US: Georgia executes 72-year-old death row inmate

[Jingthing]

If he killed someone then he deserves all the suffering he can get !!...I'm sure the deceased family will still carry the pain he inflicted on their family!

I wouldn't assume the family wasn't satisfied with the prison sentence he was already serving. Anyway, the penalty details are not determined by families.

[hawker9000]

Whatever happened to reserving the death penalty to more spectacularly heinous cases, such as serial killers, child murderers, etc.? I'm generally anti- death penalty but not strongly so, especially in really heinous cases. Some states in the U.S. aren't doing all that much better than Iran in overdoing the death penalty.

I guess that would depend on your perspective. Perhaps Roger Tacket's survivors considered his murder sufficiently "horrendous". But just out of curiousity, what meets your threshold of "horrendousness"? Five? Ten? 22? 38? So you think some states are comparable to Iran? Seriously? Ridiculous commentary like that gets quoted and only serves to get death penalty opponents ignored. If that's the best they can do, they need to up their game.

Too bad.

I think the entire criminal "justice" system in the USA is something all Americans should be deeply ASHAMED of.

My sentiments toward this animal, his long overdue execution, and his sympathizers here on TV exactly! Too bad.

[Grouse]

I am British but maybe I could just mention the 8th amendment?

Isn't keeping someone on the verge of execution before actually doing it a cruel and unusual punishment?

Maybe you are a cruel and unusual people? No idea

I can't imagine this old guy was a danger to society

Appallingly uncivilised behaviour.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Grouse

[Credo]

I am British but maybe I could just mention the 8th amendment?

Isn't keeping someone on the verge of execution before actually doing it a cruel and unusual punishment

Maybe you are a cruel and unusual people? No idea

I can't imagine this old guy was a danger to society

Appallingly uncivilised behaviour.

I don't think it's necessarily uncivilized. God does it to us our entire life.

We never know for sure when it's going to end. At least this guy knew when he would meet his maker. His victim sure didn't on the day he woke up and went to work.

[Grouse]

Well, there isn't a god. Sorry, get over it.

And no this guy never knew when it was going to happen.

Generally, most of us get warning signs of impending doom and assemble family.

Nah. Uncivilised behaviour

Edited February 4, 2016 by Grouse

[Grouse]

If he killed someone then he deserves all the suffering he can get !!...I'm sure the deceased family will still carry the pain he inflicted on their family!

Eye for an eye eh?

How very Islamic! IS would agree I'm sure

Civilised countries abandoned such barbarity decades ago

[Jingthing]

The countries in the world doing the most executions is not something Americans should be proud of being included in.

But it's really the tip of the iceberg.

The bigger issue really is the outrageously high numbers of Americans who are incarcerated compared to other nations.

Every nation has crime so you can't blame it only on crime.

It's SYSTEMATIC.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Jingthing

[Grouse]

The countries in the world doing the most executions is not something Americans should be proud of being included in.

But it's really the tip of the iceberg.

The bigger issue really is the outrageously high numbers of Americans who are incarcerated compared to other nations.

Every nation has crime so you can't blame it only on crime.

It's SYSTEMATIC.

Good point! Why is that?

[pedro01]

The countries in the world doing the most executions is not something Americans should be proud of being included in.

But it's really the tip of the iceberg.

The bigger issue really is the outrageously high numbers of Americans who are incarcerated compared to other nations.

Every nation has crime so you can't blame it only on crime.

It's SYSTEMATIC.

Good point! Why is that?

incarceration for minor drug offences...

[Dan747]

Think of the Victim's Family-"May They RIP!"

Edited February 4, 2016 by Dan747

[F430murci]

Post #56 states (the computer will not allow me to include so many quoted posts):

"A study from 40 years ago no less.

Are you saying that the USA has not moved forward on race issues since then?"

Reply:

I understand that you do realize that I had not asked a rhetorical question, correct?

