. If you're rich, you get away with it; if you're poor and from the inner city, you're more likely to be prosecuted and convicted. And today, with the DNA evidence, there's been too many mistakes, so I am now opposed to the federal death penalty"

 

www.jonesreport.com