The death penalty has consistently been a bone of contention between those who believe it’s absolutely appropriate in some cases and those who believe it should be abolished.
The death penalty is applied to individuals for which their crimes are so heinous and savage the only punishment should be death. Individuals sentenced to the death penalty are the worst breed of killers who don’t deserve to take another breath on this earth.
Dr. William Petit and his wife lived in a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood in 2007. Then one day evil came to town and one of the most horrific home invasions I’ve ever read about. One of the two animals raped 11-year-old daughter Michaela. That savage actually recorded raping that child on his cell phone.
He then egged on his partner in crime to rape the mother, Jennifer, which Hayes did and then strangled her to death. Both Michaela and her 17-year old sister, Haley, also raped, were doused with gasoline and set on fire while the cops diddled around outside for more than an hour. The girls died from smoke inhalation. Can you imagine their terror?
Dr. Petit was beaten within an inch of his life but managed to finally escape to go next door for help. Both Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky were sentenced to death. Earlier this year the State of Connecticut spared their lives claiming the death penalty violated the state constitution.
Hayes and Komisarjevsky are animals without a conscience. They don’t deserve to take another breath. There is no doubt about their guilt. None. They are the worst of the worst animals walking this earth. Instead of paying the right price for their evil, both will get three hots and a cot for the rest of their lives.
August 31, 2016, Darrell A. Reynolds beat his four year old daughter to death with a belt so many times he lost count. That precious child’s ‘mother’ told police the physical abuse had been going on for two years. The ‘mother’ is facing charges of child endangerment. Reynolds faces 60 years in prison in Illinois. No. He should be put to death. Reynolds confessed so there is no doubt about his guilt.
Alexander Anthony Clever, age 28 residing in California cut out his girlfriend’s heart and lung while she was still alive and then killed her. There were two horrified eye witnesses to his heinous crime who fled to police. Clever faces life in prison without parole. No. There’s no doubt as to Clever’s guilt in this case if you read what actually happened. He doesn’t deserve to take one more breath on this earth never mind 60 years of three hot meals a day and a warm place to sleep. There is NO justification or excuse for his crime. NONE.
Seth Willis Pickering, 36, stabbed his six year old daughter in the heart. That precious child was in a foster home when he abducted her. The mother had left Pickering to escape abuse in Florida. The little girl was doing well while the mother was working through the system to get custody. Pickering being smarter than everyone else left little Lila’s lifeless body in his car; too bad for Pickering a couple of park rangers found him. Pickering had parked alongside the road on Blue Ridge Parkway. There’s no question of guilt here. Pickering should be executed.
Rodney Earl Sanders confessed last month to stabbing two Catholic nuns to death in Mississippi. He did not give a reason for taking the lives of two innocent women but he did steal their car. Sanders is a career criminal who spent lengthy sentences in prisons. Sanders needs to be executed and hopefully a jury will do just that. What Sanders did was heinous, he knew what he was doing; there is no doubt about his guilt.
Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 32, was sentenced last week to death. Wozniak murdered two people. Samuel Herr of Costa Mesa, California, only 26-years old, had saved $62,000 from his Army service in Afghanistan. Wozniak killed and dismembered Herr, dumped his head and body parts in a local park then killed Herr’s friend, Julie Kibuishi, in an effort to throw police off. Why did he commit such a savage crime? Wozniak was broke in 2010, had no job, was about to get evicted but was getting married and needed money.
For money Wozniak took two innocent lives and received the death penalty because there is no doubt about his guilt. Police obtained the gun and Wozniak confessed. It’s likely he will spend the next 25 years getting three hots and a cot because California is still in legal entanglements over the death penalty. California hasn’t executed any animals since 2006. Death row out there has 750 ‘residents’.
Yes, I am fully aware that DNA evidence has exonerated many on death row for crimes they did not commit and I applaud those defense attorneys who have been successful getting the innocent released. However, we’re not talking about circumstantial evidence here. My personal belief is that if there is any doubt because of lack of DNA or any other provable evidence the death penalty should not be the punishment.
No circumstantial evidence for death penalty cases. Yes, strong circumstantial cases allows a jury to connect the dots, but because there’s no going back too many innocent individuals have been executed on death row. That is a fact. I have no problem with mandatory life without parole for those types of cases.
Juries have made mistakes and thankfully, but only after heroic efforts by appellate attorneys were the innocent released. I believe there are many more in prisons where juries wrongfully convicted for many reasons. Getting a new trial is close to being impossible.
But, when the killer confesses or as in the case of the father caught with his daughter’s dead body in his car if the sentence is death they should be executed in 30 days. No more endless appeals that take decades in some states. Special judges should be appointed to deal with one appeal and that’s it. A confession – unless it can be solidly proven to have been coerced – or the killer is found with the body and there’s no question he/she is the killer, they should die. The cases above are a drop in the bucket. I covered so many in my Killing Fields three columns. This country is dripping in the blood of innocents.
One of the main arguments is the death penalty is so costly vs housing these animals for 50 or 60 years. We’re not talking about money here. We’re talking about deterrence which means nothing to killers unless the death penalty is carried out swiftly. Then some of them might reconsider committing such heinous crimes. If future killers know they will die in 30 days after conviction I believe at least some of them would not carry through with their plans.
That’s the way it used to be. Not long ago I was watching a program in the ID channel; Investigative Discovery. The show covered a man and woman who murdered six year old Bobby Greenlease for $600,000 in ransom money which the parents paid. That little boy was kidnapped on September 28, 1953. There was no question about their guilt as the man was found with the marked bills and both confessed. Little Bobby’s body was found in a shallow grave in the woman’s back yard. Both killers died together in a gas chamber on December 18, 1953.
Neither one of them deserved to take another breath on this earth. They wantonly took the life of a couple’s only child, a little boy, for financial gain. Less than three months and they paid the price for their crime. Not 20 years or longer through endless appeals that would not have changed their guilt. That is not justice for the families or society.
There’s been a lot in the media the past year or two about states running out of deadly cocktails to conduct an execution. If you read Truman Capote’s chilling book, In Cold Blood, about a quadruple murder spree committed by two drifters, both were hung. One confessed and eventually both Smith and Hickkock were convicted. After what they did and the cases cited above, it was not cruel and unusual punishment. The victims are the ones who suffered immense cruelty. Those animals committed the murders in November 1959 and were executed on April 14, 1965. Too long. No question of guilt.
In 2015 Utah signed a bill into law allowing execution by firing squad if no lethal cocktails are available. Animals given the death penalty should be given a choice: We hang you or death by a firing squad. Both are quick unlike the horror visited by you on your victims. Take your choice but you will die in 30 days unless your one appeal is successful.
Each state of the Union has the right to determine whether their legal system should have the death penalty. If they do, I believe reform is necessary not only protect the innocent but carry out swift justice that will be a deterrent instead of killers knowing they will get free meals and a warm place to live for decades while their victims lie in a cold grave.
States, depending on how many death penalty cases they average, can appoint a special judge(s) who does nothing but review the cases once and that’s it. If the death penalty is only applied to those who confess or are found with the dead victim as I wrote above it will cut down the load on courts. If I served in a state legislature I would pursue this vigorously. There is such incredible evil in this country and the only way to try to stop it is swift justice.
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