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The Failure of Virginia's Death Penalty

by: TheGreenMiles

Sat Sep 18, 2010 at 11:41:47 AM EDT

Gov. Bob McDonnell refused to intervene last night in the scheduled execution of a Virginia woman. She was convicted of being the "mastermind" of a murder scheme even though her IQ was tested at 72. Gov. McDonnell was so proud of this decision, he announced it at 7:01pm on a Friday night.

That someone just two IQ points away from the accepted definition of mental retardation can be executed is only one of many strikes against the death penalty. One inmate on Virginia's death row was sentenced to death based on the testimony of one man who's since recanted. States have executed people later proven innocent. (There are many other cases I could list here, feel free to list your most outrageous one in comments.)

But far & away the biggest strike is that the death penalty so utterly fails to serve its stated purpose -- crime deterrence. Virginia is #2 in executions since 1976, but our murder rate in 2008 was 23rd-highest among states. There's no evidence of a historical trend, either -- all those executions didn't stop a spike in Virginia's murder rate from 1987-1997. As Amnesty International reports:

A September 2000 New York Times survey found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty. FBI data shows that all 14 states without capital punishment in 2008 had homicide rates at or below the national rate.

Take a look at the chart at top right. If you compare Virginia to states without the death penalty, Virginia's murder rate is below only that of Michigan. We're safer than Detroit! Hooray ... ?

And there's the whole thing about how maybe in the year 2010, our government shouldn't be sanctioning killing anyone. Haven't we evolved past "an eye for an eye"? Not in Virginia.

TheGreenMiles :: The Failure of Virginia's Death Penalty

Tags: Virginia Politics, crime, capital punishment, death penalty, (All Tags)

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The Failure of Virginia's Death Penalty | 4 comments

Bring Civilization to Virginia (4.00 / 1)

I am against the death penalty for the simple reason that it is a barbaric practice that has no place in civilized society. There is no reason for killing people in prison. I have heard and read all of the so called "reasons" when I was working on a capital case and not one of them was a real reason to kill someone in prison.

For those who want to practice such butchery perhaps you should also continue on with the next step practiced by your ilk - eat your victim. I don't know exactly when that was discontinued in European killings, but the practice of keeping the bloody souvenirs from the executions was only discontinued recently.

Unfortunately, Virginia elected two people with the most brutal of desires to run the state. They are creating their political richness on the blood of many people. And, this woman is just another one to use. Shame on them. She could sit in prison for the rest of her life and it would not affect anything. But the brazen desire to be a brutal killer drives the governor to denying her that meager existence so he can declare himself a hard hearted killer of those not of quick mind.

Terrible man and the same can be said of his legal counsel.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
Edmund Burke

by: blue bronc @ Sat Sep 18, 2010 at 19:22:13 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Well, it costs (0.00 / 0)

too much to maintain someone in prison for life. Much cheaper to kill them. And do it in a hurry, before bleeding hearts find contrary evidence that they did not commit the crime. Do we spend more on prisons than we do on, say, education? That would fit the model; I refer to the authoritarian stern father model of governance that is the Republican credo.

by: Teddy Goodson @ Sun Sep 19, 2010 at 01:01:59 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Killing people brings a sense of justice (0.00 / 0)

This is very weird, and totally irrational, but for many people, they feel that a death is necessary to bring justice to the death of another person. It doesn't matter whether the person was guilty or not; the important thing is that a death happens.

It is really hard to persuade people who operate with this thinking since it is very old, proto-religious magical thinking.

by: Hugo Estrada @ Mon Sep 20, 2010 at 14:22:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

With all the Repubs (0.00 / 0)

so hell-bent on marrying state and religion (even if it has to be done over the dead bodies of the Founders), why aren't they willing to leave the death penalty to God? I'd have thought God was perfectly able to smite the offenders as necessary. And, say what you will... if you're religious, you have to accept that God actually knows who's really guilty, even as the rest of us make those ghastly mistakes.

by: libra @ Sun Sep 19, 2010 at 03:42:50 AM UTC

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The Failure of Virginia's Death Penalty | 4 comments

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