38 replies to this topic

[artcinco]

Are you factoring in the cost of keeping the various death row inmates housed and fed for life in your calculations?

[artcinco]

Just realize you sort of say you do in your last sentence. Obviously there are movements against the death penalty. People have and continue to try new ways in the legal system to abolish the practice. It is as you say expensive to execute people due to the amount of money spent on appeals. It is usually many years after the verdict before someone gets executed. I think it will be many years yet before more people favor life in prison instead of execution for the most heinous criminals.

[Austin]

Are you factoring in the cost of keeping the various death row inmates housed and fed for life in your calculations?

Yes.

[Austin]

Just realize you sort of say you do in your last sentence.

Obviously there are movements against the death penalty. People have and continue to try new ways in the legal system to abolish the practice. It is as you say expensive to execute people due to the amount of money spent on appeals. It is usually many years after the verdict before someone gets executed.

I think it will be many years yet before more people favor life in prison instead of execution for the most heinous criminals.

Actually, the death penalty is supposed to be RESERVED for the most heinous crimes. But that is not the case. Judges and Prosecutors in Florida and elsewhere are elected. The death penalty has long been a very political issue. Our current Attorney General in Florida used her zealous pursuit of the death penalty in her campaign for that office, to the extent that she advertised how many people she had sent to death row. I think we just saw politics in action in the Casey Anthony trial. The state attorney in Orlando knew very well if he didn't charge that case as a death case, even though they did not have sufficient evidence ultimately to convince a jury of the death penalty charge, that he would suffer severe backlash at the polls in the next election if he didn't make it a death case. These guys are very, very sensitive to that stuff. So they charge people with the death penalty who shouldn't be charged with it. They don't reserve that penalty for the most heinous crimes. That's one of the major problems with d.p..........it is SO POLITICAL.

Death penalty law, IMO, is extremely complex because as one of our former USSC Justices said, "death is different."

Today people seem to be more open to life without parole because there has been a lot of publicity about innocent people having been wrongly convicted. And there is no doubt that innocent people have been executed. The death penalty cannot be fairly administered. Plus, it's EXPENSIVE.

[Austin]

Are you factoring in the cost of keeping the various death row inmates housed and fed for life in your calculations?

Yes.

Costs: http://www.deathpena...s-death-penalty

[cousin it]

Fuck him! He is a cop killer.

Well, okie dokie. Clearly you support the death penalty.

I have mixed emotions regarding capital punishment, but I have no sympathy for cop killers. At times, I think that some people have forfeited their right to be a part of society. And,I also ponder the morality of state executions. I personally know someone on death row and I will celebrate the day that piece of shit is executed.

[artcinco]

I see your point about politics. I doubt politics will ever not be part of the equation as today even the weather is political.

[TAP]

I have mixed emotions regarding capital punishment, but I have no sympathy for cop killers. At times, I think that some people have forfeited their right to be a part of society. And,I also ponder the morality of state executions. I personally know someone on death row and I will celebrate the day that piece of shit is executed.

I share your mixed emotions. Overall I would say I'm against capital punishment, but I'm not strongly against it - I certainly don't shed tears for those executed, but giving the power of life and death to the state troubles me a lot. I guess my internal dilemma is the emotional response to individual cases vs a more global pragmatic view of how I see society/state as a whole.

[Austin]

Fuck him! He is a cop killer.

Well, okie dokie. Clearly you support the death penalty.

I have mixed emotions regarding capital punishment, but I have no sympathy for cop killers. At times, I think that some people have forfeited their right to be a part of society. And,I also ponder the morality of state executions. I personally know someone on death row and I will celebrate the day that piece of shit is executed.

Not advocating for sympathy for cop killers. It just happens that there are many more death warrant elgible inmates on Florida's death row who committed enormously horrific murders. Very, very bad fact cases. Scott chose this inmate simply to garner support from the law enforcement community and strong right wing supporters of the death penalty. Totally political. Scott could not possibly care less about "justice" or death row.

