Jan. 5
TEXAS----impending execution
Death Watch: Conflicts of Interest----When your attorney goes to work for the
D.A.
The state's death chamber fires up again after a year in which the total number
of state-sanctioned killings (7) was the fewest since 1996, when former Gov.
George W. Bush oversaw the execution of only 3. First set for strapping in is
48-year-old Christopher Wilkins, convicted of capital murder in 2008, 2 1/2
years after confessing to the shooting deaths of 2 men - Willie Freeman and
Mike Silva - near Ft. Worth during a drug deal gone awry.
Several weeks before the murders, Wilkins left a halfway house in Houston,
stole a truck, and drove to Ft. Worth, where he made plans to meet Freeman to
buy drugs. Instead, Freeman presented Wilkins with a $20 piece of gravel and
laughed at him. Williams testified during trial that he decided at that moment
to kill his new acquaintances. During testimony Wilkins also expressed a desire
to plead guilty, skip the remainder of the trial, and await sentencing. He told
jurors they had a job to do.
Jurors took only 90 minutes to return a guilty verdict and sentenced Wilkins to
death. Despite the verdict, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that 2 of the
jurors cried during the announcement, while Wilkins mouthed "It's okay. It's
okay." In 2010, the state's Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Wilkins'
conviction.
Wilkins' appellate lawyers, led by Hilary Sheard, filed a federal petition for
relief in May 2012 that claimed Wilkins' trial counsel conducted a "belated
inadequate and cursory investigation" and violated his Sixth Amendment right to
effective assistance of counsel. They also claimed their client suffered from a
conflict of interest because one of his previously assigned lawyers had
formerly represented another of Wilkins' victims: Gilbert Vallejo, whom Wilkins
confessed to killing the night before he shot Silva and Freeman. They also
argued that the original trial violated their client's 14th Amendment right to
due process, in that the defendant was self-destructive and therefore incapable
of entering a plea deal or standing trial. The petition was denied by a federal
judge, and the Supreme Court declined a motion to stay the proceedings.
"Strickland took the case, but failed to reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had
contracts to work with the prosecutor's office that put Wilkins on death row."
- Hilary Sheard
A 2015 execution date was stayed in order to address potential DNA concerns
with the case, and the execution was eventually rescheduled for this Wednesday,
Jan. 11.
On Dec. 21, Sheard requested another stay of execution from the state's Court
of Criminal Appeals, asking that Wilkins be given a full and fair review of his
claims. Sheard cited the poor quality of capital habeas representation in "some
Texas cases and the devastating consequences" such conditions have on the
convicted. Specifically, Jack Strickland, who represented Wilkins at trial, was
also assigned to be Wilkins' attorney during appeals. Strickland, however, had
begun working for the Tarrant County D.A.'s office, which sentenced his client
to death, before resigning from Wilkins' case. According to Wilkins' appeal,
Strickland made public his plans to return to the D.A.'s office in May 2010,
prior to filing Wilkins' habeas application, but waited until Feb. 2011 to
withdraw from the case - after habeas had been denied. "He should have been
appointed a new attorney, or at least been given a hearing on the issue,"
Sheard told the Chronicle. "Strickland took the case, but failed to
reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had agreed to work with the prosecutor's
office that put Wilkins on death row. Wilkins tried to fire Strickland
repeatedly, but to no avail."
Late on Wednesday (Jan. 4), the CCA denied Wilkins' appeal. He currently has a
petition for writ of certiorari pending with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding
an absence of funding for reinvestigating the case and trial; SCOTUS has not
issued a ruling on that, either. If the state moves forward with the execution,
it will mark the 539th execution in Texas since the state reinstated the death
penalty in 1976. The Department of Criminal Justice currently has 2 additional
executions scheduled for January: Kosoul Chanthakoummane on Jan. 25 and Terry
Edwards the following evening.
