Posted on 05/02/2012 2:09:37 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A convicted Oklahoma killer who was spared execution once but asked for a new trial and was sentenced to death a second time was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday.
Michael B. Selsor, 57, was the 18th person executed in the United States this year and the third person executed in Oklahoma in 2012. He was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. local time (1106 GMT) at the state prison in McAlester, Oklahoma, a prison spokesman said.
He was executed for killing convenience store clerk Clayton Chandler on September 22, 1975, during an armed robbery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Of course, “Oklahoma Executes Man Sentenced Twice to Death” would be a less misleading headline, but this is Rooters...
Sort’a off the subject but, stories like this always remind me how quickly Timothy McVeigh was dispatched
How did they bring him back to life to execute him the second time.
Obviously, Oklahoma learned a thing or two about killing people twice from these guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E88HEuwInno
Michigan needs to at least try the Death Penalty but not so much as a deterrent.
Shoulda executed him “sooner”...”sooner!” get it? Oklahoma...”sooner”...nyuck nyuck nyuck.
I know, but good wit is hard to find this early.
Remember, in the late 70s, the Supreme Court struck down all existing death sentences and commuted them to life. The statutes were then rewritten in most states, offenders tried from that point forward were eligible for the death penalty again.
Dude shouldn’t have rolled the dice with a new trial.
I look forward to hearing more developments on Oklahoma’s zombie problem.
But they executed him only once! /s
Talk about ‘justice delayed’.
“Sort’a off the subject but, stories like this always remind me how quickly Timothy McVeigh was dispatched”
The good thing is, he asked for a second trial depending on a court ruling that he thought would make it impossible for him to be sentenced to death. He figured the worst he could do was come out even, hell he might even walk if there was a sap on the jury. But the ever-changing “rule of law” shifted the sands under him, he rolled snakes eyes. He tried to game the system and the system game him. Good for him.
Sucks to be him. He got what was coming, only too long delayed.
Interesting life. At age 20, already a proud father, he kills a man in a hold up, spends most of the subsequent 37 years in prison and in court, and then gets the hot shot at 57.
Reverse the polarity?
Any possibility of a third appeal?
To put that in perspective, Septmeber 22, 1975 was also the day Sara Jane Moore tried to assasinate Gerald Ford.
***Sort’a off the subject but, stories like this always remind me how quickly Timothy McVeigh was dispatched.***
Stories like this remind me of how 30 years ago Oklahoma forgot to execute a murderer so converted his death sentence to life.
They admitted they just forgot about him!
The murdered couple lived in the edge of Oklahoma and everyone here knew them, and the murderer.
You be right but don’t say it too loud or black helicopters will hovers over your house...
Conservatives should consider ways to expedite the death penalty around the country. The cause of the delay is known, that federal judges who are *personally* opposed to the death penalty, have used *trivial* excuses to prevent it, as well as intentionally delayed consideration of their hearings for years.
Congress, however, can dictate the terms of what cases federal judges hear, and how they hear them. So they could override a lot of this nonsense and preclude it in the future, returning a semblance of order to the process without legal unfairness or civil rights violations.
Some possibilities:
1) Permit only a single, automatic appeal to that states federal district judge. Limit that appeal to “egregious error or malfeasance” on the part of the trial judge, jury, prosecutor or defense counsel, or “gross civil rights violation”. Importantly, the state federal district judge cannot overturn the sentence, just return it to the trial court for reconsideration.
2) This single, automatic appeal must be heard on an expedited case basis, within 3 months after conviction, with a 4th month for the appellate judge to reach their decision. If the trial court reaffirms the death penalty, then their decision will be automatically appealed to a panel of their regional federal circuit court of appeals, who will determine only if they successfully corrected the original errors. This should be within 6 months of the original conviction.
3) States will be regarded as “competent authorities” to determine means and mode and method of execution, so this will no longer be in the jurisdiction of federal judges.
4) At this point, the federal courts or government will have no further involvement. The condemned will still have recourse through the state board of pardons and paroles, as well as the possibility of commutation or pardon by that states governor, as they see fit.
The ideal will be that no later than one year after sentence of death, the murderer will be put to death.
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