The Troy Davis Case & The US Death Penalty

[Miss*Bijou]

The controversial case of Troy Davis

Anderson Cooper Examines Troy Davis Case (CNN)


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Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected Troy Davis’ clemency petition. He faces execution on Wed., Sept. 21 at 7 pm EDT.


The Troy Davis case is riddled with doubt. Most of the witnesses who testified against him have recanted, while others have pointed to an alternate suspect as the real killer.

Nearly a million supporters of human rights and justice have called for clemency in this case, so far. They believed in the common-sense notion that you should not execute someone when you can’t be sure they are guilty.

Death penalty supporters like Bob Barr, former Texas Governor Mark White, and former FBI Director William Sessions also support clemency in this case, for the same reason. And at least three jurors from Davis’ trial have asked for his execution to be called off. Putting Troy Davis to death would be a grave injustice to those jurors who believe they sentenced Davis to death based on questionable information.


---


Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony – seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.


No physical evidence directly linked Troy Davis to the murder. The weapon was never found.





Part One

"The Investigation" gives a thorough explanation of the case as well as the many problems with how the crime was investigated.

Part Two

"A Case Unraveled" examines how the evidence in his case has completely fallen apart.

Part Three

"Proving Innocence" examines how the legal system makes it extraordinarily difficult to prove one's innocence.

Part Four

"Clemency" explains what clemency is and why it is appropriate for Davis' case.

Capital punishment does not work. There is a wealth of mounting evidence that proves this fact.

The death penalty, both in the U.S. and around the world, is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. Since humans are fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.

Furthermore, the astronomical costs associated with putting a person on death row – including criminal investigations, lengthy trials and appeals – are leading many states to re-evaluate and re-consider having this flawed and unjust system on the books.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts



Factors contributing to the arbitrariness of the death penalty:

• Almost all death row inmates could not afford their own attorney at trial. Court-appointed attorneys often lack the experience necessary for capital trials and are overworked and underpaid. In the most extreme cases, some have slept through parts of trials or have arrived under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
  
• Prosecutors seek the death penalty far more frequently when the victim of a homicide is white than when the victim is African-American or of another ethnic/racial origin.
  
• Co-defendants charged with committing the same crime often receive different punishments, where one defendant may receive a death sentence while another receives prison time.
  
• Approximately two percent of those convicted of crimes that make them eligible for the death penalty actually receive a death sentence.
  
• Each prosecutor decides whether or not to seek the death penalty. Local politics, the location of the crime, plea bargaining, and pure chance affect the process and make it a lottery of who lives and who dies.
  
• GEOGRAPHIC ARBITRARINESS: Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 80% of all executions have taken place in the South. The Northeast accounts for less than 2% of executions.
  

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/...penalty-facts/death-penalty-and-arbitrariness

 

[Miss*Bijou]

Troy Davis Set To Be Executed on Wednesday After Georgia Pardons Board Denies Clemency

"Troy Davis and the Politics of Death." By Amy Goodman

September 14, 2011


Death brings cheers these days in America. In the most recent Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Fla., when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked, hypothetically, if a man who chose to carry no medical insurance, then was stricken with a grave illness, should be left to die, cheers of “Yeah!” filled the hall. When, in the prior debate, Gov. Rick Perry was asked about his enthusiastic use of the death penalty in Texas, the crowd erupted into sustained applause and cheers. The reaction from the audience prompted debate moderator Brian Williams of NBC News to follow up with the question, “What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?”

That “dynamic” is why challenging the death sentence to be carried out against Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on Sept. 21 is so important. Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for close to 20 years after being convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Since his conviction, seven of the nine nonpolice witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining the testimony. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder.

Last March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Davis should receive an evidentiary hearing, to make his case for innocence. Several witnesses have identified one of the remaining witnesses who has not recanted, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, as the shooter. U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. refused, on a technicality, to allow the testimony of witnesses who claimed that, after Davis had been convicted, Coles admitted to shooting MacPhail. In his August court order, Moore summarized, “Mr. Davis is not innocent.”

One of the jurors, Brenda Forrest, disagrees. She told CNN in 2009, recalling the trial of Davis, “All of the witnesses — they were able to ID him as the person who actually did it.” Since the seven witnesses recanted, she says: “If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row. The verdict would be not guilty.”

