Comments on: Troy Davis gets new hearing December 9

By: Rosemarie

Rosemarie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:35:26 +0000

This is America, with Liberty and Justice for all! Troy Davis has the right for his justice, as all prisoners should have had but not all did or do!

By: Unity Explorer

Unity Explorer — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:14:01 +0000

Dear Eburnsed, what kind of rights are you specifically recommending for victims’ families? You make it sound like you are claiming the right for them to have SOMEONE pay for the crime — regardless of whether that particular someone actually did it or not. Then why bother to have laws, courts and trials at all? Why not simply let victims’ families designate whoever they wish to see killed by the state? Innocence would be made irrelevant once and for all, because all that mattered would be what the victims’ families want for themselves, right?
But then let me also ask YOU, dear Eburnsed, how would YOU then feel if someone YOU cared about was picked by some victim’s family to serve as the sacrificial scapegoat they want for closure? Would this kind of society be any more palatable to you? Not to me, anyway.
OK, right now you might be thinking that it can never happen to you or your family… Well, if you live in a switch thrower happy state, I suggest that you think again. Compared with someone who lives in a death penalty free state, your friggin risk of dying at the hands of the state in a friggin wrongful execution actually ADDS to your friggin risk of being murdered by a friggin criminal on one of your friggin streets… ;-)
I personally prefer to deal with just the risk of being murdered, which in my death penalty free country is incidentally much less than in the US anyway (1.5 per 100,000 vs 5.7 per 100,000). This being said, I wish you well, dear Eburnsed, as I equally wish the MacPhail AND Davis families.

By: eburnsed

eburnsed — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:56:12 +0000

I WONDER HOW MANY OF YOU WOULD FEEL THE SAME WAY IF IT WAS YOUR FAMILY MEMBER THAT GOT KILLED. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
IT AMAZES ME HOW WE AS A SOCIETY WANTS RIGHTS FOR THE KILLERS BUT NONE FOR THE VICTIMS FAMILY.BY THE WAY BREAKING NEWS IF YOU BREAK THE FRIGGIN LAW YOU PAY THE FRIGGIN PRICE, DARLING. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO GET PUNISH BY OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM THEN DON’T KILL ANYONE YOU IGNORANT PIECE OF CRAP.

By: Jean Hughes

Jean Hughes — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:41:31 +0000

In case we have forgotten, the constitution says liberty and justice for all. The present system has degraded into liberty and legality for all. That a person’s innocence can not be addressed because of a legal time frame shows that the system values expediency over justice.

In any case, state sanctioned murder has no place in a civilized society. It does not decrease crime and sanctions vengeance as the only option for dealing with grief. The lengthy process exacerbates the victim’s family’s suffering and extends their inability to move one. Every life is precious. Thinking that taking a life to pay for another is absurd in the extreme. The loss of someone you love can not be paid for by the loss of someone you don’t love.

State officials who claim to be pro-life and continue the barbaric use of the death penalty are lying to themselves and their constituencies. They are also wasting common funds. It costs more to process an execution than it does to incarcerate someone for life.