The reason I despise capital punishment RE: Troy Davis

[Behshad]

It appears he has just been granted another stay, just an hour before his scheduled execution.

I urge people who believe he is innocent to remain vigilant and say a prayer for Troy and his family, if you have faith. Everyone else,
please think good thoughts.

The last attempt failed. He was executed at 11:08 pm EST tonight.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/troy-davis-executed-in-georgia-as-pleas-for-clemency-fail.html

My heart is in my throat.
The long ordeal is over for everyone, including Mr. MacPhail's family and Troy's family. It would be hard for anyone to feel good tonight,
but at least it's over. I doubt justice was carried out. My soul feels like a jigsaw puzzle right now. Sad stuff!
I'm gutted.

You act like you now 100% he was innocent !
Jimmy Carter says this guy is innocent which means they guy is 100% guilty and justice was carried out!
As far as your soul goes, I dont think you can ever put the puzzle pieces back together regardless of this case

A government killed another man. Not really a laughing matter.

The death penalty is both disgusting and without purpose, as it does not deter crime or cut costs. Iran, North Korea, Libya and USA. Thumbs up!

You suggest they just do what they do in Norway and put the guy who killed so many innocent people behind bars for 20 years then through parole and good behavior let him back out in less than ten years.
Your lack of comprehension when it comes to the purpose of death penalty is a laughing matter.
The government didn't kill an innocent man. They punished a murderer.

You clearly don't know what the fuck you're talking about in regard to Behring Breivik (the 22nd of july murderer) or the Norwegian justice system. Our maximum sentencing in Norway is 21 years, but we have something called containment, which can be given to a person who's extremely dangerous for society - and there's no limit on the containment. Breivik is most likely going to be in prison for most of his life. And let me just point out that our murder rate per 100 000 is 0,6 and USA's is 5. USA prosecute the most in any country, 48 per 1000 - Norway 2,6. You have also more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world. Not making this out to be a Norway vs USA thread though. I would personally see Breivik raped and tortured for the rest of his life, but we're a democracy, where also criminals deserve basic human rights.

The point is that capital punishment is simply not deserving of a modern, enlightened judicial system.

The lower murder rate in Norway isnt because of better justice system. Unless youre suggesting that people in Norway kill less because they know they wont get the deathrow ?
As far as Brevik goes, mark my words, once its all said and done, he will be out on the streets by 2020 .

Now let's see, how modern is your rape&torture solution ?

[Saint John]

Breivik is most likely going to be in prison for most of his life.

I can't fathom stating that and arguing that their justice system is anything but fucked up!

And let me just point out that our murder rate per 100 000 is 0,6 and USA's is 5. USA prosecute the most in any country, 48 per 1000 - Norway 2,6. You have also more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world.

You don't have many minorities do you???

[parfait]

Breivik is most likely going to be in prison for most of his life.

I can't fathom stating that and arguing that their justice system is anything but fucked up!

As I've said; Norway is a democracy with a good justice system, according to the statistics at least. One of the best actually. Still, that doesn't mean I think Breivik deserved a lot worse. But punishment, according to Norway at least, isn't about personal revenge, but rehabilitation and protecting society.

And let me just point out that our murder rate per 100 000 is 0,6 and USA's is 5. USA prosecute the most in any country, 48 per 1000 - Norway 2,6. You have also more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world.

You don't have many minorities do you???

Around 12 percent. Swedes, Polish and Muslims.

[marco17]

I used to be very pro the death penalty. In the last few years my views have changed dramatically. In certain, cut and dry situations I think it should be an option. In others I now think that it’s worse punishment to keep them incarcerated, having to live with what they did, and know they will never have their freedom again. Not only is that frankly more humane, but it at least saves the tax payers the incredibly high costs and court fees that are constantly racked up by each death row inmate while they really do nothing more than try to stave off their death. Their goal isn’t freedom in most cases, it’s just not dying. So, why waste the money. Go build a maximum security, non-country club prison, out in the boonies somewhere in the Arizona or Nevada desert and send them all there.

Finally, if it was a life without parole situation, you never run the risk of killing an innocent person.

So you think the other inmates who arent on deathrow get billed for their stay and pay for their room, meal and laundry ?

Well, they say that executing someone is more expensive than imprisoning them for life. Think that's what he's getting at.

I have no problem with the death penalty in clear-cut cases, like the recently convicted Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell. Guy murdered women and was living with their decaying bodies.

B - Yes, that's basically what I meant. They claim that with all the court related expenses and such, it costs far more to execute someone than it does to keep them in jail.

[Michigan Girl]

They need to execute them faster than they do, instead of housing
them for half of their lives.
1.) make sure they are guilty
2.) give them a year or two to think about their crime
3.) then it's tata!!

Now, I'm not necessarily pro~death penalty, but some folks
are unrehabilitatable and have admitted as much ...I'm pretty
sure child molestors and serial killers are untreatable, get
rid of them ASAP!!

[Rip Rokken]

Oh, and here's his "last meal" request. It was probably delivered about an hour ago:

[i]*Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions

*A triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side

*A cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos....

He is planning to puke on his executioner.

Sounds like his request pissed people off to the point they've now done completely away with death row inmates choosing their last meal. Surprised as hell that they actually honored his entire request.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/texas-prisons-end-inmate-last-meal-requests-before-executions/#ixzz1YjoPc5Em

Texas Prisons End Special Last Meals for Inmates After 'Ridiculous' Request

HOUSTON – Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case shocked the nation for its brutality.

Whitmire warned in his letter that if the "last meal of choice" practice wasn't stopped immediately, he'd seek a state statute to end it when lawmakers convene in the next legislative session.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost — Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."

[Rick]

Oh, and here's his "last meal" request. It was probably delivered about an hour ago:

[i]*Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions

*A triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side

*A cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos....

He is planning to puke on his executioner.

Sounds like his request pissed people off to the point they've now done completely away with death row inmates choosing their last meal. Surprised as hell that they actually honored his entire request.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/texas-prisons-end-inmate-last-meal-requests-before-executions/#ixzz1YjoPc5Em

Texas Prisons End Special Last Meals for Inmates After 'Ridiculous' Request

HOUSTON – Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case shocked the nation for its brutality.

Whitmire warned in his letter that if the "last meal of choice" practice wasn't stopped immediately, he'd seek a state statute to end it when lawmakers convene in the next legislative session.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost — Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."

That sonofabitch should have been left to starve to death.

[RedWingFan]

That sonofabitch should have been left to starve to death.