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African-American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B. Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynchings in the Deep South. She published “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” in 1892 and followed up with “The Red Record” in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote: “In Brooks County, Ga., Dec. 23, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in twenty-four hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored man named Pike, who killed a white man ... Georgia heads the list of lynching states.”

The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson.

The state doesn’t intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain, to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit: “Southern trees bear a strange fruit/Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/Black body swinging in the Southern breeze/Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” The state of Georgia, unless its Board of Pardons and Paroles intervenes, will administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital. Georgia is using this new execution drug because the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized its supply of sodium thiopental last March, accusing the state of illegally importing the poison.

“This is our justice system at its very worst,” said Ben Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Amnesty International has called on the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Davis’ sentence. “The Board stayed Davis’ execution in 2007, stating that capital punishment was not an option when doubts about guilt remained,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Since then two more execution dates have come and gone, and there is still little clarity, much less proof, that Davis committed any crime. Amnesty International respectfully asks the Board to commute Davis’ sentence to life and prevent Georgia from making a catastrophic mistake.”

But it’s not just the human rights groups the parole board should listen to. Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel Peace Prize laureates President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others, also have called for clemency. Or the board can listen to mobs who cheer for death.

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 950 stations across the United States and around the world.


http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/9/14/troy_davis_and_the_politics_of_death

"Troy Davis and the Meaning of 'Actual Innocence'." By Amy Goodman

August 19, 2009


Sitting on death row in Georgia, Troy Davis has won a key victory against his own execution. On Aug. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court instructed a federal court in Georgia to consider, for the first time in a formal court proceeding, significant evidence of Davis’ innocence that surfaced after his conviction. This is the first such order from the U.S. Supreme Court in almost 50 years. Remarkably, the Supreme Court has never ruled on whether it is unconstitutional to execute an innocent person.

The order read, in part, “The District Court should receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner’s innocence.” Behind the order lay a stunning array of recantations from those who originally testified as eyewitnesses to the murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail on Aug. 19, 1989. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses who originally identified Davis as the murderer of MacPhail have since recanted, some alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining their testimony. Of the remaining two witnesses, one, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, is accused by others as the shooter and identified Davis as the perpetrator probably to save himself from arrest.

On the night of the murder, MacPhail was off duty, working as a security guard at a Burger King. A homeless man was being beaten in the parking lot. The altercation drew Davis and others to the scene, along with MacPhail. MacPhail intervened, and was shot fatally with a .38-caliber gun. Later, Coles arrived at the police station, accompanied by a lawyer, and identified Davis as the shooter. The police engaged in a high-profile manhunt, with Davis’ picture splayed across the newspapers and television stations. Davis turned himself in. With no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Davis was convicted and sentenced to death.

Jeffrey Sapp is typical of those in the case who recanted their eyewitness testimony. He said in an affidavit:

“The police ... put a lot of pressure on me to say ‘Troy said this’ or ‘Troy said that.’ They wanted me to tell them that Troy confessed to me about killing that officer ... they made it clear that the only way they would leave me alone is if I told them what they wanted to hear.”

Despite the seven recantations, Georgia’s parole commission has refused to commute Davis’ sentence. Courts have refused to hear the evidence, mostly on procedural grounds. Conservatives like former Georgia Congressman and prosecutor Bob Barr and former FBI Director William Sessions have called for justice in his case, along with Pope Benedict XVI, President Jimmy Carter, the NAACP and Amnesty International.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority, “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.” Yet conservative Justice Antonin Scalia dissented (with Justice Clarence Thomas), writing that Davis’ case “is a sure loser,” and “[t]his Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.”

Davis has had three execution dates, and in one instance was within two hours of lethal injection. Now he will finally have his day in court. With the courageous support of his sister, Martina Correia (who has been fighting for his life as well as her own—she has stage 4 breast cancer), and his nephew, Antone De’Jaun Correia, who at 15 is a budding human rights activist, Davis may yet defy death. That could lead to a long-overdue precedent in U.S. law: It is unconstitutional to execute an innocent person.


http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/8/19/troy_davis_and_the_meaning_of_actual_innocence

 

[HankQuinlan]

Capital punishment is an excellent way to appease a blood-thirsty crowd; suggesting clemency merely because of a lot of evidence that he is likely innocent would be wishy-washy and show that you are not tough enough.