"For Law Enforcement Purposes Only"
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed a lawsuit on Jan. 3 in a
Galveston federal court against the Food and Drug Administration and
Commissioner Robert Califf, arguing the FDA has failed to make a prompt final
decision on the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental. The 2 agencies have
been in a standoff since July 2015, when the FDA intercepted a shipment of
sodium thiopental being sent from India, arguing on three grounds that the drug
shouldn't be allowed into domestic commerce. The FDA issued a tentative
decision last April that "thiopental sodium appeared to be an unapproved new
drug that violated" several FDA guidelines. The agency has not yet issued a
final ruling. TDCJ is calling the delay "unreasonable." The suit states the FDA
is exempt from regulating drugs that do not affect public health. The
department considers its 2015 shipment aboveboard and in accordance with this
exemption: The labels are marked "For law enforcement purposes only."
It's been a rough go for the state and its effort to obtain execution drugs
recently, as more and more companies refuse to have their drugs used for lethal
injection. In 2011, Danish pentobarbital manufacturer Lundbeck prohibited sales
to U.S. pharmacies. Last May, Pfizer (the last FDA-approved manufacturer of
execution drugs) established new rules preventing death penalty states from
obtaining those drugs. The state has contracted with anonymous compounding
pharmacies to get its supply of pentobarbital since 2013, but that supply has
dried up. Sodium thiopental, a barbiturate that produces unconsciousness and
anesthesia and works as a primer drug for a cocktail that kills inmates, was
the choice sedative in Texas and a more common execution drug nationwide until
the UK banned its export in 2010.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
FLORIDA:
Florida's high court takes puzzling turn on death penalty
Possibly showing its hand on the future of capital punishment in Florida, the
state Supreme Court by a 5-2 vote on Wednesday forbid the state from imposing
the death penalty in pending prosecutions, only to withdraw the order hours
later as "prematurely issued."
The highly unusual move was made necessary by an "internal error," according to
a statement issued by court spokesman Craig Waters.
But it leaves prosecutors in a troubling limbo, signaling that they may be
taking a risk if they pursue the death penalty in murder cases at this time.
One prosecutor said the Florida Legislature needs to act quickly to craft a
death penalty law that passes constitutional scrutiny.
"These are the most serious cases we handle, and are incredibly emotional in
the best of circumstances," said State Attorney Jack Campbell, who this week
took over as the lead prosecutor for several north Florida counties.
"Uncertainty in the law is terrible for the victim's families, for the
defendants. It's very important to me they get this sorted out as quickly as
possible, as definitively as possible."
Florida's death penalty law was upended as a result of a case involving Timothy
Lee Hurst, who was convicted using a box-cutter to kill a co-worker at a
Pensacola Popeye's restaurant in 1998. A jury had divided 7-5 over whether
Hurst deserved to die, but a judge imposed the death sentence.
The state Supreme Court initially upheld that sentence, but the U.S. Supreme
Court in January 2016 declared the state's death penalty sentencing law
unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges to make the ultimate
decision.
The Legislature responded by overhauling the law, but rejected calls to require
a unanimous jury decision in future cases, instead allowing the death penalty
to be imposed by a 10-2 jury vote.
In October, however, the state Supreme Court voted 5-2 to strike down the new
law and require unanimous jury decisions for capital punishment.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi promptly asked the court to reconsider, with
one of her senior attorneys arguing in court filings that clarity is needed to
"avoid any potential miscarriage of justice." Bondi's office also asserted that
pending death penalty cases could move ahead as long as their juries
unanimously agreed to the punishment.
Then in December, the state justices upended another set of capital
punishments, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that only juries, not
judges, can determine whether evidence justifies the death penalty. That ruling
made a group of inmates sentenced after 2002 eligible for new sentencing
hearings, and could lead to them being released from death row.
On Wednesday morning, the high court rejected Bondi's request, and said the
entire sentencing law "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions." But only
hours later, this firm conclusion was withdrawn.
Lawyers for death row inmates and opponents of capital punishment have warned
prosecutors for years that Florida's death sentencing law was unconstitutional.
Attorney Martin McClain, a veteran of death penalty cases, asserted that as of
right now, there "is not a valid process in place" for death penalty cases to
proceed in Florida.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
California rejects proposed new death penalty rules
Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were dealt another blow late
last month when a state agency tasked with reviewing regulatory changes
rejected a proposed new lethal injection protocol.
The decision by the Office of Administrative Law came one day after the
California Supreme Court blocked implementation of Proposition 66, an
initiative passed by voters in November to expedite capital punishment, pending
the outcome of a lawsuit.
In a 25-page decision of disapproval released on Dec. 28, the OAL cited
inconsistencies and ambiguities in the protocol, insufficient justification for
some regulations and a need for further response to public comments. The
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has four months to
remedy the issues and resubmit its proposal.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Executions were halted in 2006 because of legal challenges alleging that
California???s lethal injection method violated the constitutional prohibition
on cruel and unusual punishment.
The corrections department began developing a new protocol last year that
replaced its old 3-drug cocktail with a 7.5-gram, single-drug dose of 1 of 4
barbiturates: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental.
Among the questions raised by the OAL was why inmates would be injected with
7.5 grams of a barbiturate when corrections officials acknowledged 5 grams is a
sufficiently lethal dose. It also asked for additional explanations on a $50
limit for inmates' last meals and why inmates would be offered the option of
taking a sedative before the execution begins.
The majority of the decision focused on ambiguities in the protocol that the
OAL said needed to be clarified. These included the timeline for steps taken in
the days and hours leading up to an execution, how to proceed if an inmate does
not immediately die, what sedative options are available and who must
administer them, what proposed monthly "security and operational inspections"
of the execution chamber would entail, and under what conditions a warden
should raise inquiry into an inmate's sanity.
(source: Sacramento Bee)
WASHINGTON:
Governor defends reprieve of death row inmate, calls penalty 'unfair to
taxpayers'
Governor Jay Inslee has called on state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty
once and for all, calling it an "archaic" punishment that does nothing to
reduce crime and costs taxpayers millions of dollars.
8 men remain on Washington state's death row after a 9th died Sunday when he
went into cardiac arrest while being treated for an existing medical condition,
the Washington Department of Corrections said.
Dwayne A. Woods, 46, passed away while under in-patient observation at the
Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Wash. He had been on death row
since 1997 for the aggravated murders of Telisha Shaver, 22, and Jade Moore,
18.
Woods' death came just days after Governor Inslee quietly granted a reprieve
for another death row inmate - Clark Richard Elmore.
Elmore, 65, has been on death row since 1995 for the rape and murder of
14-year-old Christy Onstad in Bellingham. Onstad was the daughter of Elmore's
live-in girlfriend.
In an interview Wednesday on "Q13 News This Morning," Inslee defended his
reprieve of Elmore and once again urged lawmakers in the state to change the
law and put an end to capital punishment for good.
"It costs millions and millions of dollars. It is inequitably applied because
it is not applied in the vast majority of the state of Washington ... because
counties can't afford to prosecute people," he said, referring to the cost of
capital cases. "So it's an archaic thing that needs to be changed and I've
taken a position to respect what I believe is fairness in our system and
justice for taxpayers."
In 2014, Inslee issued a moratorium on the death penalty, which prevents future
inmates sent to death row from being executed while he is in office. Meanwhile,
with capital punishment still on the books in Washington, some prosecutors
continue to pursue capital cases - often spending millions of dollars to fight
for a punishment that may never be carried out.
"The moratorium that Governor Inslee announced several years ago and the
reprieve that he announced last week, they don't change the law and they don't
change the sentences for the individuals involved," King County Prosecutor Dan
Satterberg said Wednesday.
"It just, basically, kicks the can down the road for the next governor or
governors who might have a different view. So, all the things that have been
complained about - that it's too slow, too expense - are actually made worse by
the moratorium. It actually takes longer now because we know for the next 4
years we're not going to be able to carry out any sentences."
In 2015, Satterberg, on behalf of The Washington Association of Prosecuting
Attorneys, called on lawmakers to send a death penalty referendum to voters.
"I think we want to know before we go down this road of capital ligation, which
can take 20 years from the time a person is convicted to the time they're
executed, is we want to know whether we have the public support to do it,"
Satterberg told Q13 News.
Governor Inslee disagrees. He hopes lawmakers will handle the issue on their
own.
"What I would suggest is that the legislature change the law," he said. "It
would bring clarity to it and that would be the best way to deal with this."
(source: Fox News)
USA:
Dru Sjodin's killer fights death penalty
The Dru Sjodin case continues as prosecutors asked to interview Rodriguez's
trial lawyer under oath.
It's been more than 13 years since Dru Sjodin was kidnapped and murdered by
Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr., a convicted sex offender. While a federal jury
sentenced Rodriguez to death more than a decade ago, the case remains active
today.
In 2003, Sjodin, a 22-year-old college student at the University of North
Dakota, was kidnapped from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Her
body was found months later in Crookston, Minnesota. Rodriguez, a sexual
offender, was arrested. Because the crime crossed state lines, prosecutors were
able to charge Rodriguez under federal laws - making his trial the 1st federal
death penalty case in North Dakota.
In 2007, a federal appeals court upheld Rodriguez's death penalty and
conviction. In 2011, new lawyers filed an appeal - arguing Rodriguez was
"denied effective assistance of counsel," the trial featured "junk science and
false forensics," and that Rodriguez is "mentally retarded."
On Dec. 28, prosecutors filed a motion to interview Rodriguez's trial lawyer
under oath due to the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The current
appeal is almost certainly Rodriguez's last shot at avoiding the death penalty.
"This comes to no surprise to us at all," Linda Walker, the mother of Dru
Sjodin, told Fox 9. "I think a lot of people don't understand that when people
are on death row, they have only 1 hour a day outside their confinement ... So
he really honestly has to sit and think about what's done, day in and day out."
It's difficult to estimate how much longer the case may last. On average,
condemned inmates spend nearly 16 years on death row before they are executed.
However, the statistics are based on state death row inmates, not federal.
Federally, only 3 people have been executed since the federal death penalty was
reinstated in 1988.
Condemned inmates are entitled to an automatic appeal, and another at their
request.
(source: KMSP news)
***********************
Even Dylann Roof should not receive a death sentence
A Charleston, S.C., jury convicted racist murderer Dylann Roof of hate crimes
last month, and now the only question is whether the state will put him to
death. We oppose the death penalty even for the Dylann Roofs of the world. But
if the jury disagrees with us, at least it would hand down the ultimate
punishment in retribution for a truly unusual crime and without a shadow of
doubt about Mr. Roof's guilt. The same cannot be said for many other cases that
resulted in death sentences over the past several decades, in which the
punishment was meted out too often, without the restraint that even
death-penalty advocates should favor.
That is why we were heartened to read through the Death Penalty Information
Center's year-end report, which came out Dec. 21. The group found that 30 new
death sentences were handed down in 2016, a drop of 19 from 2015's historic
low. In fact, 2016's total represents the lowest number in decades.
20 people nationwide were executed, which is the lowest number in 25 years, and
only 5 states carried out executions, the lowest number in 33 years. As usual,
a few states stood out. Texas and Georgia put the most people to death. But
even in these states, attitudes may be changing: The death penalty was issued
only 4 times last year in Texas, and no one was sentenced to death in Georgia.
In fact, California led the pack in death sentences, with 9, 4 of which were
issued in Los Angeles County alone. That's right: L.A. County equaled the
entire state of Texas in death sentences. Ohio tied with Texas for the 2nd-most
death sentences.
There are many possible reasons for the waning use of the death penalty. Over
the past several years, anti-death-penalty advocates have attempted to sabotage
the machinery of capital punishment, making it difficult for states to source
the drugs they inject into the veins of the condemned. With crime rates still
near historic lows, one would also expect fewer death sentences around the
country.
But we hope the trend also reflects shifting attitudes. It has long been clear
that the death penalty is extremely expensive for the government to administer,
ineffective as a deterrent to crime and too often has resulted in innocent
people being sentenced to die. The practice of killing human beings, even with
all the due process in the world, is also in tension with the inherent dignity
Americans should ascribe to human life. The sooner the United States gets to
zero executions, the better.
(source: Editorial, Washington Post)
*********************
Judge refuses to move Fell death-penalty trial
A federal judge has rejected Donald Fell's request that his new death-penalty
trial, expected to start in February, be moved out of state.
