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Ahmadinejad on Iran's gays
Larry King interviewed Iranian President Ahmadinejad and questioned him about his statement last year that, "There are no homosexuals in Iran." He denied Iranian gays have held protests about their treatment (aka executions). He compares gays to traffic violators. Unfortunately in Iran gays and lesbians are not issued tickets, they are executed. He also said about homosexuality, "obviously most people don't like it."
For a less homophobic point of view, visit these sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/08/26/f-homosexu...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran Larry King interviewed Iranian President Ahmadinejad and questioned him about his statement last year that, "There are no homosex... more -
Supreme Court issues stay of execution for Davis
Troy Jones was scheduled to die at 7:00 PM EST today. The case was internationally controversial because several eye witnesses changed their testimony and claimed police harassment during their statements. No murder weapon was found. There were no finger prints or DNA at the scene. Jones was convicted of murdering a police officer. Supporters of Jones asserted the Georgia judicial system is racist.
Jimmy Carter was among those who were calling for a stay of Jones's execution. Troy Jones was scheduled to die at 7:00 PM EST today. The case was internationally controversial because several eye witnesses change... more -
Political Viewpoints Linked To Fear
Researchers writing in Science report that the political orientation of test subjects who have strong views is linked to how easy they are to startle. They found that subjects who were more fearful were more likely to have right wing views, such as being in favor of capital punishment and higher defense budgets. The researchers suggest that this psychological difference is why it is so difficult to change people's minds in political arguments. Researchers writing in Science report that the political orientation of test subjects who have strong views is linked to how easy they... more
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Any last requests? Yes, says death row inmate. Turn me into fish food
The final requests of death- row prisoners facing execution have often included large orders of pork chops, fried chicken and bucket loads of ice cream.
Never before has an inmate asked for his body to be turned into fish food and fed to goldfish, all in the name of art. But that is exactly what Gene Hathorn, a convicted murderer on death row in Texas, has pledged to do if his final appeal fails.
Hathorn, 47, who was convicted of killing his father, stepmother and stepbrother in 1985, has given his consent to Marco Evaristti to use his body as an "art installation" that contributes to a wider project on capital punishment. Mr Evaristti, 45, a Chilean-born artist who lives in Denmark, said he would first deep-freeze Hathorn's body and then turn it into fish food which visitors at the exhibition could feed to a shoal of goldfish.
Continues... The final requests of death- row prisoners facing execution have often included large orders of pork chops, fried chicken and bucket l... more -
The high cost of the death penalty
Having noticed that, following several different articles, comments made in response expressed the ardent wish to have criminals executed rather than give them life sentences, and some saying that executing criminals costs less than keeping them in jail for life, I am posting a link to this website which explains in detail why and how capital punishment is far more expensive than life in prison. Thus, many more of your tax dollars are spent on killing criminals than on keeping them in jail for life. It also has absolutely no deterrent value whatsoever - on the contrary, it is often the ultimate and most gratifying and orgasmic payoff for many of those who want to die, as in suicide by police, and, as such, encourages many mentally sick individuals to commit crimes which will lead to their being executed precisely because that is where it will lead them.
Click on the picture to access that website.
There are also links which give 10 reasons to oppose the death penalty. One that seems not to be listed is the fact that, despite confessions, despite thorough investigations, there is still the risk of executing an innocent person, which still happens. Also, executing a criminal is an extremely cruel punishment wreaked on the innocent members of the criminal's family, especially his or her children.
As far as I am concerned, the death penalty is simply government-sponsored murder, unworthy of civilized countries and people. It actually negates all claims of being civilized. It has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with, and caters to, one of the very worst and most primitive flaws of humans, and basest of human instincts - vengeance.
Since for so many, their pocket-books and tax-dollars seem to be more important than basic human values, perhaps the financial aspect of capital punishment might convince them that it is wrong and not economic at all. For the rest, this is the least of the valid arguments against capital punishment. Having noticed that, following several different articles, comments made in response expressed the ardent wish to have criminals execu... more -
Texas executes Mexican-born killer in defiance of world court
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A Mexican-born condemned prisoner was executed Tuesday night for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago after a divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a reprieve.
"I'm sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate," Jose Medellin said to those gathered to watch him die. Nine minutes later, at 9:57 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Medellin's execution, the fifth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, attracted international attention after he raised claims he wasn't allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help following his arrest. State officials say he didn't ask to do so until well after he was convicted of capital murder.