Obviously, a few innocent people executed is worth it in order to demonstrate the power of the State.

 

[Miss*Bijou]

It's appalling.

It's appalling.

Capital punishment is an excellent way to appease a blood-thirsty crowd; suggesting clemency merely because of a lot of evidence that he is likely innocent would be wishy-washy and show that you are not tough enough.

Obviously, a few innocent people executed is worth it in order to demonstrate the power of the State.

It's appalling.



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It's appalling.




[video=google;2537462601888502694]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2537462601888502694[/video]




It's appalling.







What then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared? For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal, who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him, and who from that moment onward had confined him at his mercy for months.

Such a monster is not encountered in private life.


- Albert Camus





"To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice."

-Desmond Tutu

 

[Miss*Bijou]

Georgia executes convict in high-profile U.S. case


JACKSON, Georgia — The U.S. state of Georgia executed convicted murderer Troy Davis Wednesday in a case that drew international attention because of claims by his advocates that he may have been innocent.

Davis, convicted of the 1989 killing of a police officer, was put to death by lethal injection at 11.08 local time at a prison in central Georgia after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a final appeal, a prison official said.

The case has attracted international attention and an online protest that has accumulated nearly a million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.

MacPhail was shot and killed outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, as he went to the aide of a homeless man who was being beaten. MacPhail's family say Davis is guilty and called for his execution.

Outside Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison earlier, hundreds of protesters chanted "I am Troy Davis" and other slogans and a cheer briefly went up when it was reported that the execution had been delayed.

But the crowd dwindled as the evening wore on and those who remained greeted news from the Supreme Court with silence, prayers and tears.

"This is a tragic moment. We were hoping for a different result but we are determined to fight," said Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

"People are watching this particular execution in a way that's unprecedented and I think it's causing people to take a hard look at our criminal justice system," said Warnock, whose church was once led by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

A majority of Americans support the death penalty and most executions attract little national attention but the Davis case prompted a rash of protests as well as expressions of concern from Europe.


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tr...ision+Lawyer/5435446/story.html#ixzz1YfeTSw5d

 

[Unpossible]

I would appreciate it if others who oppose the death penalty stop using Mumia in their argument. He ran up on somebody with his gun drawn and shot them. Take you Che' t-shirts off while you're at it.

 

[HankQuinlan]

Perhaps such obvious miscarriages of justice will eventually lead to a rethinking about the desireability of the death penalty in the US.

 

[vanessa kelly]

I just finished reading The Confession by John Grisham it was based on the same kinda situation ... this story it makes me sad and mad
VK

 

[chilli]

Actually I have no problem with capital punishment if it can be PROVEN without any reasonable doubt that a person has committed heinous crimes.

I do believe terrorists, seriel killers, etc... should be killed for societies sake.

I also do believe the law is an ass - and as in this case does not allow for new evidence - which is morally wrong and completely objectionable.

 

[badbadboy]

This is precisely the reason I am against the Death Penalty in Canada.

Otherwise we would have a fairly lengthy list of people put to death and later found to be innocent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Truscott

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/08/06/f-wrongfully-convicted.html#milgaard

High-profile cases
James Driskell
Anthony Hanemaayer
Donald Marshall Jr.
Simon Marshall
David Milgaard
Guy Paul Morin
William Mullins-Johnson
Romeo Phillion
Thomas Sophonow
Steven Truscott
Kyle Unger
Erin Walsh

Sure there are some who deserve the Death Sentence ie Clifford Olson et al but I could not live with a Death Penalty that killed innocent people. I really doubt how much a death penalty would be a deterrent anyways.

 

[HankQuinlan]

I really doubt how much a death penalty would be a deterrent anyways.

There is no evidence from anywhere that the death penalty is a deterrent...except for those it has already been applied to. The usual justification is "bringing closure to victim's families" etc. -- again, except in those frequent cases where the victim's family are against it. In this case, where it may seem more and more likely that the man was innocent, it will likely eventually bring more anguish to the murdered man's family when it seems more and more likely that the guilty person went unpunished. Of course, psychological self-defense will likely mean that they will never allow themselves to believe that he was innocent, despite any new evidence that may arise. That is how our brains are built.

