Posted on 04/10/2024 4:54:22 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1959, Leonard Shockley was gassed in Maryland.
The appeals court that considered his case found it “perfectly clear that Leonard killed the victim in an attempt to perpetrate a robbery or a rape,” during a heist committed jointly with Leonard’s older brother.
On that basis, young Shockley achieved the distinction of being the second-last person ever put to death for a crime committed as a 16-year-old. For a very long while, it really looked like he might be the last, but Oklahoma’s 1999 execution of Sean Sellers usurped the claim.
While it makes little ethical difference, from the standpoint of attributing criminal culpability, whether a 16-year-old offender is executed promptly at age 16 or held for a lifetime in prison and executed in his eighties, Shockley may also be the last human put to death on American soil before he had attained his own majority. Shockley’s birthdate invariably reports as “1941 or 1942”,* and in the absence of the sort of primary research a blogger is naturally loath to conduct, we’re left with conflicting sources on the subject.
The Washington Post‘s headline the following day annonced, “Slayer, 18, Dies In Gas Chamber”. (Surmounting the text of the perfunctory Associated Press story it ran.)....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Sixteen is plenty old enough to have learned that murdering people is bad. And if the crime calls for the death penalty, why not carry it out right away instead of 30+ years later?
Still ok to kill unborn babies?
Abortion in America is an untold horror story of lies, deception, and coercion, in what has become a literal industry of death.
I could see maybe a one year window for appeal, then pull the trigger
Yeah, maybe a state-level review just in case of local shenanigans, and maybe a federal review for constitutional questions, then that’s it. And any reviews or appeals should be given highest priority on the dockets, not the usual never-ending delays and continuances. A one-year time limit for everything would seem sufficient.
Capital punishment has its place, but in extreme and highly limited cases.
—We’re once again giving government incredible power.
—We’re once again believing that man, because they create some policy and system, isn’t influenced by fads / trends, money, fame and power. The police, judges and jury are no exception.
Look at Trump and how they are railroading the guy. It’s not even a question what is being done to this man is a mischaracterization of justice. And it’s not just him: https://x.com/TPostMillennial/status/1777705866289914023 The justice system is far from perfect and has political agendas, bias, unprofessional conduct...
For sure (in more recent times):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Bloodsworth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Krone
Possible / questionable:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Nathaniel_Woods
I’m not entirely opposed, but it needs to be applied only in those cases where it is not just beyond reasonable doubt, but 100% for sure, an extremely heinous crime, by someone that has shown a pattern over a long time that they are a danger to society.
It’s true that there have been more than a few questionable executions over the years. My point, though, is that the process of establishing unquestionable justification for the death penalty should not take decades before the sentence is carried out. That benefits no one except the lawyers.
With all that is going on with teens, it’s a timely question and issue. How young for death penalty eligibility?
Agree.
If it’s beyond all doubt, 100% for sure, then the execution should be swift and via hanging.
Hanging by breaking the neck is still the best way to execute someone. All these modern day contraptions and ideas NEVER work out as advertised: gas chamber, electrocution, lethal injection. A firing squad is a mess and potential problem for those on it.
I think you mean “breaking the neck by hanging”, but no matter. Hanging is far from foolproof, and a botched hanging can be pretty gruesome. I don’t think there’s any method of executing someone that can’t be screwed up.
Today, he gets freed without bail, never to hurt anyone again.
True, and yes I didn’t word it right.
But, hanging is a simple matter of physics, i.e. body mass and drop.
It’s extremely reliable, fast, cheap, probably painless (theoretically instant unconsciousness), not messy in most cases if the drop is calculated correctly.
Sometimes that doesn’t work right (to much drop): https://www.npr.org/2007/01/15/6861053/saddams-half-brother-decapitated-during-hanging. But in such a case, it’s still reliable, cheap and quick.
Hanging is still by FAR the best way. I’m not trying to sound macho. It’s just that sometimes we want to come up with a new mouse trap and pretend that this gizmo is the solution which gets around all the ugly aspects, but it never does: guillotine, electrocution, lethal injection, gas chamber, firing squad.
I appreciate your perspective.
The unintended consequences follow whichever way you go. Fewer executions means fewer unjust executions but more death on the streets. That is where we are now.
As to the four examples you cited, I see them in another way, which may point the way to reasonable reform.
1) The Bloodworth case illustrates the fallacy of eyewitness testimony. Much work has been done on this issue, but almost always by the abolitionists. A reasonable reform would be to require judges to warn juries who deliberate on the punishment phase, or to abolish jury involvement in the punishment phase altogether.
2,3) Krone and Willingham illustrate the problems associated with pseudoscience in the courtroom. I have read some on errors in arson investigations. The situation is much improved in the current science. Bitemark evidence was discredited long ago. (Please correct me.)
4) Woods illustrates the very issues before us today as a society. Getting tough on crime means more no-knock warrants and more felony murder executions. But when more innocents are killed by the police, now we must defund the police department with predictable results.
I do not agree with the sentiment behind the idea behind your warnig about “granting the government power.” When the tyrants take power they will not allow some precedent or law stop them. The stupid Republicans thought this way about the filibuster issue in the Senate.
Freegards!
BrianD
I do not believe that the possibility of a death penalty crosses the mind of some of the freaks that commit these crimes. They’re deranged. Even in states where people are executed, you still find animals that commit crimes that could land them on death row.
Certainty (for most normal/sane people) of being caught and being punished is more important than severity in most cases.
Example: if I threaten a kid that I’ll slap the crap out of him if he crosses a fence, but he then does it and nothing happens...
Capital punishment IMHO in necessary in special cases where people cannot return to normal unless this person is destroyed. There are people where as long as they are alive, others will be in fear of their return and a true sense of peace and normal cannot be achieved, example: Saddam Hussein, OBL...
People want to be good, but they are not. The seven deadly sins are the temptations which lead us into sin, we all fall victim to them, and any justice system is still just a man made and dynamic set of rules and procedures that WILL be abused. You can’t fix this problem with more technology and some revised process. Americans today have a technology fetish, thinking there is a tech solution to every problem out there. This simply isn’t true. In fact, most of the tech solutions are no more than eyewash, example TSA and their airport screening.
Broadening and liberally applying capital punishment is dangerous. It’s a slippery slope in who we execute. How about we execute people for insurrection?
Capital punishment is IMHO necessary, but it’s reserved for the most extreme cases.
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