[Greg Weston]

So think they will get the guilty today? Perhaps a one or 2 flakes are holding things up. Let's hope not.

[bvw]

Put Greg Weston down for today.

[Congressman Billybob]

Because of the forensic evidence, I have little doubt that Westerfield will be convicted. Her blood on his jacket, her hair in his bed, her thumb print on his bedside table.... My concern is with the penalty phase of the trial.

For 400 years until the US Supreme Court wrongfully stepped in, it was the job of judges in England, in the American colonies, and then in the United States, to name the penalties for those convicted of crime. Juries were never involved in THAT stage of a trial.

Judge Mudd in the Westerfield case, and most judges in most courtrooms across the country, would have no hesitancy in ordering that a man who savaged and killed a little girl should pay with his life. But because the US Supreme Court dragged the jury into this issue -- with no justification in the text of the Constitution -- all it takes is one squeamish juror, and Westerfield will be housed at taxpayers' expense for the rest of his life, rather than executed, which is what his crime deserves.

I am certain of a conviction. If there is a hold-out on this jury and a hung jury and mistrial, that will mean a new trial. He WILL get convicted. My concern is that he might not get the death penalty, for the reasons stated.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column: "Good People, Naked People, People Who Are Wet and Wild."

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[The Other Harry]

Perhaps a one or 2 flakes are holding things up.

Just to set the record straight, us DW sympathizers are properly called "Broccoli Heads".