Medellin, 33, was condemned for participating in the 1993 gang rape, beating and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. He and five fellow gang members attacked the Houston girls as they were walking home on a June night, raped and tortured them for an hour, then kicked and stomped them before using a belt and shoelaces to strangle them.
Their remains were found four days later. By then, Medellin already had bragged to friends about the killings.
Pena's father, who was among the witnesses, gently tapped the glass that separated him from Medellin as he turned to leave the witness chamber after the execution.
"We feel relieved," Adolfo Pena said after leaving the prison. "Fifteen years is a long time coming."
Several dozen demonstrators, about evenly divided between favoring and opposing capital punishment, stood outside on opposite sides of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit. HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A Mexican-born condemned prisoner was executed Tuesday night for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15... more -
Ohio Inmate Claims He's Too Fat to Be Executed
Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and that the problem has been worsened by weight gain.
Cooey, 41, was sentenced to die for raping and murdering two female University of Akron students in 1986. After a federal judge granted Cooey a last-minute reprieve in 2003, Cooey was returned to death row. In April, he lost a challenge to Ohio's lethal injection process when the U.S. Supreme Court said he had missed a deadline to file a lawsuit.
Cooey's attorneys cite a document filed by a prison nurse in 2003 that said Cooey had sparse veins and that executioners would need extra time.
"When you start the IV's come 15 minutes early," wrote the nurse who examined Cooey. "I don't have any veins."
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Columbus, also says prison officials have had difficulty drawing blood from Cooey for medical procedures. Cooey is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 267 pounds, according to the lawsuit.
Cooey's execution is scheduled for Oct. 14. He would be the first inmate put to death in Ohio since Christopher Newton was executed last year for killing a prison cellmate over their chess games.
It would also be the first execution in Ohio since the end of an unofficial national moratorium on executions that began lV injection procedure.
Since the court upheld the procedure in April, 16 inmates have been executed around the country.
Attorneys for Cooey in his latest lawsuit say a drug he is taking for migraine headaches could diminish the effectiveness of the first of three drugs Ohio uses in its execution process.
Cooey's use of the drug Topamax, a type of seizure medication, may have created a resistance to thiopental, the drug used to put inmates to sleep before two other lethal drugs are administered, Dr. Mark Heath, a physician hired by the Ohio Public Defender's Office, said in documents filed with the court.
Heath also says Cooey's weight, combined with the potential drug resistance, increases the risk he would not be properly anesthetized.
That's a real concern for Cooey, his public defender, Kelly Culshaw Schneider, said Monday.
"All of the experts agree if the first drug doesn't work, the execution is going to be excruciating," she said.
She said the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has not indicated how they would deal with Cooey's vein problems.
Prisons system spokeswoman Andrea Carson and Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, both said Monday they hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.
Last year, Carson cited the obesity of Newton as one of the reasons prison officials had difficulty accessing his veins before his May 24 execution. Newton was 6 feet, 265 pounds.
Two years ago, convicted killer Jeffrey Lundgren argued unsuccessfully that he was at greater risk of experiencing pain and suffering because he was overweight and diabetic.
A federal appeals court rejected the claim by Lundgren, convicted of killing a family of five in an eastern Ohio cult killing. He was executed in October 2006.
In 1999, lawyers for Florida condemned killer Allen Davis, who weighed 350 pounds, argued the voltage in the electric chair fell short of the amount needed to kill painlessly, especially for a man the size of Allen.
During Allen's execution, blood poured from his face in what officials said was a nosebleed that happened after he died. Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and that the pro... more -
Iran to Execute 30 convicts on Sunday
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday.
The 30 had their cases tried by the highest judicial authorities and were found guilty of the charges brought against them, Iran's judiciary said in a statement.
The verdicts are final, and the sentences will be carried out Sunday, according to Fars.
According to Amnesty International, Iran executed 317 people last year, second only to China's 470. The U.S. executed 42 people in 2007, according to Amnesty International.
The Iranian judiciary's statement said that all 30 were convicted of crimes including murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships -- relationships between men and women who are not married to each other.
Kidnapping and using weapons while committing a crime were among the charges.
The statement said that 20 of the people were convicted of drug and alcohol dealing, armed robbery and smuggling arms.