 

[HankQuinlan]

Why dont we fuckin ship that useless P.O.S Willie Pickton down there !!! He should get the chair 3 times over!!

Despite the fact that it could not be done under any conceivable law, keeping him alive also maintains a possibility that we may eventually learn who his accomplices were and get those fuckers too.

 

[satinguy]

I don't have a problem with the death penalty, I wish we had it here in Canada. I know this may not be a popular view as there are many who don't support it but in Canada we are far too leniant and forgiving when it comes to violent crime.

I live in Edmonton, murder captial of Canada and bot have we had some kind of year in this place. Just yesterday police upgraded charges from assault to 2nd degree murder for a piece of garbage who sexually assaulted an 80 year old woman in her home and she dies of her injuries. Does this trash deserve to live? Not in my opinion.

There are far too many cases like this in my city and other parts of Canada. The scum bag group of teenagers and adults who gang raped a 13 year old girl (Nina Courtepatte) in Edmonton then violently murdered her. Maybe not the kids but the adults definitely don't deserve to live. I could go on for days about specific cases but we all know far too many cases like this.

Hope i didn't offend too many with my comments, just my view that i support Capital Punishment.

 

[Chef99]

Vanessa, same here! I read it while travelling on business this past week and was shocked to read about this execution. Some may be in favour of capital punishment but it's surprising that they'd push ahead when there is any doubt....

I just finished reading The Confession by John Grisham it was based on the same kinda situation ... this story it makes me sad and mad
VK

 

[Miss*Bijou]

I would appreciate it if others who oppose the death penalty stop using Mumia in their argument. He ran up on somebody with his gun drawn and shot them. Take you Che' t-shirts off while you're at it.

Because someone on death row for being convicted of, oh say, jaywalking would be more convincing? Right. Well, you find one and I'll consider using it in my argument.

lol I'll use who ever I want to "use" in my argument, thanks. As far as I know you weren't present, neither was I and many things in regards to his trial are questionable. But it's besides the point anyway - the point is I oppose the death penalty - I'm sure you realize that the crimes anyone sentenced to death has been convicted of usually isn't shoplifting or speeding tickets.. So honestly I'm really not sure what you're trying to argue here.


And btw - regardless of whether or not he's guilty, it's pretty evident that there was some misconduct in the investigation and the trial. Not to mention that despite being appealed twice, the decision to declare his death sentence unconstitutional was upheld and he was granted a new sentencing hearing. The court agreed that "jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose death rather than a life sentence".

Of course, psychological self-defense will likely mean that they will never allow themselves to believe that he was innocent, despite any new evidence that may arise. That is how our brains are built.

Exactly! You see it often and I find it truly fascinating to think about how our brains do that.

 

[Miss*Bijou]

I don't have a problem with the death penalty, I wish we had it here in Canada. I know this may not be a popular view as there are many who don't support it but in Canada we are far too leniant and forgiving when it comes to violent crime.

I live in Edmonton, murder captial of Canada and bot have we had some kind of year in this place. Just yesterday police upgraded charges from assault to 2nd degree murder for a piece of garbage who sexually assaulted an 80 year old woman in her home and she dies of her injuries. Does this trash deserve to live? Not in my opinion.

There are far too many cases like this in my city and other parts of Canada. The scum bag group of teenagers and adults who gang raped a 13 year old girl (Nina Courtepatte) in Edmonton then violently murdered her. Maybe not the kids but the adults definitely don't deserve to live. I could go on for days about specific cases but we all know far too many cases like this.

Hope i didn't offend too many with my comments, just my view that i support Capital Punishment.

The thing is, you're entitled to your opinion, as everyone else is. But if anyone is to be honest, they cannot claim any other justification or argument for the motivations behind capital punishment than pure revenge. There is no evidence to justify it based on anything else such as deterrence and we all know it doesn't bring people back or erase the crimes. It only serves to appease a need for revenge. To support capital punishment is to endorse revenge as an acceptable, desirable, justified and appropriate response by society - I simply can't agree to that.


