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I don't think you'd get many people willing to serve on juries. Or, juries would acquit every person.
What I do believe is that for too long there have been too many people who have approached jury service in a sloppy and haphazard way. For example, eyewitness testimony should be considered far more skeptically by juries than it is. Many convictions rest on eyewitness testimony from crime victims who did not know the perpetrator before the crime was committed. Generally, the victim was under great stress when the identification was made. Cases in such situations should generally result in acquittals based on the fact that the evidence does not show--beyond a reasonable doubt--that the perpetrator was guilty. Yet, juries more often than not accept these identifications and convict someone often condemning them to lengthy prison sentences.
I think it is time for these cases to receive more scrutiny than they do. Jury instructions should lay out in more detail the requirements before a jury can convict in such a case. Judges should have more power to set such verdicts aside when they have no more basis than this kind of testimony.
Your first sentence...okay...but here's what I actually said: "And that is the problem with revenge that masquerades as justice."
I think our justice system is terribly flawed from top to bottom. The problem is that other than minor tinkering, I don't have any idea how to replace it with something that actually promotes real justice. It's similar to what Churchill said about democracy: "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"
Breaking news, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan granted parole (link), may have cemented my opinion on the topic. This piece of human garbage is Exhibit "A" for capital punishment. His guilt is beyond the shadow of a doubt. He gunned down, in cold blood, a Presidential candidate, and likely sentenced us to Richard Nixon's presidency. He is of no possible use to humanity, unless his and Bobby Kennedy's two sons' crocodile tears create the case.
The fact is, we don't have the stomach for life with no possibility of parole. Life without parole has been shown to be a fraudulent sentence. Witness the number of ideologically driven paroles, for example, Judith Clark, the getaway driver in the Brinks robbery, see Former Weather Underground Member, 69, Granted Parole. The original seventy-five years to life sentence was supposed to make parole impossible. Add to the list.
If Newsome decides to actually release him, it will guarantee his recall. So it will wait for a while but mark my words, he will walk.
Breaking news, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan granted parole (link), may have cemented my opinion on the topic. This piece of human garbage is Exhibit "A" for capital punishment. His guilt is beyond the shadow of a doubt. He gunned down, in cold blood, a Presidential candidate, and likely sentenced us to Richard Nixon's presidency. He is of no possible use to humanity, unless his and Bobby Kennedy's two sons' crocodile tears create the case.
The fact is, we don't have the stomach for life with no possibility of parole. Life without parole has been shown to be a fraudulent sentence. Witness the number of ideologically driven paroles, for example, Judith Clark, the getaway driver in the Brinks robbery, see Former Weather Underground Member, 69, Granted Parole. The original seventy-five years to life sentence was supposed to make parole impossible. Add to the list.
If Newsome decides to actually release him, it will guarantee his recall. So it will wait for a while but mark my words, he will walk.
Sirhan Sirhan was not sentenced specifically to "life without parole" in the first place, so his parole has no bearing on what a sentence of "life without parole" entails.
Yeah? Here are the last photographs of George Stinney when he was 14 years old. He was accused of murder and the jury deliberated for a total of 10 minutes before deciding to convict him. The judge determined that he be murdered by the government. He was exonerated in 2014. A bit late.
I get it, most people on death row don't look like George Stinney, and capital punishment for juveniles in the United States was abolished by 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in Roper v. Simmons. Most people on death row are certainly guilty of their crimes, but some are not, like George Stinney. But I just can't get behind any system where George Stinney's fate is a possibility.
These are not pictures of George Stinney. The case was not overturned because he was found not guilty, it was overturned due to unfair procedures conducted by police officers. There was no further evidence found that would have proven his innocence after confessing to the crime. The judge that overturned it said “he may well have committed this crime.”
I’m not saying there aren’t innocent people who have been executed, but don’t put pictures from a movie and try to say these are actual pictures of an electric chair execution from 1944. And maybe choose someone that was later found to be innocent.
I’m for the death penalty, but who’s arguing that it should be used in circumstantial cases? I don’t think people like Dylan Roof should live out the rest of their life on taxpayers money because they murdered people. Mass murderers, serial killers, people that rape or torture others before killing them need to pay the ultimate price, not take college courses and watch Netflix as punishment.
I’m opposed to the death penalty because of the way it’s handled in the US and the cost. It’s extremely expensive to the tax payer and most people on death row will happily die of old age getting excellent medical care, warm cozy bed, TV and food. I live on a farm, when there is a bad animal, we know what to do. Then life goes on, simple, end of problem.
Sirhan Sirhan was not sentenced specifically to "life without parole" in the first place, so his parole has no bearing on what a sentence of "life without parole" entails.
I believe, if I remember my childhood correctly he was originally slated for execution. In June 1972 the Supreme Court lifted all existing death penalties and then reallowed it in 1976. By that time he couldn't be reconsidered. If I recall correctly Charles Manson and some of his cohorts were also so scheduled or slated to be.
These are all people who would die, if society didn't have such self-doubts.
Breaking news, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan granted parole (link), may have cemented my opinion on the topic. This piece of human garbage is Exhibit "A" for capital punishment. His guilt is beyond the shadow of a doubt. He gunned down, in cold blood, a Presidential candidate, and likely sentenced us to Richard Nixon's presidency. He is of no possible use to humanity, unless his and Bobby Kennedy's two sons' crocodile tears create the case.
The fact is, we don't have the stomach for life with no possibility of parole. Life without parole has been shown to be a fraudulent sentence. Witness the number of ideologically driven paroles, for example, Judith Clark, the getaway driver in the Brinks robbery, see Former Weather Underground Member, 69, Granted Parole. The original seventy-five years to life sentence was supposed to make parole impossible. Add to the list.
If Newsome decides to actually release him, it will guarantee his recall. So it will wait for a while but mark my words, he will walk.
You do realize that the Kennedy sons spoke out in favor of parole?
It's not reasonable to blame Sirhan for Nixon. For good or bad, the American voters put Nixon in...twice.
You are looking at it in regard to revenge. The other way of looking at is justice AND is he currently a risk.
You do realize that the Kennedy sons spoke out in favor of parole?
It's not reasonable to blame Sirhan for Nixon. For good or bad, the American voters put Nixon in...twice.
You are looking at it in regard to revenge. The other way of looking at is justice AND is he currently a risk.
No. I'm looking for society to say what it means and mean what it says. Does it disapprove of cold-blooded murder or not? Should we go to cashless bail for someone like Sirhan because they had a political agenda? Maybe Mason and his gang were socially angry, or perhaps had a deprived childhood. I think that membership in society has rules, lines that may not be crossed.
No. I'm looking for society to say what it means and mean what it says. Does it disapprove of cold-blooded murder or not? Should we go to cashless bail for someone like Sirhan because they had a political agenda? Maybe Mason and his gang were socially angry, or perhaps had a deprived childhood. I think that membership in society has rules, lines that may not be crossed.
It's that simple to me.
So you are saying that people that oppose the death penalty do not disapprove of cold-blooded murder? Does that extend to other crimes as well? People who oppose the death penalty for robbery, or assault, or shoplifting approve of those activities?
"intention" is irrelevant sometimes. Wow, I can't believe I said that. Some humans are just not running correctly. They need to be turned off.
I used to be against the death penalty until I watched Nat Geo's series (and others) on prison's.
Now I am for it.
We would have to talk about rules for it. Only "yes/no" is binary thinking and is not reliable more times than it is.
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