It is not a grim milestone.
It is a triumph of good vs evil.
It is a triumph of justice.
It is a triumph of wisdom over ignorance.
"Push the button, Max!"
""The impending milestone occurs at a time when the country is sharply moving away from the use of the death penalty," according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
"The 1000th execution is a significant event in the nation's 30-year experiment with capital punishment, but it is not indicative of an expanding or strongly endorsed use of capital punishment," said DPIC director Richard Dieter.
"To the contrary, there is a wealth of evidence that the country is pulling back from the death penalty," Dieter said.
Statistics show a 50 percent decline in the number of death sentences since the late 1990s and a drop of 40 percent in executions since they peaked at 98 in 1999. There were 59 executions last year.
Moreover, the number of inmates on death row -- the prison wing for prisoners awaiting execution -- has declined each year since 2001.
Last month, a Gallup poll showed that 64 percent of Americans remain in favor of capital punishment, although 80 percent backed it in the 1990s.
The death penalty has also come under fire since inmates facing execution have been found innocent after their convictions, unmasking flaws in the judicial system. In the last 32 years, 122 death row inmates have been released.
Former Illinois governor George Ryan triggered a heated debate in January 2003 when he cleared the state's death row after learning of various cases in which innocent people were sentenced to die.
"More and more people understand that the death penalty makes mistakes, disproportionately affects the poor and people of color, doesn't deter crime, and is expensive, arbitrary, and immoral," according to 1000executions.org, an Amnesty International website.
The Supreme Court court barred executions of people with mental illness in 1986, people younger than 16 at the time of the crime in 1986 and people with mental retardation in 2005.
This year, it forbade capital punishment for people who were under 18 at the time of the crime.
The death penalty is currently on the books in 38 US states, but many seldom or never use it. The vast majority of executions take place in southern states.
More than half of all executions take place in three states: Texas has executed 355 people, Virginia has put to death 94 and Oklahoma another 79.
The US government also has the death penalty for federal cases, but it rarely uses it."
Notice no quotes coming from anybody who supports the death penalty. God I hate the AP.
YAAYYY!
NC has a chance to have the 1000th scuzzbag executed!
TX has done over 1/3 of all the executions. Don't mess with TX.
On a Washington D.C. radio station last night, I heard that the real reason Gov. Warner issued an eleventh-hour reprieve for Robin Lovitt is for his own political ambition. He plans to make a run at the democratic 2008 presidential nomination. It would not look good on his resume to have the milestone 1000th execution heppen under his watch.
But he had no problem with the previous 11 executions that took place during his 4 years as governor.
Grim? Certainly not. I would recommend they release a balloon cascade over #1000 and play some happy music.
Quoting meaningless numbers is the new Left strategy to have something to write about. Why don't they keep track of the number of abortions? Isn't that a GRIM number? Instead of murdering criminals, these are innocent babies. Why do they always side with murderers and not babies?
How about keeping track of the number of people saved through the use of a gun for self-defense? Has anyone heard of such a number? Probably not. I don't. But thanks to the media I am aware at all times how many of our soldiers died in Iraq and now how many murderers have been executed by the US. Despicable!