No doubt, one would hope that the USA has moved on. However, we have recently seen videos of unarmed African-Americans shot and killed in the streets by law enforcement officers. I know that forty years may seem like a long time for some things. However, bigotry and prejudices can last for generations. The Civil Rights Amendments are about 150 years old.

It seems to me that compared to before the 1965 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, things are not as bad for the African-American community. Still, I am not so sure if America has moved on enough.

By the way, you seem interested so I'll share the following which cites more recent studies consistent with the Baldus study which includes links: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-and-death-penalty

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion!

That site has a huge agenda and statistics can be sifted through in certain fashions to support agendas.

Tge stats they cite actually support what I said regarding the ratio of whites to blacks executed in the last 40 years. I also acknowledged that the death penalty is sought much less when blacks are killed, regardless of the race of the perpetrator. This is not by virtue of racism in the system as some of you with no experience in the system try to infuse. Prosecutors are very reluctant to seek death penalties in all cases and will only do so when they are 99.9999% sure they can get the conviction. Concerns about juror perception (society, not system bias) and the circumstances of the crime are key here.

Look for studies by more objective sources and try to understand that bare statistics have a multitude of factors often not explained by mere raw numbers.

[crowbait]

I also am British and opposed to the death penalty, not because I feel sorry for the convicted (which I don't) nor because I am indifferent to the suffering of the victim's family (which I am not) but because I feel desperately sorry for a society that supports the judicial taking of a human life which is against every tenet of civilised behaviour.

PS The USA calls itself a Christian society. Please tell me where in the New Testament it says it is OK to kill someone if twelve good men and true and all the rest of the judicial panoply say it is!

[Jingthing]

You don't need to be a "Christian" or have any religious faith to oppose the death penalty on moral and ethical grounds.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Jingthing

[helpisgood]

Post #56 states (the computer will not allow me to include so many quoted posts):

"A study from 40 years ago no less.

Are you saying that the USA has not moved forward on race issues since then?"

Reply:

I understand that you do realize that I had not asked a rhetorical question, correct?

No doubt, one would hope that the USA has moved on. However, we have recently seen videos of unarmed African-Americans shot and killed in the streets by law enforcement officers. I know that forty years may seem like a long time for some things. However, bigotry and prejudices can last for generations. The Civil Rights Amendments are about 150 years old.

It seems to me that compared to before the 1965 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, things are not as bad for the African-American community. Still, I am not so sure if America has moved on enough.

By the way, you seem interested so I'll share the following which cites more recent studies consistent with the Baldus study which includes links: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-and-death-penalty

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion!

That site has a huge agenda and statistics can be sifted through in certain fashions to support agendas.

Tge stats they cite actually support what I said regarding the ratio of whites to blacks executed in the last 40 years. I also acknowledged that the death penalty is sought much less when blacks are killed, regardless of the race of the perpetrator. This is not by virtue of racism in the system as some of you with no experience in the system try to infuse. Prosecutors are very reluctant to seek death penalties in all cases and will only do so when they are 99.9999% sure they can get the conviction. Concerns about juror perception (society, not system bias) and the circumstances of the crime are key here.

Look for studies by more objective sources and try to understand that bare statistics have a multitude of factors often not explained by mere raw numbers.

First, you are right that stats can be read to support a certain agenda. And, it would be helpful to cite sources that appear more objective. However, the mere fact that they have an agenda does not mean that they are wrong. You seem to merely dismiss it. Perhaps they do have it wrong, but what you have said is not persuasive. They could just as easily dismiss any other study just as you have done. You have stated that you were involved in the review of death penalty cases for a significant period of time. I would think that issues of bias in death penalty cases have been raised in a large number of briefs, which have citations to different studies. So, can you direct us to studies from more objective sources? I was surprised that you did not do so.