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The judiciary said it will provide more details later as to the crimes committed by those condemned and added that the hangings should serve as a warning to those who are contemplating committing such crimes.
Others are awaiting trial, and their sentences will be carried out as soon as the verdicts are pronounced by the courts, the judiciary said.
The judiciary asked the public to notify the authorities if they have any information that might lead to arrest and convictions of criminals.
Iran's government launched a campaign March 20 to increase public security and bring the crime rate down.
Police cracked down on drug dealers, whom they called criminal gang members, and habitual criminals who use guns in the commission of their crime. Alleged weapons smugglers and people who break social and religious laws, including adulterers, were also targets.
National television showed scenes of what were described as criminals being paraded in chains as a deterrent to others. The wave of arrests has subsided, as officials are now prosecuting the suspects and sentencing those convicted.
With so many execution, at least Iran doesn't have to have the INSANE prison population that America has. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Thirty people convicted of drug and other criminal charges will be hanged on Sunday, Iran's semi-official F... more -
Supreme Court rejects death penality for raping a child
The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child. In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment... The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child. In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana ... more
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Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape
By DAVID STOUT - NY Times
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Wednesday that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional, assuming that the victim is not killed.
“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
The court overturned a ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which had held that child rape is unique in the harm it inflicts not just upon the victim but on society and that, short of first-degree murder, no crime is more deserving of the death penalty.
Justice Kennedy, while in no way minimizing the heinous nature of child rape, wrote that executing someone for that crime, assuming that the victim was not killed, violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Moreover, Justice Kennedy wrote, sentencing someone to death for raping a child could have terrible, unintended consequences, given the years that typically go by between a crime and the execution of the defendant.
“Society’s desire to inflict death for child rape by enlisting the child victim to assist it over the course of years in asking for capital punishment forces a moral choice on the child, who is not of mature age to make that choice,” Justice Kennedy wrote.
The dissenters were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., generally regarded as the conservative wing of the tribunal."
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"As for the case at hand, Juliet L. Clark, an assistant district attorney from Gretna, La., countered that Mr. Kennedy, who weighs 300 pounds, had committed “a very savage rape” that caused serious injuries to his victim. And R. Ted Cruz, the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, who argued as a “friend of the court” on the side of Louisiana, said that Mr. Kennedy (like Mr. Davis, the other child-rape defendant on Louisiana’s death row) had “committed crimes that are just unspeakable.”" By DAVID STOUT - NY Times ... more -
Supreme Court bans death penalty for child rape
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the death penalty cannot be imposed for child rape, its first decision in more than 30 years on whether a crime other than murder can be punished by execution.
In a 5-4 vote, the court said the law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in cases of child rape violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.
There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.
Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States, both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.
The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman.
Forty-five states ban the death penalty for any kind of rape, and the other five states allow it for child rapists. Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas allow executions in such cases if the defendant had previously been convicted of raping a child.
End of AP/MSNBC Article excerpt
Photo: Wikipedia
I'm gonna get some flack for saying this, but I agree with the decision, the DP should only be used in extreme instances. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the death penalty cannot be imposed for child rape, its first decision in more than 30 years on whet... more -
Hanging broadcast on Japanese radio
Rememebr watching Saddam being hanged? Yeh, not pleasant, no matter what you thought of him.
Now, a Japanese radio station has decided to evoke similar emotions by broadcasting audio of a hanging from 50 years ago to open up debate on capital punishment, which was re-introduced there in 1993.
The audio features the victim's final chat with his executioner, which would be creepy as anything, plus the sounds of the trap door opening and all the other moans and groans associated with a person dying.
And all to shock people into thinking about what capital punishment really is ... the killing of a fellow human. Rememebr watching Saddam being hanged? Yeh, not pleasant, no matter what you thought of him. ... more -
U.S. moving to clear backlog of executions
Less than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a seven-month halt in lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have now been set in six states between May 6 and October. The first, on Tuesday, is in Georgia of a man who killed his companion and another woman.
Experts say the resumption of executions is likely to throw a strong new spotlight on the divisive national - and international - issue of capital punishment. Less than three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a seven-month halt in lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have now... more -
Supreme Court-Keep On Killing!
Supreme Court says that lethal injection works!
