The US Executions / Death Row Thread

eg2505 said:
Problem is sometimes its not,
Do they actually do any checking before they Poison the Guy? What if in the 99 hour they find he Innocent?
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Fortunately there are usually many, many appeals and processes before they finally carry out the deed.
It is why it usually takes 20 or 30 years for them to be executed.
And they do usually figure out when somebody has been wrongly convicted.
There have been several instances in the last decade where people were finally released.
 
Garyvdh said:
Ja, I agree it should only be used where the evidence is incontrovertible and undeniable.
Even in the case of admission of guilt, there should still be evidence.
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That is my whole criticism against it, I am 100% in favour of an eye for an eye (sort of). However in America it has been seen that money does corrupt the judicial system and it is biased against minorities.
 
Japster said:
I just wonder what is worse for the inmate, the actual execution or the 21 years waiting for it?
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I keep thinking that makes them more dangerous, like they got nothing to lose, and if they get an appeal, and get out and roam around, doesn't it make them more dangerous?
 
Nicodeamus said:
That is my whole criticism against it, I am 100% in favour of an eye for an eye (sort of). However in America it has been seen that money does corrupt the judicial system and it is biased against minorities.
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They commit a majority of the murders in the US. Minorities are actually under represented on death row given the percentage of murders they commit. You can look it up if you like.
 
Question for you guys;

Why do some people who killed more people get life without parole, and others get Executed? I realise there's a lot behind the scenes that goes on, but what makes the shoe bomber/unabomber who nearly brought down a plane/blown up a post office
not be executed?

And a American that murdered 1 person get death row,
 
TriGuN said:
They commit a majority of the murders in the US.
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Not relevant to the fact of bias in the judicial system.

Minorities are actually under represented on death row given the percentage of murders they commit.
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Not really, because number murders and number of murderers are two different things.
 
eg2505 said:
Question for you guys;

Why do some people who killed more people get life without parole, and others get Executed? I realise there's a lot behind the scenes that goes on, but what makes the shoe bomber/unabomber who nearly brought down a plane/blown up a post office
not be executed?

And a American that murdered 1 person get death row,
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Much can depend on the location and the prosecution. Money also counts. Get a public defender and you're basically screwed. They deliberately overworked and underfunded to skew the system against those with less money.
 
noxibox said:
Not relevant to the fact of bias in the judicial system.
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With regards to handing out the death penalty (which I assume is what we are talking about), the bias is primarily based on the race of the victim. If you kill a white person you are more likely to be sentenced to death, and if you kill someone of a different race than you, that is also a factor that works against you. Most murderers kill people within their own racial group, so most people who kill white people are white. When black people kill black people, they are least likely to get the death penalty. So yes, there IS a bias in the application of the death penalty, it's not exactly what the average person thinks it is though.

The bias works against justice for black victims, not black perps.

noxibox said:
Not really, because number murders and number of murderers are two different things.
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The stats refer to murderers, but I assume they also apply for murders.
 
Last edited:
The law isn't perfect, but its all we have. If you rob, murder and rape, you have no place in civil society. Long term incarceration is no guarantee of rehabilitaion and is expensive. I would say more than one conviction warrants death.
 
US INMATE WITH MORE THAN 2 DECADES ON DEATH ROW FREED
Associated Press

A man who spent more than two decades on Delaware's death row has been set free, for now, as prosecutors appeal a judge's ruling that they cannot use a coerced confession he gave to police while high on heroin.

Jermaine Wright, 42, walked out of a maximum-security prison and into the arms of his mother, Delores, on Friday, 24 years to the day that he was taken into custody following the 1991 killing of a liquor store clerk in Delaware.

"It was an emotional reunion with his family. It was quite a day," said Herb Mondros, one of Wright's defense attorneys.

Prosecutors promptly moved to dismiss the charges against Wright last week in a procedural requirement that clears the way for an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court of the suppression ruling by Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins Jr. If their appeal is successful, prosecutors will seek to refile the charges against Wright.

Wright was sentenced to death for the murder of Phillip Seifert, 66, at a liquor store and bar on Jan. 14, 1991.

In overturning Wright's conviction and death sentence, Parkins ruled in 2012 that a confession Wright gave to police during an interrogation lasting nearly 13 hours was defective because he had not been properly advised of his rights against self-incrimination and to have an attorney appointed for him. The confession was a linchpin for prosecutors at Wright's 1992 murder trial, and Deputy Attorney General Steve Wood has said it's unlikely that prosecutors would proceed with the case without the confession.

