May 27 FLORIDA: State crime lab finds ID errors in print data In Sanford, a state crime laboratory has found 3 more fingerprints that were misidentified by analysts at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, but no one was harmed by those errors, authorities said Friday. That raises to 8 the number of botched calls found by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It began a rework of about 300 cases after one Sheriff's Office print analyst complained that a colleague, Donna Birks, 49, was biased and breaking print-reading rules. 7 of the bad calls uncovered by FDLE were made by Birks, according to authorities. The 8th was by Tara Williamson, 31, the employee whose complaint launched the investigation. In one case, Birks linked a print to the wrong person, FDLE determined. In the others, Birks and Williamson matched prints to suspects although FDLE analysts later said the impressions were inconclusive. 2 of the 3 most recently disclosed bad calls involved check fraud, cases in which prosecutors never filed charges, according to Chris White, chief assistant state attorney in Seminole. In the third, FDLE and Williamson both agreed on three prints found on a bottle of liquor at the scene of a burglary. FDLE, though, said a palm print found on the same bottle was inconclusive and overruled Williamson, who said it belonged to the same suspect. Williamson continues to work in the Sheriff's Office crime lab but is not allowed to analyze prints, at least for now. Birks has been suspended with pay. Despite the eight errors, there is no conclusive evidence anyone has been wrongly convicted or sent to prison. Defense attorneys for death-row inmate Clemente Javier "Shorty" Aguirre want a new trial. FDLE says a bloody print found on the knife he is accused of using to kill 2 women is inconclusive. Birks testified it was Aguirre's. (source : Orlando Sentinel) PENNSYLVANIA: County's 18 official executions began with soldier's 1779 hanging Luzerne County jail that stood at East Market and South Washington streets in Wilkes-Barre between 1802 and 1869. Hangings took place in the jail's yard behind a stone wall that expanded into East Market Street. Photo from 'History of Wilkes-Barre and the Wyoming Valley' 30 years ago, construction crews dismantled what was believed to be the original cell blocks of the Luzerne County jail located at East Market and South Washington streets. The jail was used between 1802 and 1869. The concrete cell blocks were under the sidewalk and were used as storage for a hardware store during the early 1900s. After the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, the city's Redevelopment Authorities purchased the property and razed the wooden buildings making way for the 2-story brick structure that today houses a Chinese restaurant, a senior center and other businesses. For 67 years, the jail stood at the site where 6 men were executed by hanging. Many believe the condemned men spent the last months of their lives in the concrete cell blocks. There have been 18 official executions by hanging in Luzerne County with the 1st taking place under military law before the county was formed. All were men and 17 of them were convicted of murder. The 1st actual hanging occurred July 1, 1779, along the Susquehanna River outside Fort Wyoming that stood at River and Northampton streets. Michael Rosebury was a soldier in Mayor General John Sullivan's continental army that was camped in the Wyoming Valley during June and July 1779. Rosebury and another soldier, Lawrence Myers, were convicted of being Tories supporting the British during the Revolutionary War, and inducing continental soldiers to leave Sullivans army. A gallows was erected along the river where Rosebury was hanged, according to the 1885 book, "Annals of Luzerne County," by Stewart Pearce. Myers stood with the noose around his neck, but Sullivan granted him mercy because he had a family, according to Pearce's book. The 1st court sanctioned hanging in Luzerne County happened on March 2, 1849, in the old jails courtyard that extended into East Market Street, formerly called Center Street. James Cadden, a miner from Hanover Township, was convicted of murder after a weeklong trial in August 1848 at the former courthouse on Public Square. The murder happened on June 27 of that year when Cadden shot and killed another miner, Daniel Gilligan, in Hanover Township. The fatal shooting occurred along railroad tracks as Gilligan and another miner, Samuel Jones, were walking toward a coal mine owned by Samuel Holland, who owned thousands of acres of land in Hanover Township. During the trial, it was learned that Cadden was drinking the night before and was injured in an argument with Jones about Gilligan boarding Free Masons at his home. Cadden mistakenly blamed Gilligan for his injury and plotted his revenge against his neighbor. Reese Evans was only 19 years old when he was executed in the jail yard on Sept. 9, 1853, for the murder of Lewis Reese in Kingston. According to Pearce's book and an article from the former weekly newspaper The Luzerne Union on Sept. 14, 1853, Evans was convicted of shooting Reese in the back of the head. Evans had convinced Reese to walk with him from Wilkes-Barre to Kingston to get money that he owed Reese for clothing. After the fatal shooting that happened in a field, Evans removed some money Reese had in his pockets. Evans' sister visited her brother often at the jail. During one such visit, his sister gave him a basket that contained women's clothing that he wore in disguise in an attempted escape from jail, according to Pearce's book. According to The Luzerne Union, large crowds gathered at the jail in hopes of seeing Evans get hanged despite the abolishment of public hangings in Pennsylvania. Spectators sat in trees and roof tops, including the old courthouse on Public Square, overlooking the jails stone wall. 2 soldiers in the U.S. Union Army stood guard at Evans' cell armed with swords fearing the crowd would rush through the iron gates. Evans' last words as reported in The Luzerne Union were: "Good bye sheriff. God bless you. You have been kind to me, you and all your family." 