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Hillary Clinton is a Used Car Salesperson
After working in the auto industry as a salesperson I have noticed the Clinton Campaign employing many of the same tactics of the sleaziest used car salespeople out there. Team Clinton is particularly good at planting seeds of doubt in the minds of the voters, just like a salesperson will plant seeds of doubt about their competition. After working in the auto industry as a salesperson I have noticed the Clinton Campaign employing many of the same tactics of the slea... more
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Barack Obama's view on capital punishment
Though he has not made his position clear during this election cycle, Obama seems to support a limited application of capital punishment as long as two major conditions are met. Though he has not made his position clear during this election cycle, Obama seems to support a limited application of capital punishme... more
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Should child molesters be executed?
One of the most important Supreme Court cases of this century was argued the other day....
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I.V. Death A.O.K.
The court ruled today that exectution by lethal injection is fine by them. Ruth Bader led the dissent.
"The Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's use of lethal injection executions Wednesday, likely clearing the way to resume executions that have been on hold for nearly 8 months.
The justices, by a 7-2 vote, turned back a constitutional challenge to the procedures in place in Kentucky, which uses three drugs to sedate, paralyze and kill inmates. Similar methods are used by roughly three dozen states.
''We ... agree that petitioners have not carried their burden of showing that the risk of pain from maladministration of a concededly humane lethal injection protocol, and the failure to adopt untried and untested alternatives, constitute cruel and unusual punishment,'' Chief Justice John Roberts said in an opinion that garnered only three votes. Four other justices, however, agreed with the outcome.
Roberts' opinion did leave open subsequent challenges to lethal injection practices if a state refused to adopt an alternative method that significantly reduced the risk of severe pain.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.
Executions have been on hold since September, when the court agreed to hear the Kentucky case. There was no immediate indication when they would resume.
The argument against the three-drug protocol is that if the initial anesthetic does not take hold, the other two drugs can cause excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort.
The case before the court came from Kentucky, where two death row inmates did not ask to be spared execution or death by injection. Instead, they wanted the court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate, that causes no pain and can be given in a large enough dose to cause death.
At the very least, they said, the state should be required to impose tighter controls on the three-drug process to ensure that the anesthetic is given properly.
Roberts said the one-drug method, frequently used in animal euthanasia, ''has problems of its own, and has never been tried by a single state.''
Kentucky has had only one execution by lethal injection and it did not present any obvious problems, both sides in the case agreed.
But executions elsewhere, in Florida and Ohio, took much longer than usual, with strong indications that the prisoners suffered severe pain in the process. Workers had trouble inserting the IV lines that are used to deliver the drugs.
Roberts said ''a condemned prisoner cannot successfully challenge a state's method of execution merely by showing a slightly or marginally safer alternative.''
Ginsburg, in her dissent, said she would ask Kentucky courts to consider whether the state includes adequate safeguards to ensure a prisoner is unconscious and thus unlikely to suffer severe pain." The court ruled today that exectution by lethal injection is fine by them. Ruth Bader led the dissent. ... more -
99% of British tabloid readers want the death penalty back
Nearly 95,000 Sun readers are in favour of the return of the death penalty to Britain. 99% of those surveyed said the government should reinstate the lethal penalty in a recent poll conducted after a spate of high-profile murders across the UK.
The readers' views were shared by religious leaders and senior politicians, including Shadow Home Secretary David Davis.
One Sun reader for the return explained his stance.
"They took away their victims’ human rights and gave up theirs when they committed their hideous crimes. Bring back hanging, I say."
What are your views on the death penalty? Should countries use it as valid legal punishment or totally abolish it? Nearly 95,000 Sun readers are in favour of the return of the death penalty to Britain. 99% of those surveyed said the government shoul... more -
Iran bans public executions
The Iranian judiciary chief has announced that executing capital punishment in public should be banned as well as banning the events being filmed or photographed.
A judiciary spokesperson explained that "the punishment of execution ... should not be carried out or publicised in a way that would create psychological tensions for the society, especially the young,"
The move to carry out the executions 'behind closed doors' will no doubt spark controversy, especially when Iran's use of the death penalty is on the up, last year supposedly saw Iran's use of the death penalty increase by over a hundred reported executions.
Are the moves really to protect psychological tensions in the young or merely a move to divert any unwanted press attention from an increase in Iran's use of capital punishment? The Iranian judiciary chief has announced that executing capital punishment in public should be banned as well as banning the events b... more
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Capital Punishment
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Capital Punishment
