pleasureforHim
Posts: 171
Joined: 7/2/2005
Status: offline
|
well; striking match has managed to attain the attention of some of the best and brightest here for quite awhile. Sort of an anti-flame..and i must say, i am impressed at his attention-seeking device.
One word to striking match before i turn my attention elsehere: the fallacy of your argument is that it assumes an entire cluster of behaviors and attributes is divided or shared between people based upon their sex, from birth. There simply is no credible empiricial evidence for this hypothesis, nor will there ever be. We now know that, apart from identical twins, everyone's DNA is different. If women do not share DNA markers (apart from those that make them develop female sexual characteristics), then how can they be herded into any meaningful group? You deny environmental factors: discrimination, male stranglehold on CEO positions of major corporations, and other obvious explanations as to why women still earn about 75 cents of every dollar a man earns for the same job. By the way; i cannot resist; your IQ is lower than mine. Great self-flame though.
Now let's pay attention to me all day. Laughs. Hummm, what subject to choose? Well, i do not believe in the death penalty because shoddy police work and bigotry followed by inept lawyering and a lack of resources to mount a meaningful defense so often lands the local dimwit on death row, though everyone -- probably including the jury -- knows he is innocent.
How do i know? i worked for the Florida Commission on Capital Cases; an agency charged with attempting to alleviate the tremendous burden on courts created by post-conviction appeals by death row inmates. As a "real" execution date approached, the district attorney, trial judge, defense attorney, victim's family -- everyone gathered in our offices. Any word from the Supreme Court or Govenor's Office was delivered to our office first. Tension was unbearable, especially for the victim's family, who had sometimes been through the experience more than two or three times, only to see the killer get a last minute stay.
As of my last legislative session with the Commission, the definition of "murder one" in Florida was being widely expanded; while "mitigating factors" was being reviewed with an eye to reducing them. Floride joined certain other states in filing amicus briefs before the United States Supreme Court as it heard arguments on the issue of execution of the mentally retarded; and lost. Florida is now attempting to evade the case law as best it can, to execute as many inmates as possible. The practice of hauling dim people before a jury and getting convictions now presents Florida with a real problem, since many inmates will qualify as "mentally retarded" and must have their sentences communted.
Incidentailly, there is no scientific evidence that the mentally retarded are much, much more likely to become homocial than the general population. It beggars the question, then, why approximately 75% of Florida's death row population has a colorable claim of retardation.
If a killer is given life without parole, the victim's family is not contacted by the victim's assistance office regularly; there is no "high and low" syndrome; they can move on and find some peace. When a death sentence is imposed, the victim's family has the issue of their loved one's death front and center for many, many years, being chewed up by a Rube Goldberg system no one really understands. Families may tell district attorneys they want the death penalty; but more often, the district attorney gauges his chances of obtaining a death sentence and thereby bolsering his chances of being reelected. Judges sit for reelection as well; i cannot rememeber a case of a judge refusing to impose death after the jury recommended it.
My own sister-in-law, a devote Catholic, sat on a death-qualified jury and voted for death, which was the sentence handed down. She is very proud she struck a blow for justice. I have never had the nerve to ask her if she has ever confesed her sin. People are so weirded-out about this subject.
I think many people have heard of the Innocence Project, which aids people on death row (or elsewise incarcerated) where DNA evidence may be available to exonerated them. As of this date, the Project has been involved in exonerating 156 people. There can be no doubt that innocent people sit on death row in states where that is the ultimate penalty. This is the fact, without more, that ought to persuade the reasonable man to revoke the death penalty.
Here are some other facts to consider:
In states with the death penalty, criminals are less inclined to leave witnesses alive and are more likely to kill police officers in an effort to evade capture.
The approximate cost of executing a death row inmate (in Florida) is apprximately $10 million. This figure is exclusive of costs incurred by courts, jails, the legislature, the Govenor's Office and the agencies established with direct or indirect responsibility death penailty administration. It most certainly does not include the state-funded post-conviction attorneys assigned to death row inmates, nor their expenses. Motion activity on behalf of death row inmates absorbs approximately 50% of the Florida Supreme Court's time; and a writ or other motion cannot be filed until lower courts have reviewed it.
Florida continues to fall lower and lower in public school funding and standards levels. It is simply insane.
We all have an evisceral reaction to a killer such as Ted Bundy (whom Florida executed). However, most homicides from which death penalties are gained are not as notorious nor as gruesome. Many are drunken brawls that ended in death -- what are called "one punch homicides". The inmates are on death row, rather than doing time for manslaughter, because the district attorney believed he had a chance to get another notch on his belt.
Not a good enough reason for someone to be killed by the state, in my opinion.
pleasureforHim
< Message edited by pleasureforHim -- 7/6/2005 6:41:18 AM >
|
RE: Anyone else feel the same? - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread