Monday, September 26, 2011
A Low-Tech Stereotyping
Count me, folks, as one of the people who didn't think that that Troy Davis guy should have been executed last week. While, yes, the fellow indeed MAY have been guilty, there was also certainly more than enough reasonable doubt, not just to stay the execution but to possibly even give him another trial. The only exception to the criticism that I have is this belief on the part of certain people that this executions de facto mean that Georgia, in its total, is a racist state. The way that I see it, peeps, "Georgia is a racist state" is far, Far, FAR, too broad a condemnation. Yes, there are obviously some racist elements and racist individuals in it but a state that also has Emory University, Georgia Tech, and which is also the home of CNN, The High Museum of Art, and a former U.S. President shouldn't so cavalierly be slandered like this. To use the words of our current U.S. President, "People, kindly use a scalpel."
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Speaking strictly on a national level and off topic as someone who supports the death penalty I have a very hard times defending it when a black man easily gets the needle or electric with no direct evidence to convict.
While some white chick, like Casey Anthony or Susan Smith in South Carolina, can willfully and deliberately plan their kids murder but get off lightly.
Has anyone heard of Governor Deal denouncing the execution or does he even know about it?
I am opposed to all death penalties, so I cannot be objective about this.
I don't believe it is safe to consider juries qualified to determine anything beyond a reasonable doubt and I cannot think of an algorithm that would fix this.
They are not trained in the field to which they are temporarily assigned and it involves a lot of high level stuff: psychology, forensics, criminology, law.
This was an egregious example, but I would not execute anyone. As one defense attorney put it, whether someone gets executed largely depends on the luck of the draw, meaning on the jury they get.
You cannot have a civilized society where chance is part of the main equation of life and death justice.
I, too, am generally opposed to the death penalty - not because I don't think that a society has a right to collectively impose it, but because of the points that you gentlemen point out; the inequitable application of it, the fact that there aren't any do-overs, etc.. Keep 'em in jail. That, in my opinion, should be punishment enough.
Jail is punishment. Death is revenge. A just system is not about revenge.
I oppose the death penalty as well, although I think an exception should rightly have been made for war criminal George bush. He should have been eligible... after a trial and conviction, that is.
Jury selection would flush you out faster than a physic.
John Myste said: "I am opposed to all death penalties, so I cannot be objective about this."
I do too, which puts me to the left of Beach Bum!
Even in the case of Osama Bin Laden. To kill him in the spot for his crimes was a bad thing. They would have been justified in killing him in self-defense, however, if they had reason to believe he was about to trigger explosives to kill them all or some other unjustified act of violence. Which there would have been very good reason to believe.
WD: A simple question. What is the status of Boyle's ICC complaint against George W. Bush?
There is plenty of evidence that Troy Davis was guilty as hell. The state didn't call most of their witnesses. There were over 30 people in that parking lot that witnessed the crime.
But besides that, one of the main arguments against capital punishment is that it's not effective as a deterrent.
How about instead of letting criminals languish on death row for decades while they file appeal after appeal, we just start frying one or two EVERY WEEK?
Force the major networks to carry it live, and mandate that all public schools show it as it happens?
I guarantee if you do that you'd see a drop in violent crime.
And as far as Bin Laden goes, they shouldn't have been so public about it.
Let the rest of the world herald his death, and when they ask if we were the cause, we just shrug our collective shoulders and say:
"wasn't us man, we were over here watching Zero dismantle the Constitution..."
By the way, WD. There is no "War Criminal" George W. Bush.
By calling for George W. Bush's death, you come up looking something like the kooks who make pictures of Obama with a noose around his neck. They (like you) want to see a President killed not out of justice, but because they are entirely wrong about him and what he is done. Their ignorance like yours fuels bloodlist.
No, you aren't as bad as the noose nuts. But you have taken a step in their direction.
By the way, I have accurately called Boyle an 'armchair attorney'. It is mocking, yes.
But is Boyle even an attorney? Where is he licensed to practice law anywhere? I have found reference to being an attorney in Chechnya, but that seems to be an honorary thing.
Where are the real qualifications?
There's a reference to him being a tax attorney in a firm. Aha. Real qualifications. Which still makes him no more qualified than radio pundit Mark Levin.
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach"
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