"Strange Fruit Hanging in the Poplar Trees"

Killing a human being in cold blood is immoral. (4.00 / 3)

Triangulating the decision so no-one is directly responsible is also immoral.
We set up artificial bodies (corporations) so individuals won't be rendered impotent by their inevitable mistakes.  However, killing in cold blood is not a mistake.  So, the diffusion of responsibility is merely evidence of cowardice.
Under our system, the final authority does rest with the people and when authority stands silent in the face of abuse, it becomes complicit.  So, public officials who, like Pontius Pilate, exercise the popular intent, are not solely responsible, but they are responsible for taking the job and they are responsible if they don't object to immoral legislation -- as President Obama did to DADT.  Cold blooded killing needs to be repealed. Raising false hopes of a possible reprieve is cruel; state sponsored executions are unusual. It is an exception the U.S. can do without.

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by: hannah @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 05:07:20 AM CDT

Fundamentally immoral (4.00 / 4)

to take the chance of executing an innocent person.  Life in prison with no chance of parole is the correct sentence for murder.  And fair trials are needed, we do not provide them when the moneyed can buy their way out.  Another instance of the sad state of our social contract.  We are no longer making progress on human rights, we are reverting.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 06:31:45 AM CDT

Shorter O'Brien: (4.00 / 1)

"E'etat, c'est moi"


"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 08:02:52 AM CDT

How Appropriate, Paul. Kings Or Dictators... (0.00 / 0)

...believe that, and it may be true in some of those cases.  But in a democracy, we can bring balance.

Hopefully in time, in America of the free and the good, we will end all injustice. But we'll always have bumps or O'Briens in the path.  We just have to figure out a way around, or through, them.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 09:23:51 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Would have een more appropriate if I had posted it under the right diary-- the one about Lee Quant.. (4.00 / 1)

As for this diary, the death penalty is barbaric, racist imposed, and given the limitations of human beings, inevitably results in  state sanctioned murders of innocent persons.

I was interested to see a couple of weeks ago that Ron Paul told the Monitor that he opposed the death penalty because mistakes are made and because it is administered in a racist fashion.

Not much to add to that.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 19:16:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

MVFHR (4.00 / 3)

it just sickens me and decent people everywhere. So horrible.

The best organization on this issue is, in my opinion, Murder Victims Families for Human Rights.
Renny Cushing is ED. You all know about his dad.

Very effective group. Support them.

I feel this rainy weather is weeping for the horrid injustice last night.

No'm Sayn?

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by: BurtCohen @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 08:19:35 AM CDT

It's Only About Revenge (4.00 / 3)

A point I often made in 2000 at public hearings and speaking engagements when I sponsored the bill abolishing the NH death penalty which passed both the House and Senate but was vetoed by then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen remains relevant:  the death penalty is ONLY about revenge.  And that's a poor reason for public policy.  

It doesn't deter crime.  A criminal about to murder someone isn't thinking about being caught.  It's about revenge.

EVEN IF Troy Davis committed the murder or was responsible for it, he was a much different person in 2011 than twenty years before.  And he was in a place where he would not be in danger of injuring the public.  

Life in prison without any chance of parole instead of capital punishment is even greater penalty for those who commit even the worst of crimes.  The death penalty, as Renny Cushing has so often testified, creates just another circle of grief, and adds even more violence to a crime.  It makes no sense, other than for some concept of "revenge."

It's also costly.  Think of all the conflict management education we could be doing in public schools with the money spent on prosecuting people who are suspected of committing capital murder.  

We haven't killed anyone in New Hampshire VIA our death penalty laws for some 70 years.  If and when we do, we're all part of that act.  So we have to work to abolish the death penalty statute.  Right now we're in league with Iran, China, Korea, Texas, and Georgia.  And that's a shame.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 08:32:55 AM CDT

Reminds Me of the Debate (4.00 / 3)

All the blood thirsty Tea Baggers at the Debate who cheered for executions must be happy today.

When they're happy, I'm pissed. (not sad--pissed!)

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by: Chaz Proulx @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 13:21:15 PM CDT

GOP/CONS puzzle me (4.00 / 2)

They scream Gov is bad---incompetent--corrupt--dishonest------GIVE THEM THE POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH   OK

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by: tchair @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 17:58:28 PM CDT

please forgive the length but the statement by the Pres of the National Assn of Crim Def Lawyers and Volinsky's comment are impt for all to read (4.00 / 2)

    Politics Killed Troy Davis Last Night
The death penalty is an emotional issue, of course. Strong feelings on both sides are genuine and understandable. What we know is, more than 75 percent of the death row inmates exonerated by DNA testing were convicted on the basis of eyewitness misidentification.
There was no DNA evidence in Troy Davis' case. No murder weapon was ever found. What there was in the case was doubt, serious doubt, too much doubt to justify taking his life. Seven of the nine eyewitnesses in Mr. Davis' case now say they were mistaken or pressured by police into identifying him. And a new witness has sworn that another individual, who was present at the crime scene, confessed to her long after the trial that he murdered Mark McPhail. Some of the jurors now say that had the new evidence been presented at his trial they would not have convicted Troy Davis or sentenced him to death.

But doubts were not enough to convince the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles in such a politically charged case. Politics killed Troy Davis just as surely as the lethal poison injected in his veins. Troy Davis went to the death chamber not for something he did, but for what he represents - a failed system driven more by emotion than facts. His death makes it clear to me that the only way to prevent the execution of an innocent person in Georgia, or anywhere, is to abolish the death penalty everywhere.

The above is from Lisa Wayne, president of the National Assn of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I would only add that NH's Addison case is also tainted by politics and his death sentence should be commuted. Perhaps Gov. Lynch as his last act as governor will consider that the Attorney General who he appointed was consulting with her political managers at the time she decided to pursue the death penalty against Michael Addison and thereby make amends for her nomination.

___________________

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by: political chowder @ Fri Sep 23, 2011 at 10:50:41 AM CDT

blood on the leaves and blood at the root (4.00 / 2)

note to close readers: this might be sarcastic so think twice before reading to candidates for use in their attacks on each other

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by: JonnyBBad @ Fri Sep 23, 2011 at 14:24:17 PM CDT

Governor Wannabes? (0.00 / 0)

It is important for us to find out where the various candidates stand on this major issue.

I do not know where Jackie Cilley or Steve Marchand
are on the death penalty.

We all know, as governor, Jeanne Shaheen supported its expansion. And last I heard, Maggie Hassan also favors the death penalty.

No'm Sayn?

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by: BurtCohen @ Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 13:54:32 PM CDT

Quick Clarification (4.00 / 1)

Hi Burt,

I just wanted to draw your attention quickly to Sen. Hassan's LFDA questionnaire, in which she says "As a matter of conscience, I oppose the death penalty." (emphasis mine)

Link: http://tinyurl.com/3n3dl44

Great to see you at the Convention!

Wyatt Fore (Political Director, Maggie '12)

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by: Wyatt Fore @ Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 16:57:42 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jackie Cilley Opposes the Death Penalty. (0.00 / 0)

Don't know about Steve Marchand.

"We now know that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob." - FDR

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by: Granite Gnome @ Fri Oct 14, 2011 at 23:16:12 PM CDT

[ Parent ]