This is why we need take a real look at the people we vote into office and politics..............This is nuts Ruling Clears Way for Potential Sniper Suspect Execution By MATTHEW BARAKAT, AP FAIRFAX, Va. (Sept. 17) - International laws and treaties do not prohibit Virginia from executing juveniles, a judge ruled Wednesday in the case against teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. Defense lawyers had argued that an overwhelming consensus of foreign nations and certain international treaties combined to bar the execution of people under 18 at the time of their crime. "The world has spoken. This isn't a close call. This is the world against us," said defense lawyer Craig Cooley. "Some things are so absolutely abhorrent to humanity that it is simply unacceptable. We are at that point when we talk about the execution of children." Prosecutors rejected the argument that international law trumped state or U.S. law. Robert F. Horan Jr. said the only treaty ratified by the United States that prohibits the execution of juveniles contains a specific exclusion from the U.S. Senate rejecting that part of the treaty. "Every court that has looked at this issue has uniformly rejected what the defense is claiming," Horan said. Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush agreed with prosecutors, saying, "It may at some point be the law of the land. Right now it's not." Malvo, now 18 but 17 at the time of the sniper shootings, and John Allen Muhammad, 42, have been charged with 13 shootings, including 10 deaths, over a three-week span in October in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. They are also suspected or charged with shootings in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arizona and Washington state. The defense team argued that international consensus is a factor in U.S. law. The U.S. Supreme Court evaluates society's "evolving standards of decency" when considering whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. guess this is a mixed response.
only If Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, and other morally Bankrupt individuals are in identical seats next to him Rocket River
Countdown to moving to D&D in.... Personally, I dont have a problem with it. If you kill multiple people, you deserve the maximum sentence...no matter if you are still a couple of years shy of 18
Execute Juveniles? For executing 10 people in a deliberate shooting....um yeah, I say fry the sucker! I am sure you will have your pick of family members from those 10 families that will be kind enough to witness the execution.
Ditto. Malvo should have to sit in a cell with tapes of the families he's made suffer playing non-stop. Then right before lights out, he gets punched in the gut. Until he dies. Thanks to The West Wing for that brilliant idea.
Yes - Napoleon Beazley was executed last year for carjacking and shooting a man in Tyler when he was 17.
Death penalty only risks killing innocents, costs taxpayers more money, and does not deter crime. Revenge is no justification for cruel punishment. Allowing the courts to apply this sentence to juveniles is despicable.
Whatever....just please stop wasting taxpayer's money on the stupid trial. He did it! Everyone knows it. He's confessed. They've spent $500,000 so far trying to prove he's crazy. No **** he's crazy. He killed 10 random people. Sometimes I just don't understand the judicial system.
good idea...i'll look into it. actually...my concern is that we're killing innocent people...on death row. i'm not saying everyone on death row is innocent...far from it...but if we put one innocent person to death, then that blows.
I knew exactly what your concern was. I've lurked on many of the death row/capital punishment threads. I would hope that execution of innocent people is the very rare exception and very very far from the norm. A mostly law abiding person such as you or me will never be in a position to be innocent and facing the death penalty, and I think very, very few innocent people are put to death. The death penalty should only be used in an instance where there is a 100% certainty that the person is guilty.