2 minutes after the sheriff placed a white hood covering Evans' head, the convicted murderer was sent to his death. James Quinn was led from his jail cell to the base of the gallows under the beat of drums by the U.S. Union Army on April 21, 1854. Quinn ran up the steps and stood upright ready for his execution. Quinn was convicted in January of that year for the ax murder of Mahala Wiggins on a boat named Mount Elliot that was crossing the Susquehanna River between Nanticoke and West Nanticoke in June 1853. The murder happened on a bed inside Quinn's cabin when Quinn struck Wiggins in the head twice with the ax, The Luzerne Union newspaper reported during the trial in January 1854. Quinn jumped off the boat and hid in woods on Tilbury Knob in West Nanticoke at night. He returned to the boat and gathered his clothes escaping to Danville, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati until he was captured in Toledo, Ohio. Quinn was convicted by a Luzerne County jury, and filed an immediate appeal of the sentence. While imprisoned at the jail, he attempted to escape several times. At the base of the gallows, Quinn pulled away from the sheriff and ran up the steps missing the top step entirely. Standing on top of the platform, Quinn saluted and bowed to the crowd that was admitted inside the jail's yard. Quinn stood still as the sheriff placed the noose around his neck. 2 minutes passed until the floor beneath his feet opened sending him falling several feet. "The struggle between him and death was severe. For nearly 10 minutes, he struggled and his broad chest heaved as though he was resolved not to surrender himself into the strong arms of death, but at the expiration of 14 minutes all signs of life had ceased" The Luzerne Union reported about the hanging. (source: Times-Leader) CONNECTICUT: Colonial Witch Hysteria Recalled On May 26, 1647, a Windsor woman named Alse Young was hanged for witchcraft where Hartford's Old State House now stands. On Saturday, a group of descendants, historians and interested onlookers gathered down the road at Barnard Park - the South Green - to remember Young and 10 other Connecticut residents executed for witchcraft in Colonial Connecticut. As each of the names of the 9 women and 2 men was read, a bell was rung, and a white rose laid at the base of a tree, over which a hangman's noose dangled. A 12th rose was laid to remember the children of the executed. "When's the hanging, yo?" asked one passer-by, a man astride a bicycle, prompting several of the assembled to walk over and explain why they were in the park. If Massachusetts is better known for its Colonial witch hunts, Connecticut's hysteria preceded that state's by a half-century, yet the accused remain mostly unacknowledged by history books. Saturday's ceremony was an attempt to change that, said organizer Kathy Spada-Basto, a teacher at Hartford's Burns Elementary School. She hopes to make the commemoration an annual ritual. The longtime Hartford-area resident said she became interested in Connecticut's secret past about 5 years ago after she picked up a book on Colonial witch hunts in New England. "I've lived here all of my life, and I didn't know this," said Spada-Basto. Researching the trials and getting to know the small army of genealogists and amateur historians who share her passion "has been a labor of love for me," she said. Young's execution is the 1st one recorded for witchcraft in New England, and her name is known only because the Windsor town clerk at the time recorded it in his diary. No official record of her trial exists. From some counts, she was the wife of a John, a carpenter, and he left town soon after her death. A woman thought to have been her daughter was later accused of witchcraft in Springfield, though the daughter was not executed and her case may not have even come to trial; historians say 2nd-generation accusations were common. Also executed (according to historical records and a recent report from the Office of Legislative Research) were Mary Johnson, of Wethersfield; Joan and John Carrington, of Wethersfield; Goodwife (her 1st name is lost) Bassett, of Fairfield; Goodwife Knapp, of Fairfield; Lydia Gilbert, of Windsor; Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith, of Hartford; Mary Barnes, of Farmington, and Mary Sanford, of Hartford. 