In the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffry Crawford rejected 3 key
requests from a change-of-venue request filed on behalf of Fell, 36, in
October.
Crawford declined to move the trial out of court, citing a 2010 case, United
States v. Skilling.
"In the Skilling decision, the Supreme Court rejected the presumption of
prejudice found in 3 prior decisions on pretrial publicity in which the trials
took place in a circus-like atmosphere," Crawford wrote. "No circus occurred in
the Skilling trial, and none is likely in this case either."
The judge also denied a request to move the trial out of Rutland if the case
couldn't be move out of state.
Lawyers representing Fell also asked that the court reject jurors from
southwestern Vermont because they would presumably be too familiar with the
case.
"Jurors with existing information and beliefs can be found in all three
districts, and the disparities are not great enough to exclude a regional
division," Crawford said.
In 2005, Fell was already tried and convicted by a federal jury for the death
of Terry King, 53, of North Clarendon.
Police said Fell and his friend, Robert Lee, carjacked King in the parking lot
of the Rutland Shopping Plaza in November 2000. The 2 men took King to New York
state and killed her, police said.
According to police, Fell, at that time, was fleeing the state because earlier
in the day he killed his mother, Debra Fell, and her friend, Charles Conway, in
Rutland.
In 2006, Fell was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned because
1 of the jurors in the case had done some independent investigation outside of
the trial and shared information with other jurors.
In a separate decision released Tuesday, Crawford rejected a request to dismiss
the case based on the intent by federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty
even through Vermont has not used the death penalty since 1954.
"This argument was previously made and rejected by courts in federal
death-penalty cases pending in states and other jurisdictions which have
themselves rejected the death penalty," Crawford said.
(source: Rutland Herald)
*********************
Dylann Roof: 'There's nothing wrong with me psychologically'
Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof began making his case in court
Wednesday, addressing jurors for the first time as they weigh whether to give
him a death sentence.
"There's nothing wrong with me psychologically," Roof said during his brief
opening statement.
3 people who'd been sitting in the section of the courtroom reserved for
friends and family of the victims walked out while Roof spoke. One said, "This
is all crap," as he left.
Roof, wearing a gray knit sweater and speaking so softly that people in the
courtroom strained to hear him, told jurors to disregard the arguments his
attorneys made in the earlier phase of the trial.
"Anything you heard from my lawyers in the last phase, I ask you to forget it,"
he said. "That's the last thing."
Prosecutor details Roof's jailhouse journal
Last month jurors convicted Roof of federal murder and hate crimes charges for
the June 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in
Charleston.
Now the white supremacist who killed 9 people at the historically black church
is representing himself in court as the jury decides whether he will face life
in prison or the death penalty.
Assistant US Attorney Nathan Williams argued Wednesday that a number of factors
show Roof deserves to face a death sentence. Among them: the avowed white
supremacist's motive, his lack of remorse and the shooting's impact on the
victims' families.
"The defendant didn't stop after shooting 1 or 4 or 5 people. That's why this
case is worse," Williams said. "He killed because of the color of their skin.
He thought they were less as people. He wanted to magnify and incite violence."
The prosecutor presented new evidence, including a jailhouse journal that he
said was written six weeks after Roof's arrest.
"I do not regret what I did," the journal entry said, according to Williams. "I
am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed. I do
feel sorry for the innocent white children forced to live in this sick county.
I do feel sorry for the innocent white people that are killed daily at the
hands of the lower races. I have shed a tear of self-pity for myself. I feel
pity that I had to do what I did in the first place. I feel pity that I had to
give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed."
The journal entry echoes racist statements from Roof that prosecutors presented
earlier in the trial.
But the jailhouse writings reveal something significant, Williams argued.
Roof, the prosecutor said, is capable of remorse -- but felt none for his
crimes.
Family, friends of victims testify
Also on Wednesday, the jury began hearing from people who lost relatives or
friends in the massacre.
Jennifer Pinckney, widow of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was in a nearby room with a
daughter when the shooting occurred. She testified about her relationship with
her husband and about the shooting.
