Death Penalty?

BDx13 - 12-2-2005 at 09:46 AM

1,000th Person Executed in U.S. Since 1977
By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

A double murderer who said he didn't want to be known as a number became the 1,000th person executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed 28 years ago.

Kenneth Lee Boyd, who brazenly gunned down his estranged wife and father-in-law 17 years earlier, died at 2:15 a.m. Friday after receiving a lethal injection.

After watching Boyd die, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said the victims should be remembered. "Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd," Page said.

Boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison.

"Maybe Kenneth Boyd won't have died in vain, in a way, because I believe the more people think about the death penalty and are exposed to it, the more they don't like it," said Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.

"Any attention to the death penalty is good because it's a filthy, rotten system," he said.

Boyd, 57, did not deny killing Julie Curry Boyd, 36, and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry. But he said he thought he should be sentenced to life in prison, and he didn't like the milestone his death would mark.

"I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

The Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah.

During the 1988 slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-caliber Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage. Another son grabbed the pistol while Boyd tried to reload.

The evidence, said prosecutor Belinda Foster, clearly supported a death sentence.

"He went out and reloaded and came back and called 911 and said 'I've shot my wife and her father, come on and get me.' And then we heard more gunshots. It was on the 911 tape," Foster said.

In the execution chamber, Boyd smiled at daughter-in-law Kathy Smith ? wife of a son from Boyd's first marriage ? and a minister from his home county. He asked Smith to take care of his son and two grandchildren and she mouthed through the thick glass panes separating execution and witness rooms that her husband was waiting outside.

In his final words, Boyd said: "God bless everybody in here."

Boyd's attorney Thomas Maher, said the "execution of Kenneth Boyd has not made this a better or safer world. If this 1,000th execution is a milestone, it's a milestone we should all be ashamed of.

In Boyd's pleas for clemency, his attorneys said he served in Vietnam where he operated a bulldozer and was shot at by snipers daily, which contributed to his crimes.

Both Gov. Mike Easley and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

Execution No. 1,001 was scheduled for Friday night at 6 p.m., when South Carolina planned to put Shawn Humphries to death for the 1994 murder of a store clerk.

XnMeX - 12-2-2005 at 10:25 AM

I say eye for an eye, but in another form..... You torture and rape a kid, you get tourchered and raped

I am for the death penality but I would sometimes rather see them put in general population and get even worse.

upyerbum - 12-2-2005 at 10:31 AM

An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth,
Anyway, I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

BDx13 - 12-2-2005 at 10:34 AM

^mmmm... excellent quote.

clevohardcore - 12-2-2005 at 10:52 AM

I am for the death penalty. I think it should be used more often.

KyleOz - 12-2-2005 at 01:16 PM

For it.

hopefully it deters others, which never does when you think about it.

I'd rather have proven guilty killer/murderer lose their life rather than spend the rest of their life being fed, clothed and all expenses taken care by us. That money could be used for something else.

Voodoobillyman - 12-2-2005 at 01:26 PM

If anything I want to see capitol punishment expanded to include other offenses, like pedophalia, I have a hard time swallowing the whole theyre sick thing, fuck em, mess with children, die. No second chances to do it again, make your peace with your maker, we dont want it.

moron - 12-2-2005 at 02:03 PM

On one level it feels good to kill a scum bag, but it's not a deterent for crime and on average it's actually costs more money to execute someone than to lock them up for the rest of their lives. That's due to the appeals processes that everyone has a right to. Those people who say "take away the appeals process".... people have been put to death in the past who years after the fact were found to be innocent when new information arose.

So overall... Im against it.

defstarsteve - 12-2-2005 at 02:59 PM

people have been put to death in the past who years after the fact were found to be innocent when new information arose.

too many crooked cops and prosecuters out there, let them rot, it causes more pain, death is the easy way out, don't think so just ask hitler

but don't give them cable.
don't give them more then the basic survival needs....
food water and shelter...
no book of the month club, no selling thier storys to be the next movie of the week...
not torture but sure as fuck not luxury

gavin - 12-2-2005 at 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Voodoobillyman
If anything I want to see capitol punishment expanded to include other offenses, like pedophalia, I have a hard time swallowing the whole theyre sick thing, fuck em, mess with children, die. No second chances to do it again, make your peace with your maker, we dont want it.

well put

Discipline - 12-2-2005 at 05:20 PM

I really wish we had the death penalty in Canada. It is desperately needed.

moforn - 12-2-2005 at 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by KyleOz

I'd rather have proven guilty killer/murderer lose their life rather than spend the rest of their life being fed, clothed and all expenses taken care by us. That money could be used for something else.

As far as expenses are concerned it costs significantly more to execute someone than to imprison them for life.
While they may have no bearing on the ethical aspects of the death penalty, the statistics regarding capital punishment shed quite a bit of light on the classism/racism of the American legal system. A Black person who kills a White person is something like twenty times as likely to get the death penalty as a White who kills a Black. Many of the people on death row were defended by a public defender with limited experience and scant resources with which to build a defence, when a life is at stake this is inexcusable.
I'm against the death penalty- I'm not comfortable trusting the state to decide who is allowed to live.
If exists though, apply it across the board and hang Bush for crimes against humanity- Nuremburg style.

KyleOz - 12-2-2005 at 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by moforn

Quote:

You know what, I didn't even think of that to be perfectly honest.

You and moron brought up some really good points.

moforn - 12-2-2005 at 10:29 PM

I can definately understand the desire the see people put to death (or worse) after committing certain types of crimes, when I take a step back and think about it though I just can't justify having a formal system for execution. On the other hand (to play devil's advocate) 1000 deaths in almost 30 years is a pretty small number compared to the number of lives that have been lost to gang violence, drunk driving, lack of health insurance, robberies etc. (though I suppose that's little comfort to families of those thousand people). I think the reason that I personally find the notion offensive is that when the state commits murder is ostensibly done in the name of it's citizens, something that would make me pretty uncomfortable were I was one those citizens.

JawnDiablo - 12-3-2005 at 11:28 AM

the system is not equal, thats for sure
i have no problem with executing mass murderers, child molesters, repeat offense sexual offenders.
Yeah I also agree when looking at the statistics on race/ executions.
Most serial killers are white however. I think they need to be killed. I for one also think It'd be a good idea to execute allot of people.
Ive knwown a few people over the years who were murdered, including a good friends sister who was killed in a terrible way. Id like to see the killers die personally, but alas they got life or 25 years or whatever. ..i also have a dude whom i was friends with facing the death penalty in florida, and i think he deserves it regardless of us being friends back in the day bcause of what he did and how he did it.
Funny how when you see people getting executed , some of them have been on death row for what 17 years?..isnt a likfe sentence 25-30 these days..maybe im wrong.
i read that in texas they have passed a bill where people condemned to death cannot appeal the decision...dont mess with texas.
ok im wired on the morning coffee now...back to reality...