Posted on 06/04/2010 8:44:53 AM PDT by JoeProBono
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- In a rare gesture, Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday spared an inmate who was scheduled to be executed next week, citing court decisions that questioned the death sentence and problems with trial testimony.
Strickland announced he was granting clemency to Richard Nields, who strangled his girlfriend in 1997 during an argument in suburban Cincinnati.
Strickland, a Democrat, said he made the decision after reviewing Nields' case.....
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
ID for video games not for voting.
crazy
So instead of executing him, keep him in jail for life? I don’t get it - if there is good evidence questioning his guilt, why not pardon him?
Justice Paul Pfeifer, who helped write Ohio's death penalty law as a state legislator in 1981, wrote that Nields' crime was not what lawmakers considered as a case eligible for the death penalty when creating the law.
He gave his victim a death sentence. Why not give him the same punishment? I don’t understand situations like this. I certainly hope that clemency does not equal freedom.
This won't be a popular position, but I'm not a fan of capital punishment in cases stemming from crimes of passion, or simple assaults that escalate out of control.
I think it's best we reserve the death penalties for people who commit murder in a plainly premeditated manner, or for people who kill someone during the commission of another felony, like car-jacking or home invasion.
I just don't see how executing someone because a domestic disturbance, a heat of the moment fight, spiral out of control, improves our society. I just don't.
Let’s be clear about one thing-most Rat politicians are against the death penalty and the only reason many run as pro death penalty candidates is because most of these hypocrites know their asses would be defeated in a heartbeat if they admitted the truth.
Given that Strickland is a Democrat, I'm sure the "review" of the case consisted of 1 question, "So, what color is he?"
"Democrats - We may not have invented racism, but we have perfected it."
One could also argue that the punishment should be worse, if you kill someone you claim to love more than others.
We have precedent for holding people to higher levels of responsibility for their actions, for example, while armed. What might be simple assault becomes ‘simple assault, while armed’ - whether the gun is touched or not - and that is far, far more serious a charge than otherwise.
Cases where things ‘escalate out of control’ - well, that means you have two willing participants there, they are both guilty for escalating things. They person who kills the other gets no break because “Well I loved him”.
We already recognizethe difference between 1st degree (intentional homicide/murder) and 2nd degree (unintentional homicide/murder). Or even to a lesser case, manslaughter. There may be other even more accidental death types of charges (death by motor vehicle, etc). Then of course, justifiable homicide.
I certainly hope that clemency does not equal freedom.
No, it doesn't appear to be that. It seems that it's more that the state's death penalty law was not crafted and put together to include this kind of situation. So, it's more along the lines of it not fitting the original intent of the death penalty law in that state. He'll still remain in prison.
Given that Strickland is a Democrat, I'm sure the "review" of the case consisted of 1 question, "So, what color is he?"
What?! Is the white governor protecting white guys now? LOL ...
Old habit for white Dims... (Ask Sheets Byrd.)
Perhaps if such a killing was premeditated, that would be true. But, I think the law should draw a bold distinction between people who set out to murder someone - a real predator, versus someone who gets into either a domestic squabble or bar room fight and kills someone during the skirmish.
This particular case is somewhere in the middle ground. It seems that there may have been a domestic squabble, and the killer may have returned some time later to finish what he started. But, there's some problem with the forensic evidence and it's possible, perhaps even likely that's not what happened. Plus, the aggravating factors cited at trial, aren't very compelling, as is pointed out in the article. I just don't see this particular case as a good candidate for the death penalty.
Let’s be clear about one thing-most Rat politicians are against the death penalty and the only reason many run as pro death penalty candidates is because most of these hypocrites know their asses would be defeated in a heartbeat if they admitted the truth.
That doesn't appear to be the case here, with this particular governor, from what I read ...
I see that under Governor Stickland's term, they have executed 14 men with their death penalty law.
During that time the parole board recommended mercy for the convicted three times. The Governor has followed the parole board's recommendations only twice. He overrode the parole board's recommendations for Jason Getsy in 2009 and he was executed.
He also overrode the parole board's recommendations in 2007 and spared John Spirko from execution.
I don't see a pattern of overturning executions under the death penalty, without due consideration and there are always cases which need consideration of these things.
Well..., I was just going to say, it’s about time to protect the white guys! LOL ...
Murder is murder....quite right...your position is unpopular with most conservatives and I would add...illogical.
Unpopular perhaps, illogical, not quite sweetie.
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