It's officially been a week
Well, it's 11 a.m., Thursday, July 19. Deliberations began last Thursday at 11 a.m. Jurors have been deliberating for 26 hours and 30 minutes. Everyone is still waiting. I've seen some folks pacing around. A lot have newspapers in their hands. In the media corner of the courtroom, several of us and Lisa Dubs had an interesting conversation about the death penalty. I am interested in law and crime, which kind of goes along with my job, and I took several law and psychology courses in college. If you have time and are interested here are a few Web sites to check out: www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/ids; www.deathpenaltyinfo.org; and www.cdpl.org. Do you know that it costs $2.16 million per execution over costs of life in prison? That's according to a 1993 Duke University study. I bet it's more now with inflation. North Carolina ranks seventh in the country (out of 37 states currently with the death penalty)for inmates on death row: 185. And, the state ranks sixth in executions since 1976, with 43. Four were put to death last year. None so far this year. Everyone has their opinion about the death penalty. Personally, I don't see how killing is justification for killing. Under the government's law, murder is wrong, but yet they put someone to death. Also, there have been 124 people exonerated since 1973 from death row that were innocent. And I can't imagine how many others have been executed that were innocent. Now, I trust in my law enforcement, and I work with a lot of great people on my beat. But I think it's fair to say we all know no one is perfect, present company included. Have y'all watched The Life of David Gale? It's one of my favorite movies. Check it out. Great movie. Great ending.
Well, I need to get this posted. If something happens before lunch, I will post right away. The jurors are on the mid-morning break now. Then they will work until 12:30. Will anything happen?
Well, I need to get this posted. If something happens before lunch, I will post right away. The jurors are on the mid-morning break now. Then they will work until 12:30. Will anything happen?
posted by THE HICKORY DAILY RECORD at at
10:50 AM
1 Comments:
I'm sorry but I disagree with you about the death penalty. I believe that the reason it is not a deterent to crime is because there are too many appeals and it is not enforced quickly, the way it should be. Statistics might show that it is cheaper to keep a criminal alive than to execute him but I think that somebody is stacking the deck here.
When the state of North Carolina found out it would cost $300,000 to repair it's gas chamber they decided to go with Lethal Injection. I don't know the exact cost of the whole proceedure but according to their web site, The Texas Criminal Justice system gives the cost of the drugs at just over $86.00. Is it humane; well that is a question that would have to be asked of the recipient wouldn't it? I think its better than hanging, or a firing squad, which used to be the normal. It's definately an improvement over the electric chair.
I would like to ask you why we should want to be humane to someone who has murdered someone we love. Sometime they are beaten or tortured and mutilated over a period of days. Did they die right away? Was that killing humane? Did they have to suffer? I think you're going to find a lot of feedback when you start discussing the death penalty around here.
I won't go into the gorey details but back in the late 70s a 16 year old girl from Hudson, was kidnapped by two escaped convicts from the Hudson Correctional Center. She was taken to Charlotte, raped, beaten until they thought she was dead, put into the trunk of a car and driven to Alabama, and finally killed . At that time the death penalty in North Carolina had been ruled unconstitutional and they would have gotten off with life, but they made the mistake of taking her to Alabama to kill her. They have both been executed and it was well deserved.
Agreeing to disagree; that's what this great free country is all about. Wouldn't you agree? :-)
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