2 of Sanford's descendants, Debra Avery, and her 14-year-old daughter, Addie, of Washington, Conn., are pushing for official exoneration of their ancestor and the others. Massachusetts and Virginia already have exonerated their witchcraft victims. Addie Avery, who is home-schooled, has taken on the project for a class. She said she has gotten favorable replies from some legislators in Hartford, and a bill might be introduced in the next legislative session. Joining the Averys on Saturday was Judy Dworin, of the Judy Dworin Dance Ensemble. In the mid-'90s, she examined witchcraft hysteria in a multimedia show called "Burning." She is reworking that piece with some new research, she said, that will include an appearance by Addie Avery. Popular retellings of the New England witch hysteria tend to paint the accused - most of whom were women - as residents unable to fit into the strictures of their time, but the real story is more complex, said State Historian Walter Woodward. In Puritan culture, the devil was a real presence, and residents lived in fear for their souls, he said. "The devil was an agent at work in the world, and he used all kinds of subtle mechanisms to get control of people," said Woodward. "For a society that believed the devil is their enemy and who also believed the devil is the strongest power in the universe next to God, when they think they're under attack by the devil, their response is based on perceived threat. This wasn't just mean-spiritedness. This was the product of intense fear." Then, too, said Dworin, the land the colonists came to wasn't as hospitable as they'd anticipated, and attack by the natives they'd supplanted was a constant fear. The green was chosen as the ceremony's site because many of the accused lived in the area, Spada-Basto said. In Hartford, convicted witches were killed by hanging, mostly at the site of the Old State House, or at a public gallows at Albany and Vine. Spada-Basto, who was also instrumental in raising funds for a North End memorial to Hartford's deadly circus fire of 1944, said she'd like to see a similar memorial to the victims of Connecticut's witchcraft hysteria. "When you go over to Europe, they have thousands of years of history, and it's still important," she said. "These people mattered. They counted." (source: Hartford Courant) TENNESSEE: Capital punishment not just statistics-----Who is on death row? If I had the persuasive powers of William Jennings Bryan and the wit of Mark Twain I probably couldn't change your mind about capital punishment. I could produce statistics of a quantity that would bore death row inmates to death and save Tennessee the trouble. I could drown them all in a sea of ink. Just for starters, how many of the 10 states with the lowest murder rates have executed anyone in the last 30 years? That would be three. How about the 10 states with the highest per-capita murder rates? All 10. I might even convince you of the arbitrary and capricious application of the death penalty in these United States, including Tennessee, where 40 percent of the inmates on death row are African-American. I could argue that at some point in this country's history an innocent person has probably gone to the gallows or the execution chamber, and it surely will happen again, pointing out that more than 200 people have been released from prison because DNA evidence was still available on their cases when the technology to use it was developed. Fourteen of them were on death row. I could find survivors of murder victims who have found solace in forgiving their tormentors. I could find survivors who said they experienced no sense of closure when the killer who had changed their lives forever was put to death. I honestly don't believe, however, that any of that would change your opinion on the death penalty. For every argument against capital punishment, there's an arguable response. It's too expensive? No, it's worth the $750,000 in legal costs that taxpayers have to shell out for appeals on death penalty cases in Tennessee, you might say. Maybe you'd have spent a million to see Sedley Alley take it in the vein. Anyway, we're too cautious, the argument goes. Let's make it harder to appeal, and bring down the cost. It takes so long that it fails to serve as a deterrent? OK, you say, shorten the process. But the American Bar Association says too many of Tennessee's death row inmates are represented either by poor lawyers or good lawyers with too many cases to try. It says that death sentences are being handed down to a disproportionate number of African-Americans and to a disproportionate number of Shelby County defendants. It points out that neither the state Supreme Court nor the Court of Criminal Appeals "engages in a meaningful review of death-eligible and death-imposed cases to ensure that similar defendants who commit similar crimes are receiving proportional sentences." But, you could argue, those are fixable problems. They don't really address the idea of capital punishment per se. OK, let's talk about the punishment. A new study of dozens of executions concluded that lethal injection may be a painful application of the death penalty. Do we want to lower ourselves to the level of those who torture? Anyway, the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment. Oh, gee, that's tough, you could reply. Why didn't the creep think about that before he pulled the trigger? I've heard all the arguments for capital punishment. I've been listening to them for a long time. Sometimes it just seems as if people are programmed to go one way or another on some issues, and this is one of them, as if we