"The police extracted Mr. Wright's confession after 13 hours of interrogation in a windowless 13 x 10 room while handcuffed to a table," Mondros said in a written statement Friday. "Mr. Wright, who was 18 at the time, was under the influence of heroin and, as the Superior Court found, behaved bizarrely, a fact ignored by his interrogators.

"The result was a so-called confession that was factually inconsistent with the physical evidence and eyewitness accounts, and found wholly unreliable by the court."


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 03 Feb 2015 00:47
 
Garyvdh said:
A man who spent more than two decades on Delaware's death row has been set free, for now, as prosecutors appeal a judge's ruling that they cannot use a coerced confession he gave to police while high on heroin.
..

"The result was a so-called confession that was factually inconsistent with the physical evidence and eyewitness accounts, and found wholly unreliable by the court."
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It disturbs me that prosecutor's think that a confession in these circumstances can be used without a problem and are still fighting to have it used in the case despite a judge's ruling.
 
Garyvdh said:
US INMATE WITH MORE THAN 2 DECADES ON DEATH ROW FREED

Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 03 Feb 2015 00:47
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Methinks often its not a matter of incorrect conviction but rather application of process which has changed over time, is now creating inconsistencies and due to the (vast in some cases) lapse of time and resulting lack of beyond doubt type proof the prisoner is freed.
 
This guy is frying tomorrow, in Texas.

Rivas-Newbury.jpg

Prior Prison Record

#326418 on a 10 year sentence from Travis County for one count of aggravated robbery; released on mandatory supervision on 07/23/1985; returned from mandatory supervision on 04/08/1987 with a 15 year sentence from Travis County for one count of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon; released on parole on 03/04/1992; returned from parole on 05/15/1998 with a 99 year sentence from Travis County for one count of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.


Summary of incident

While on escape from TDCJ, Newbury and 6 co-defendants robbed a sporting goods store at gunpoint. An Irving police officer was murdered outside the store as Newbury and co-defendants left the scene.


Co-defendants

George Rivas (sentenced to death)
Michael Rodriguez (sentenced to death)
Randy Halprin
Patrick Murphy, Jr.
Joseph Garcia
Larry Harper (committed suicide)
Click to expand...

www.murderpedia.org

Tot siens
 
'TEXAS 7' PRISON FUGITIVE SCHEDULED FOR EXECUTION WEDNESDAY
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

A convicted robber who was already a three-time felon with a violent history when he was locked up, was serving a 99-year prison term when he joined six fellow convicts in Texas' biggest prison break ever.

Now, Donald Newbury is set for execution Wednesday for the shooting death of a suburban Dallas police officer during a sporting goods store robbery the fugitives carried out after their escape in 2000.

Newbury, 52, would be the third Texas prisoner put to death this year and the third of the notorious "Texas 7" gang executed for the slaying of 29-year-old Irving officer Aubrey Hawkins.

The U.S. Supreme Court had an appeal Tuesday from Newbury's attorney, William Harris, who told the justices Newbury hasn't had a "meaningful opportunity" and sufficient court-approved money to develop a claim that his trial lawyers were deficient for not showing jurors significant psychological evidence of his abusive childhood.

The Texas attorney general's office in opposing the appeal said Newbury has been given court reviews and court-authorized money and "has not pointed to any facts" that would prove he's innocent.

Newbury was spared from lethal injection three years ago by a Supreme Court reprieve.

Evidence showed the gang led by George Rivas, who was serving 17 life prison terms, overpowered workers Dec. 13, 2000, at the Connally Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of San Antonio.

Eleven days later on Christmas Eve night, and after robberies as far away as Houston, Hawkins was shot 11 times and run over with a stolen SUV when he interrupted the gang's holdup of the sporting goods store. The fugitives got away with $70,000, 44 firearms, ammunition and winter clothing. They also took jewelry and wallets from store employees who were closing up for the evening.

They were hunted down a month later in Colorado where one of them, Larry Harper, killed himself rather than surrender.

According to court records, 12 loaded firearms were found in the Holiday Inn room in Colorado Springs where Newbury was arrested with escapee Joseph Garcia.

Newbury contended he didn't shoot to kill Hawkins and pointed his gun far above the officer's head.

Prison records show Newbury has had dozens of disciplinary cases since arriving on death row in 2002. Most were defined as major, such as assaulting corrections officers, possessing weapons and contraband, and creating disturbances. At least one was a riot case.

In a 2003 interview with The Associated Press, Newbury said he would still escape if he could do it all over again.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 04 Feb 2015 03:02
 
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