Second, I have reread your second paragraph several times. Correct me if I am misreading it. You "...acknowledge that the death penalty is sought much less when blacks are killed." After that, it's not clear to me what you mean. Let's just say, for the sake of the discussion, that prosecutors are not bigoted or prejudiced people. It sounds like you are stating that if a defendant is accused of killing a black person, they are still less likely to get the death penalty due to considerations of, as you state it, "juror perception." How is that still not racism in the system? I thought that the death penalty should be sought due to the heinous, etc. nature of the crime regardless of anyone's race? Again, maybe I have misread this. Thus, perhaps you'd like to clarify your point.

Thanks!

[Ulysses G.]

I'm pretty much okay with being part of a crowd that can be described with the compound modifier "anti-death". We should probably have a similarly catchy phrase for the opposite side. Pro-killing?

How about pro-justice? Don't forget the victim.

[SgtRock]

rapom, on 03 Feb 2016 - 21:48, said:

This man lived for 36 years longer than the man he killed, when robbing a convenience store in 1979. His partner also received the death penalty and was executed in 1985. The killer and his lawyers used every legal means they good to save and prolong this murderers his life. The victim was 35 years young, married and had a young daughter. He died the day before fathers day June 1979. Justice finally served.

The killer probably did not have too much of a say in it.

More a case of the lawyers used every legal means to line their own pockets.

[neverdie]

Good riddance to the old grub!

[rapom]

rapom, on 03 Feb 2016 - 21:48, said:

This man lived for 36 years longer than the man he killed, when robbing a convenience store in 1979. His partner also received the death penalty and was executed in 1985. The killer and his lawyers used every legal means they good to save and prolong this murderers his life. The victim was 35 years young, married and had a young daughter. He died the day before fathers day June 1979. Justice finally served.

The killer probably did not have too much of a say in it.

More a case of the lawyers used every legal means to line their own pockets.

Who paid the lawyers? Do you think the killer had accumulated great wealth robbing convenience stores and killing employees or did he save his prison wages for legal fees? The man and his accomplice were both arrested inside the convenience store in the storeroom with the victims body. He had been shot 4 times. Two guns were found and gunpowder residue was on both men. Each blamed the other for killing the clerk. This man and his partner in crime were both sentenced to be executed in 1979. His partner had his sentence carried out by electric chair. (which some people say was cruel) In 1989 prior to his sentence being carried out, a federal judge ordered a new sentencing trial because in the original trial the jury had a Bible during deliberations. So 8 years later in 1997, he was again sentenced to death. This time, death to be by lethal injection. His years on death row facing execution were extended by legal challenges against the use of lethal injection. This killer was not an innocent man who had been wrongly convicted, for a crime he did not commit. He was found guilty, sentenced to death (twice) and it was finally carried out. His age at the time of his death makes no difference to me.

[Grouse]

I'm pretty much okay with being part of a crowd that can be described with the compound modifier "anti-death". We should probably have a similarly catchy phrase for the opposite side. Pro-killing?

How about pro-justice? Don't forget the victim.

You think victims generally want an eye for an eye?

What about remorse?

Financial restitution?

I just don't buy the idea that civilised folks who don't accept the death penalty are somehow lacking in compassion for victims

[pedro01]

The countries in the world doing the most executions is not something Americans should be proud of being included in.

But it's really the tip of the iceberg.

The bigger issue really is the outrageously high numbers of Americans who are incarcerated compared to other nations.

Every nation has crime so you can't blame it only on crime.

It's SYSTEMATIC.

Good point! Why is that?

Some of it is down to Black community leaders calling for (and getting) stiffer penalties for crack cocaine related offenses.

Mostly this is because of the crack epidemic in their communities and the violence that came with it.

Of course - that means that a crack dealer will get a much stiffer sentence that a powder cocaine dealer. If you look at the numbers, this shows as a skew against blacks. It's not racism though, it's just a fact that there has been a crack cocaine epidemic within the black communities and their leaders called for stiffer punishments.