All people in prison for murder (including death row) have forfeited their right to be part of society, therefore, we have imprisoned them. They are NOT part of society. They are considered the lowest of the low. They are separated out from our society and locked up in prisons. Prisons are AWFUL places. Many people think that prisons are full of cable TV, air conditioning, good food, good books, exercise, and cong. visits. THAT is absolutely not the case in Florida on its death row. Prisons are punishment. My feeling is that anyone who kills someone else absolutely should be punished. I think that punishment should be prison for life without parole. Throw away the key and forget them. Then, IF, somewhere along the way, there is a new technology which can prove their innocence, or there is further investigation and new witness, etc., discovered which prove the inmate NOT GUILTY, we can at least somewhat "fix" the mistake because they are not already dead.

When it comes to there being any possibility of fairly administering the death penalty, emotions must be taken out of it. There are always, always horrendous murders, always facts that make our blood boil. However, the real issue, IMO, is whether or not we want to execute innocent people along with the highly emotional guilty cases. The death penalty and executions are highly charged events. But one must take a more rational approach to laws which take the lives of our citizens, IMO.

As I said in another post, the death penalty is supposed to be RESERVED for the most heinous case. But it's not. The death penalty is a vehicle which state attorneys and other political folks use to get elected of public office.

[Austin]

I have mixed emotions regarding capital punishment, but I have no sympathy for cop killers. At times, I think that some people have forfeited their right to be a part of society. And,I also ponder the morality of state executions. I personally know someone on death row and I will celebrate the day that piece of shit is executed.

I share your mixed emotions. Overall I would say I'm against capital punishment, but I'm not strongly against it - I certainly don't shed tears for those executed, but giving the power of life and death to the state troubles me a lot. I guess my internal dilemma is the emotional response to individual cases vs a more global pragmatic view of how I see society/state as a whole.

"giving the power of life and death to the state troubles me a lot" TOO. I've seen too many mistakes!

[TAP]

It troubles me even if there were no mistakes - it's the ultimate power.

[Austin]

It troubles me even if there were no mistakes - it's the ultimate power.

And power corrupts for sure. I agree with you on the too much power position.

An amazing number of people out there don't have a clue what the presumption of innocence means and they think if you're arrested then you should have to PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE. Something else I find scary is watching the number of people who want to CHANGE the system, maybe have "professional jurors," as a result of the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial! Geeezzzz. Here in Florida there was once someone in the legislature who started to pursue having "professional jurors"! Thank god there were enough educated people on that committee that the idea and effort fell through.

[Austin]

I see your point about politics. I doubt politics will ever not be part of the equation as today even the weather is political.

I agree, politics will never not be part of the equation.

You might find this an interesting read:
[PDF] Death is Different Jurisprudence and the Role of the Capital Jury moritzlaw.osu.edu/osjcl/Articles/Volume2_1/Symposium/Abramson.pdfSimilarFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by J Abramson - Cited by 41 - Related articles
Supreme Court's death-is-different jurisprudence has re-conceived the role of the ... is that the death penalty is “qualitatively different” from all other

[Austin]

In addition to the drug protocol issue in Florida, there is the issue of the constitutionality of our death penalty statute.

This is an interesting discussion of Fed. Court Judge Jose Martinez's recent ruling that Florida's d.p. is unconstitutional. IMO, it's outrageous that Scott would be signing any death warrants at this time, with these challenges outstanding. Bet if his "approval" poll numbers were not so bad, he wouldn't even give death row a second thought!

http://www.floridacr...yers.com/?p=184

[Austin]

I see your point about politics. I doubt politics will ever not be part of the equation as today even the weather is political.

p.s.

Here is why Scott "chose" to sign the warrant he signed.

http://www.miaminewt...dirtiest-deeds/

This week, the Broward Police union is hosting a "Party to Leave the Party" protest against Scott in which cops who are Republicans plan to switch their voter registration and abandon the GOP en masse.