Posted on 08/28/2009 12:25:31 PM PDT by DCBryan1
Tennessee Jury Lets Torturer-Murderer-Rapist Live, to Prey on Others August 28, 12:24 PMDC SCOTUS ExaminerHans BaderPrevious Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe Subscribe Get alerts when there is a new article from the DC SCOTUS Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use. Email Address
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Some juries are indulgent towards even the most vicious and plainly-guilty criminals. A Nashville jury just let a nightmarishly-evil torturer-murderer-rapist, Letalvis Cobbins, escape the death penalty in the rapes, torture, mutilation, and murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. Now, he can spend the rest of his life raping and preying on vulnerable prison inmates, like first-time offenders.
The jurors who blocked the death penalty may have mistakenly believed that they were sophisticated and progressive by rejecting the death penalty, but in truth, they were being cruel, since, as it says in Midrash, he who is kind to the cruel is cruel to the kind. Scholars like Ernest Van Den Haag have concluded that the death penalty actually saves lives by deterring murders. (A recent Emory University study says that each execution deters approximately 18 murders). When I was a young liberal, I used to oppose the death penalty, in part because I was arrogant and it made me feel morally superior to those who support it based on “gut instinct.” But “gut instincts,” such as indignation, are important guides to what is right and wrong. As the great Athenian lawgiver Solon noted, true justice will not be achieved until those who have not been victimized by crime are just as indignant as those who have been.
The horrifying facts of the case are reprinted below; if you are squeamish, don’t read further. I describe them in order to explain why it is an insult to justice to give a torturer-rapist-murderer like Letalvis Cobbins the same sentence that many ordinary murderers receive:
“On Saturday January 6, 2007 Hugh Christopher Newsom, age 23 and Channon Gail Christian, age 21, both students at the University of Tennessee went out on a date. They were driving in Channon’s Toyota 4-Runner when they were carjacked at gunpoint. Suddenly the crime turned far more savage than an armed car theft. Chris and Channon were kidnapped and driven to 2316 Chipman Street where they were forced into the home at gunpoint. While Channon was forced to watch, her boyfriend was raped prison style and then his penis was cut off. He was later driven to nearby railroad tracks where he was shot and set afire. But Channon’s hell was just beginning. She was beaten; gang raped repeatedly in many ways, had one of her breasts cut off and bleach poured down her throat to destroy DNA evidence-all while she was still alive. To add to Channon’s degradation the suspects took turns urinating on her. They too set her body afire, apparently inside the residence, but for some reason left her body there-in five separate trash bags.”
“Christian suffered horrific injuries to her vagina, anus and mouth. She was not only raped but savaged with ‘an object,’ possibly a broken chair leg, the doctor testified.”
Yet the defense attorneys for Letalvis Cobbins, one of the five people who perpetrated these atrocities, think that he can be rehabilitated, and will not pose a risk to others in the future. Do you agree? I don’t. If I were a first-time prison inmate, in for something like drug possession, I would be scared to death by this vicious criminal’s presence.
Some have speculated that the jurors refused to impose the death penalty out of racial favoritism, and that some on the “racially-diverse” jury may have had difficulty empathizing with the victims, who were white. When a Brooklyn jury acquitted the killer of Yankel Rosenbaum, who died in the 1991 anti-semitic riots in Crown Heights, commentators suggested that race similarly played a role in the acquittal, citing the seemingly “airtight” evidence against defendant Lemrick Nelson, who had been identified by the dying Rosenbaum as his killer. If the race of the victims and perpetrators in this case had been switched, the ensuing media coverage would have dwarfed the Duke Lacrosse case.
The crime didn’t happen in Nashville (Davidson County), where the jury was chosen. The case was moved there, rather than to a less pro-defendant venue closer to whether the crime actually occurred, by presiding Judge Richard Baumgartner, a liberal Democrat. His excuse was that the case needed to be moved from Knoxville due to adverse pre-trial publicity; but if so, that merely justified a move, not a move to distant Nashville, 180 miles away. Tennessee voters should ask why Baumgartner did this.
This is Obama's future for America....shaking head.
What a farce. The black juries are going to let those scumbags live.
I heard about this. Upsetting and enraging to say the least. Everytime I even see this headline, my blood pressure sky rockets. My condolences to the families.
Awful. This case makes my stomach turn. These monsters aren’t even human, animals don’t even do this to one another.
Race was a huge issue IMO. Can you even imagine if the races were switched around? It wouldn’t even be a question of death penalty, plus extra punishment for a hate crime.
I guess all the families can hope for is that these guys won’t be too popular in prison. I am sure there are a few gangs in the pen that will take care of them pretty fast.
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Dear Lord. White victims, black monsters and they life for their unspeakable crimes because race played a part in the jury’s decision? My jaw is on the floor and my blood is boiling.
And some people honestly wonder why the thinking population of this country is seething with anger.
The people of Knoxville should show LA how to riot.
“The people of Knoxville should show LA how to riot.’
‘nuff said.”
!
Too many Blacks on the jury. They were lucky to get a conviction.
EVIL!
and why do we let liberals stay in our country?
I guess since they are Fascist - they seem to enjoy stories like this...and is the reason why they disgust me!
Unbelievable
They died to provide amusement. Get used to it; if present trends continue, then over the coming years this type of killing may even become institutionalized.
Unspeakable. Let me at that frickin’ “jury.”
This guy is a monster!
Sickening, but the judge played a role in this and should be remembered.
Find a way to get these convicted scumbags sent to Texas and put them in general population.
I predict they will survive for about 8 1/2 minutes.
Problem solved, except they will suffer much less before they go to meet the devil than they inflicted on their innocent victims
Better yet, release them from prison period and notify the family and friends of the vics ahead of time!
If this was my family member, I would take great satisfaction in having the opportunity of providing my own personal form of retribution.
Life is cheap in prison...Very cheap.
bump
Something like this calls for a white riot.
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