When police arrived, a female officer told the daughter they were going to play
a game, Pinckney said. The officer encouraged the girl to put her head on her
shoulder and keep her eyes closed.
But Jennifer Pinckey was unable to avoid catching a glimpse of the scene. She
said she was walking to the door when she saw blood on the floor.
"I felt sick," she said. "I leaned over and they rushed me out."
She believes she survived to continue her husband's legacy.
"He did so much. And he was so many things to so many people," she said.
Some family members of victims have appeared torn over whether Roof should be
sentenced to death.
Roof also is scheduled to be tried on state murder charges, for which he could
also be sentenced to death.
Only 3 federal inmates have been executed in the United States since the
federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium:
-- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001, 6 years after he
killed 168 people.
[My note----MeVeigh received the federal death sentence for the killing of 8
FBI agents in the Oklahoma City bombing]
-- Juan Raul Garza on June 19, 2001, 8 years after he was convicted of running
a marijuana drug ring and killing 3 people.
-- Louis Jones on March 18, 2003, 8 years after he kidnapped and murdered
19-year-old Army Pvt. Tracie McBride.
Few federal inmates on death row have been executed
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the last person to get a federal
death sentence. He's one of 62 federal prisoners awaiting execution, according
to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit.
(source: CNN)
*****************
The price of death
The idea of capital punishment came with European settlers as they began to
settle in the new world. The 1st recorded execution in the new colonies was
that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. The
death penalty has gone through various changes over the years, such as moving
away from hangings and burning at the stake and moving toward more humane ways
of ending life, such as lethal injections. More than 1/2 of the countries in
the international community have abolished the death penalty completely; 58
countries still have the death penalty. Capital punishment is usually reserved
for the following types of cases: first degree murder, treason, and aggravated
murder. 31 states in the U.S. have the death penalty and in those states, there
are 2,943 inmates who are on death row as of January 1, 2016.
The death penalty, it is often said, helps deter crime, and brings about
justice for the victims. It is assumed that criminals will think twice before
they commit a crime if the punishment could include death. It can provide
closure for many families and in some cases the victims, but many families are
horrified when they witness the inmate being executed and they are left with an
empty feeling, not the feeling of justice that many think they will receive.
The death penalty is often put in a good light as it is supposedly cheaper and
more humane then a life sentence, but is it really? The average inmate spends
178 months on death row between sentencing, multiple trials, and execution. A
quarter of the deaths of inmates in the Unites States who are on death row are
caused by natural causes. Cases without the death penalty cost an average of
$740,000, while cases where the death penalty is sought cost anywhere from $1
million to $1.6 million, depending on the state. Maintaining each death row
prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general
population.
There are alternatives to capital punishment that not only cost less but also
keep dangerous criminals off the street for their lives. On average, taxpayers
pay execution costs that are twice as much as keeping an inmate in prison for
life. Dr. Gross, a Creighton University economics professor, estimated that the
death penalty costs states with capital punishment an average of $23.2 million
more per year than alternative sentences. Life in prison guarantees that the
individual will not be released back on the streets to commit more crime. It
also does not require so many trials, so it is less expensive than the death
penalty.
Support for the death penalty is shrinking. In 1936, 61% of Americans favored
the death penalty and thirty years later the support had shrunk to 42%.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the % of Americans in favor of the death penalty
increased steadily, culminating in an 80% approval rating in 1994. As of 2015,
61% of Americans continue to support capital punishment, even though it is
outlawed in 19 states. I believe that support is shrinking because cases that
include capital punishment are often on the news and pressure can be put forth
to close the case quickly and while cases may be taken out of the news, capital
punishment cases are never closed quickly. Most Americans do not consider that
we are a nation that carries out "an eye for an eye," and when other countries
use the policy, we see it as barbaric. An example would be when someone gets
his hand cut off for stealing, we do not do this in America but when we hear
that other countries do, and we are horrified.
While the death penalty sounds like a good thing at first, once you dig deeper
into it, then it begins to look ugly. It not only costs tax payers thousands
more each year, but it also does not deter crime nor give families the feeling
that justice has been done. Is death really the best option?
(source: Rebecka Edwards is a University of Central Arkansas
student----thecabin.net)
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