had a capital punishment opinion gene laced up in our DNA. Paradoxically, however, support for the death penalty in America is constantly on the move, suggesting that predisposition is nothing more than an illusion. Gallup surveys show that 61 % of us favored the death penalty for murder in 1936. The number dropped to an all-time low of 42 % in 1966, then began rising again and reached 80 percent in 1994. More recent surveys have revealed overall support for the death penalty in murder cases in the 60 to 70 % range. Support for life sentences without parole has been growing, largely because belief that the death penalty deters crime has been dropping off, along with the belief that it's fairly administered. But we're still left with the problematic question of whether we're comfortable with the act itself. That's where the death penalty advocates and I part ways -- the question of what I want my democratically elected government to undertake in my name. There I know I'm in the minority, especially among white males. Many death penalty advocates, I'm sure, would eagerly volunteer to carry out the duties of a hangman. I can't envision doing that. I have no sympathy for murderers. I can't muster an argument that people like Robert Glen Coe deserved to enjoy whatever pleasures spending the rest of his life in prison might have brought him. Coe's rape and murder of 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin, which earned him a lethal injection in 2000, is an unsettling reminder of the depths of depravity to which human beings are capable of descending. At various times in the history of our civilization, though, Coe's punishment was no worse than that of an adulterer or a horse thief. Eventually, capital punishment was reserved, for the most part, at least in the West, for rapists and murderers, then the list was trimmed down to the worst of the worst -- those who commit premeditated murder, with bonus points for aggravated circumstances. Now Louisiana has brought it back for the crime of raping a child, and a bill introduced in the Tennessee legislature this year would do the same. Are we headed back toward a more inclusive death penalty? What has prompted all these questions, of course, is the Philip Workman case. We Tennesseans executed Workman on May 9. His eligibility for the death penalty turned, among other things, on the question of whether he actually fired the fatal shot that killed a police officer. What difference does it really make, though? It happened during a gun battle. Workman was armed. The police officer died. Workman was, therefore, responsible for the death. And yet if he had been able to prove he didn't fire the fatal shot, he might have been spared the ultimate punishment. What's up with that, if we really believe in the death penalty? It seems sensible to me to shorten the appeals process, cut the expense, and lock the Philip Workmans of the world away for good in a maximum-security prison. His actions cost a man his life. He doesn't deserve to walk among free people. But do we really want the state to kill him on our behalf? Do Americans approve of this course of action? Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. It's something we can change our minds about, collectively, with no trouble. So Philip Workman gets the needle in one era, but not in another. You might not ever change your mind. But people do. Supreme Courts change their minds. Legislators get voted in and out of office. Something tells me we eventually will get rid of capital punishment again. Then again, horse thieves of the future may have much to fear. (source: Opinion, Michael Kelley is an editorial writer for The Commercial Appeal) ******************** Do questions about the way death sentences are imposed and applied suggest Tennessee should abandon capital punishment? If Osama bin Laden were captured tomorrow and subsequently tried and convicted, what would be an appropriate sentence for his crimes? If the punishment is supposed to fit the crime, I think most people in this country would agree that bin Laden deserves the death penalty. After all, he admitted on videotape to being the mastermind behind the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history. He's shown absolutely no remorse -- to the contrary, he's publicly vowed to kill even more Americans if given a chance. Bin Laden is a rare sort of criminal, but he's hardly unique. Throughout history, there have always been people who commit murders so cruel and calculating that they shock the consciousness of law-abiding citizens. And for those criminals -- the worst of the worst, as it were -- the death penalty should be available as an option. Death penalty opponents should be commended for their respect for the sanctity of human life. But these well-intentioned and honorable people sometimes lose their sense of perspective. For most of us, the death penalty is an abstract issue. We've never experienced the grief or torment of having a loved one murdered. When death penalty cases come to our attention, it's usually in the days immediately before or after someone is executed. At those times, we hear a great deal about the backgrounds of the killers -- their troubled lives, their physical or emotional problems, their religious beliefs, anything that might make them seem more sympathetic. We hear far less about their victims, people