Friday, April 17, 2015

"To end the anguish, drop the death penalty"

"Bill and Denise Martin, parents of 8-year-old Martin Richard, instead urged the U.S. Department of Justice to seek a deal in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted last week of the 2013 attack, would waive his appeal rights in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole."
"We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives," the couple wrote in a statement titled "To end the anguish, drop the death penalty."

27 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I wonder if Tsarnaev's attorneys saw the Martins' request and were all like "Shit! There goes any chance of getting that dick sack a life sentence."

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

The Martins are entitled to their opinion--one that may or may not be shared among other victims.

There are circumstances wherein such appeals should last for years, but this isn't one of them. Streamline the appeals process. Mend it, don't end it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

To my mind a death penalty would be an end to the anguish.

Tsarnaev, living in prison, granting interviews and even marrying a fan would be in no way an end.

I understand people less and less all the time.

rcocean said...

What about all the other victims? And how does pursing the death penalty 'cause them anguish'? An overturned death sentence won't mean he'll be released.

rcocean said...

And its been shown time and time again that "Life without parole" turns into 20-35 years and then parole.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Exactly, Manson has regular parole hearings. All those times, giving survivors a chance to relive the "anguish".

There is got to be more to this merci thing on the part of this family.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The death penalty was made for these types of crimes.

Their home-made bombs ripped the flesh off and tore holes into innocent children, mothers, fathers and innocent by-standers.

The death penalty is too kind.
I'd prefer to torture the mass-murderers first. *Be thankful I'm not in charge.

Dad Bones said...

I can see where some people might think they've managed to forgive a murderer of innocent people. I think it's much easier to forgive poor bastards like Tsarnaev after they've been executed.

Amartel said...

Emotional blackmail. Works both ways, of course. There are survivors who appeal to have the murderer sentenced to death. It's why the decision is not left to the survivors.

ricpic said...

If it were to be life in solitary that would be fitting punishment. Instead it will be gym and TV and gifts from loving fellow terrorists, and of course compassionate leftists, on the outside. Here's a compromise: chop off his left leg and right arm or the other way around and then he can have all the gym and TV and gifts his heart desires.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Lem- the never ending appeals fueled and funded by ACLU type idiots are what tortures the families of the victims. Like the wife of Police officer Dan Faulkner has been tortured for 30+ years as his killer [supported by dumbass Hollywood types] has appealed and appealed and appealed again his death sentence and then a court finally commuted his sentence to life in prison.

chickelit said...

@AJ: Mumia sound like just the sort Holder/Obama will pardon on their way out the door.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

As long as the humanoid-worm lives there is a chance he/she walks out the door free.

Insane.

Aridog said...

For the younger Tsarnaev I'd have been happiest if the police in pursuit had fired a couple hundred more rounds in to that boat.

I'm Full of Soup said...

There is no question Tsarnaev better get the death penalty. And he should be exceuted within 30 days of that sentence and we should give the death penalty to any lawyer who files an appeal.

ampersand said...

This is Massachusetts. Even if he got the death penalty the legal community will drag this out for the rest of the perp's natural life ,squeezing every tax penny they can get out of the state.

I don't understand some peoples sentiments that a life penalty is such a worse punishment than execution. Both Richard Loeb and Richard Speck were having the time of their lives in lock up.
The people who end up bearing the punishment are the victims relatives,like Sharon Tate's mom, who had to plead before the parole board every so many years to not let the SOBs out.
.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I guess it's to be expected that no one here sees fit to raise the issue of how many wrongly convicted in the "land of the free" we now know were wrongly sentenced to execution.

If your justice system is more concerned with appeasing pleas for vengeance (which is what these are) than with ensuring proper due process then it's an injustice system.

AFAIC, I'd make exceptions for cases like this. But given the fact that so many were wrongly placed on death row and/or executed - let alone a single individual, and the clamor in places like this is still unabashedly exuberant about this form of sentencing, administering it at all is a highly suspect enterprise.

Admit that it's not a "death penalty", but a "vengeance penalty". Again, in a case as high-profile and with as many national security implications as this we can be reasonably certain that the defense was as robust as possible. But that is the exception rather than the rule. To be that enthusiastic about granting the government license to kill people under a regime as flawed as execution is simply unconscionable.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It might make sense to call death "penalty" enthusiasts "Jacobins".

Chip Ahoy said...

You gave me an image of cartoon justice.

Medicine has advanced to the point where reattachment of amputated limbs is possible if there is enough good limb remaining.

Cut off his left leg and attach it to a male victim whose leg he blew off.

If that fails, then cut off is right leg and attach it to whoever needs one. Bombing victims first come first serve.

So it happens a female ends up with a hairy male swarthy Chechen leg.

Left arm, right arm, so forth.

Then the last panel is patched victims with mismatched parts and separately a torso with a head in a prison cell.

Pero eso es ridiculoso.

The thing that bugs me about these discussions involving American prisons, not here of course, but elsewhere, are remarks about another additional unofficial justice in prison delivered by other prisoners. It automatic. Every discussion, not here of course, but elsewhere, mentions new prisoners taking it in the butt. That's wrong. When it's axiomatic that prisoners are sodomized, not here of course, but elsewhere, then your prison system is out of control and that is not justice.

Chip Ahoy said...

Did you see the clip of the guy whose job it is to push Osama Bin Laden's cloth-wrapped body back into the sea whenever it washes ashore? It shows the guy out there in the water pushing the bundle into the waves that keep pushing it back. What a lonely awful endless job.

bagoh20 said...

"I guess it's to be expected that no one here sees fit to raise the issue of how many wrongly convicted in the "land of the free" we now know were wrongly sentenced to execution."

OK, How many?

How many were executed?

How many additional people died at the hands of convicted murderers because they were not expeditiously given justice. In other words, which leads to more dead innocent people: executing or not?

Amartel said...

DNA testing exonerated some people who had been wrongly convicted (by a jury of their peers, not "the government") and now operates to decrease even further the number of wrongful convictions. An informed citizenry, that doesn't kow-tow to government and it's functionaries and their enthusiasms would further decrease the incidence. Of course it wasn't necessary in Tsarnaev's case as his cold-blooded murderous conduct is on video.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well Gee Bag, a resourceful, self-starting CEO like you shouldn't find Professor Google too difficult to ring up. Let's see…

In April 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center said that there had been 152 exonerations of prisoners on death row in the United States since 1973.

How many additional people died at the hands of convicted murderers because they were not expeditiously given justice. In other words, which leads to more dead innocent people: executing or not?

Since execution's not a deterrent, none. Also, your comment seems to indicate a failure on your part to understand the difference between incarceration and execution as ways of preventing crime. Killing someone "quickly" doesn't prevent any more deaths that someone would need to be outside of a prison to commit, anyway. Again, your comment whiffs of the air of "street justice" that seems to assume you can't tell the difference between someone being killed in the act and someone incapacitated from killing others while in prison as he waits for the state to decide for the right moment to kill him. Which makes no difference to the dead body's he's already responsible for. Or not responsible for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exonerated_death_row_inmates#United_States

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty

rcocean said...

No system of justice is perfect. If you sentence 1000 people to death, maybe one or two MAY be innocent. If you can't live with that, don't support the death penalty.

We lost 25,000 men in WW2 in AF training accidents. We lose people to shooting accidents every day. Should we have not fought WW2 or give up Guns because innocent people get killed?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Not executing a criminal is not the same thing as letting the Axis go unopposed in WWII.