Posted on 12/03/2005 12:24:13 AM PST by NapkinUser
Dec. 2. — With the final words “God bless everybody in here”, Kenneth Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner to be put to death in the USA since the death penalty was reinstated a quarter of a century ago.
His death came after both Governor Mr Mike Easley and the US Supreme Court declined to intervene and stop the execution. “Having carefully reviewed the facts and circumstances of these crimes and convictions, I find no compelling reason to grant clemency and overturn the unanimous jury verdicts affirmed by the state and federal courts,’’ Mr Easley said in a statement issued a few hours before the execution.
Boyd did not deny that he shot and killed Julie Curry Boyd, (36), and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry in 1988. Family members said Boyd stalked his estranged wife after they separated following 13 stormy years of marriage and once sent a son to her house with a bullet and a note saying the ammunition was intended for her. Boyd said in a prison interview that he wanted no part of the infamous numerical distinction of being the 1000th prisoner executed. “I’d hate to be remembered as that,’’ Boyd said on Wednesday. “I don’t like the idea of being picked as a number.’’ While campaigners said his execution in North Carolina in the early hours of yesterday marked a macabre milestone, the most recent polls suggest public support for the death penalty is falling sharply — especially when the option of sentencing a prisoner to life without parole is offered as an alternative.
“I think there are a number of reasons for it,” said Ms Brenda Soder, of the Death Penalty Information Centre in Washington. “Juries are reluctant to impose death penalties, partly because almost every state now has the option of life without parole...There have also been 122 cases of prisoners [on death row] being shown to be innocent.” The latest poll, published by Gallup suggests that 64 per cent of Americans support the death penalty, down from 80 per cent in 1994.
ALMOST every state?
Why is this a big deal? Going back the same amount of time, you have a better chance of dying in a terrorist attack than being executed by the state...AND WE HAVE TERRORISTS IN OUR JAILS!
We are a merciful people...sometimes stupidly so....
"There have also been 122 cases of prisoners [on death row] being shown to be innocent."
Run that one by me again will ya?
Let's make Tookie Williams # 1,001.
Oh Joy. While I'm a capital punishment advocate, I see no pleasure in this 1000th thingie. Let the little bastard die and be done with it, thats all. His execution doesn't ring my bell nor should it any other normal person. Although God Bless the family who went thru all the BS involved, and may Justice reign. Nuff Said ........
Texas does not have the option of life without parole - there may be others.
1,002. South Carolina just executed #1,001.
"Texas does not have the option of life without parole - there may be others."
I thought I read Rick Perry took care of that a couple of months ago.
They were just legally found not guilty. In other words the guilty bastards lucked out the second time. I may believe as high as two or three but they may or may not had something to do with the crime.
None of the victims that died were guilty.
I can live with it. Let's hope that Tookie can't.
I'm waitin' for Tookie.
Me, too. And what's up with Mumia? Last I heard he was off death row although the prosecution was going to try to reinstate his capital sentence.
I guess this puts me over on the angry fringe, but I think the needle is way to easy for some of these folks. They are resigned to it and have nothing to live for anyway. Now a noose....that, as they say, concentrates the mind. It strikes terror. It gets their attention. I want to see major regret on their faces as they take their last walk.
There have also been 122 cases of prisoners [on death row] being shown to be innocent.
Not exactly. Innocence Project targets states where evidence is stored in conditions that don't protect DNA from degredation. Find a case that's 20 + years old, where the DNA has deteriorated to the point where it can't be matched up to the defendant, 3 of the 4 eye witnesses have died or disappeared and have the defendant recant his confession and all of a sudden you've got an "innocent" man on death row.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
Has she started yet?
She tried, but like most resolutions, it didn't work out so good. There's always next year tho'.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
This is basically my point also.
Innocent? Or has there been simply a group of nitpicking law students and lawyers who have dug through old cases to find some flaw somewhere in the proceedings and then put this crap in front of a sympathetic judge?
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