whose stories are "old news" because they died decades ago. We've heard a lot lately about Philip Workman, who was executed earlier this month, but comparatively less about Ronald Oliver, the Memphis police lieutenant gunned down during Workman's botched robbery attempt. Before Sedley Alley was executed last year, we heard relatively little about Suzanne Marie Collins, the 19-year-old Marine lance corporal Alley sexually assaulted with a tree limb and beat to death near the Millington Naval Air Base. And before Robert Glen Coe was executed in 2000, how much did we hear about 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin of Greenfield, Tenn., whom Coe raped and killed in 1979? Some people oppose the death penalty on religious grounds, but Judeo-Christian scriptures don't specifically oppose capital punishment. To the contrary, in Genesis 9:6, the Bible says: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." In Romans 13:1, the Bible says: "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established." And in Romans 13:4, it continues: ". . . But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing." Many Biblical scholars interpret those passages as an endorsement of capital punishment for those who violate certain laws of government. Some death penalty opponents invoke our Declaration of Independence, which speaks of the rights to "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." Yet we don't question why people found guilty of certain crimes are stripped of their rights to liberty and pursuit of happiness. In some extreme cases, it follows that criminals could be deprived of their right to life as well. Some death penalty opponents contend government should never be put in the position of sanctioning killing. But what about killings in self-defense? Our laws allow those. What about wars? A majority of Americans now believe the occupation of Iraq is a mistake, but there was strong support for the invasion of Afghanistan and, before that, other "just" wars like World War I and World War II. Lives are taken in those situations with far less deliberation and reflection than death row inmates get in our court system. Death penalty opponents also argue that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime. They quote studies that suggest that crime rates aren't affected by imposition of the death penalty. First of all, how could any study credibly claim to count how many people might have considered taking someone's life, but thought the better of it after considering the possible consequences? Second, if the death penalty isn't a deterrent, then neither are prisons. We continue to have crime even though criminals face the threat of incarceration. Should we tear down all our prisons because locking people up hasn't made society crime-free? Finally, there is one statistic about the deterrent effect that doesn't get mentioned often enough: The deterrent rate for criminals who have received the death penalty is 100 %. Timothy McVeigh will never have an opportunity to bomb another federal building. Serial killer Ted Bundy will never again prey on innocent women. Some death penalty opponents say it's sufficient punishment to lock murderers up for the rest of their lives. But there are problems with that solution, too. One is the very real possibility that criminals sentenced to life imprisonment will continue to commit crimes while behind bars, perhaps assaulting or even killing fellow inmates. Another possibility is that those sentenced to life in prison will escape and commit more crimes against society at large. Don't forget that James Earl Ray, who assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the most infamous murder in our city's history, escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in 1977 and was free for 54 hours before he was recaptured. Ray tried to escape again 2 years later, but was stopped by a guard before he could scale the prison's outer wall. And why not? Already facing a life in prison, what did he have to lose by making a break for it? Also, let's suppose bin Laden or other high-profile terrorism suspects are sentenced to life in prison. What's to stop confederates from kidnapping or threatening other acts of terrorism to bargain for the release of their friends? Death penalty opponents have raised a number of other arguments over the years. They cite statistics that suggest the death penalty has been disproportionately applied against certain racial or socioeconomic groups. And they suggest some defendants haven't been given access to certain evidence, particularly DNA test results, that could have proven their guilt or innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt. Of course, those are flaws that should be addressed. But those problems can and should be fixed in the court system, not by eliminating the death penalty. Whatever problems other states have had, Tennessee has executed only three prisoners since the death penalty was re-established in 1977. In all three cases, at least 20 years elapsed between the time the crimes were committed and the time the prisoners were executed. That hardly suggests that Tennessee is rushing people off to the execution chamber without giving them opportunities to pursue all relevant legal appeals. Recently, death penalty opponents have begun to question whether the lethal injection method of execution is "cruel and unusual" punishment. But what evidence do they have that supports that contention? Absent any, it seems as though they're merely trying to throw up another unnecessary obstacle to executions. No one in civilized society should take pleasure in capital punishment. It's a grim task that should be carried out only in the most humane way possible, after a fair and thorough legal review of each case. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need it. In this world, we do. (source: Opinion, Blake Fontenay is an editorial writer for The Commercial Appeal) **************** The Knoxville Horror The dictionary defines the word "savage" as beast-like, primitive and lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings. Usually, in these days of multicultural political correctness, the term is applied to the 4-legged beasts that prowl the jungles of the world in search of a fur-covered dinner. After the animal kills its prey and has a meal, it will find a place to quietly rest and digest. But there's another type of animal. It walks on 2 legs, is generally well-fed, but spends its time hunting for human prey. This type of savage derives pleasure from dehumanizing, torturing, mutilating and ultimately murdering its victims. They walk among us as though they belong to the same species, but, make no mistake about it, they belong to a sub-human category that is totally bereft of anything resembling homo-sapiens. If any human is unfortunate enough to become cornered by one of these creatures, he or she will be destined for a hell on earth, and death will become the only release from a monstrous ordeal. A few months ago, Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian, a young couple in Knoxville, Tennessee, were out on a date when 5 of the aforementioned human savages carjacked them, bound and blindfolded them and drove them to a rented house where two of the savages lived. Once inside, the rape and torture began. The details of this gruesome crime are so sick and ghastly that I refuse to describe it. Suffice to say that the beasts did things to those innocent kids that the civilized mind could not possibly imagine. After a few days in the clutches of these malevolent monsters, the victims were butchered, and one was set afire while the other was placed in several plastic bags. Now, you can ask yourself what kind of human beings could be so devoid of feelings that they would get pleasure out of such an atrocity. However, you would be falling into the trap of allowing yourself to think of them as humans. Such thinking is a weakness that these animals will be quick to exploit. I suppose we'll never know how these creatures were able to abduct their victims. Perhaps one of them strolled over to the car with a cigarette dangling from its rapacious jaws and asked for a match. The unsuspecting driver, not wanting to appear rude, may have rolled down the window just before having a gun stuck in his face. This should be a cautionary tale for the rest of us. If a stranger approaches in a deserted area, don't be afraid to be rude; it's better than being dead. Keep in mind, it only takes a second to get the drop on you, but it may take days of torment before your agony ends. Due to the paucity of publicity being given this horrendous crime, most people didn't know about it until bloggers began disseminating the details. Many are saying it was a hate crime because the animals are black and the victims are white. The police don't appear to have any evidence of race being a factor. Maybe that's because the only ones who would know are deceased, their silence made certain by their abductors. Nevertheless, it is more than a bit suspicious that the mainstream media didn't see fit to run scathing headlines and televised bulletins about a crime so heinous that it must rank near the top in terms of sheer brutality. Yes, the bloggers are, quite appropriately, suggesting that if this had been 5 white savages and 2 innocent blacks there would be a firestorm of racial invective from coast to coast. Undoubtedly, race-baiters Sharpton and Jackson would be in Knoxville protesting against the discrimination by white police authorities that allow such atrocities to occur. There would be no need for evidence of color as a motive; the mere fact that blacks had been hurt by whites would be enough to impute race hatred as the cause. We'll never fully comprehend the unspeakable horror the victims endured, but, thanks to excellent police work, we do have the animals responsible. Newsome and Christian, 23 and 21 respectively, had every right to believe that they would have a future. The laws that were made to protect them from bloodthirsty jackals have failed them miserably. All that's left is the hope that justice will inevitably prevail and that their killers will be put to death. Execution is too good for them, but it's the best we can do with the current system. We may need another system; one in which the killers would be begging for the relief of death, instead of fighting for their lives. In such a system, even sub-humans might fear the wrath of the law. (source : American Thinker -- Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the executive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., PENN. CONN., TENN.
Rick Halperin Sun, 27 May 2007 20:28:02 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