I think that giving ourselves the right or duty to punish by death based on a set of arbitrary conditions and an invented hierarchy of what should be punished by death and what should not, makes the rest of society absolutely no better than the criminals themselves and makes a joke of anyone who would dare to still argue that we are civilized. Just like prison in general, the death penalty ends up being applied unevenly, unfairly, inconsistently and targeting the most marginalized individuals; it is always the poor and ethic minorities or people with mental problems who are overwhelmingly represented in capital punishment cases. Always.


And that's only assuming actual guilt. We all know LOTS of people are convicted and even spend years behind bars (or even executed) before being cleared. The justice system is not flawless, in fact it's incredibly flawed, biased and applied differently based on the financial means (or lack of) of an individual or his family, his/her social status, connections and so on. That's not a possibility, that's an undeniable reality. If it's bad enough with prison sentence, it is even worse when you add capital punishment to it. There is just no moral justification, nor is society entitled to make these life and death decisions, just so we can satisfy some desire for revenge or some illusion of justice, when we already know the appalling injustice inherent within the system.


Revenge may provide some illusion of justice for society, victims and family of victims but it does no such thing. And even worse, in the cases where an innocent is executed, whether we ever know for sure or not, it makes us cold blooded, remorseless murderers and nothing will ever change that. I don't believe in murder. To support the death penalty, considering all we know, equals to being a hypocrite by pretending not to be murderers ourselves. Supporting the death penalty in fact means one supports murder and revenge. There is no other way around that fact as far as I'm concerned. That, of course, is my IMHO and I respect others right to feel differently.

 

[Miss*Bijou]

I'm being 100% honest and would have no problem having a person like Olsen put down and not for "revenge". Because it is unacceptable behaviour for a human being. If the law is in place, he know's it and does it....he knows the consequenses. Personally these arguements are rediculous anyways. You won't change your HO and either will the other side. :nod:

That is the problem though, if you allow capital punishment for some who are "for sure" guilty, then you open the door to a system of having to determine who is "for sure" guilty and how that's decided. And how do you determine that line between criminals who deserve the death penalty and criminals who don't? It's all fine to point to an individual and say he deserves it but the reality is that once you make capital punishment an option, you open the door to everything I've stated above in my previous post. You cannot avoid that, it isn't a simple, clean solution. It is one that involves a lot of collateral victims and injustice. As for everything else in the world, it's a lot more complex.

As for revenge, I know a lot of people are fine with that reason. But I personally am not. Another point is that executing someone punishes their family - often and especially their kids, who are themselves not guilty of any crimes. It creates more innocent victims and that seems like an injustice in itself.


As far as the discussion becoming ridiculous.. I'm not expecting to change anyone's opinion, Hubba. And you're correct, it's very unlikely that anyone will change mine. But I don't really understand your reasoning: If we were all telling each other off and unable to discuss calmly - okay it would probably be ridiculous (or perhaps unwise) to continue but I really don't see why civil discussions and hearing others opinions is ridiculous? Are we supposed to just stick to discussing topics we all agree on? That is what actually seems more ridiculous to me. Pretty boring too.



I think this is pretty amazing, actually:



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[Miss*Bijou]

You end up going around in circles MB discussing the same points. You say the same thing in a different way and I counter in a different way.

So you're saying killing a person like Olsen is going to upset his family members? He should be allowed to be around for his kids? R U kidding me? He's going to instill some values his children can use? You're gonna bring up a different example of a situation where your theory works. It's nothing new.

Hubba, it's not my theory. It's fact and reason. Not emotional reaction. Proven consequences. Yes, his kids have done nothing wrong and it isn't the justice system's place to create more victims. But again, above all that, and probably why you claim I'm going around in circles, which is because you're ignoring the most important reality and avoiding the question --- which is that the death penalty guarantees that innocent people will be executed.


Are you saying that would be an acceptable consequence and something you would be fine about having on your conscience if it means that some guilty criminals are executed? That's really what it boils down to. That for the sake of revenge and vengeance against some individuals who committed specific crimes, innocents, individuals who are poor and/or part of minorities, will be executed? That this is all justified if it means certain criminals you feel deserve to die are executed? Is that what you're saying?




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[Unpossible]

Because someone on death row for being convicted of, oh say, jaywalking would be more convincing? Right. Well, you find one and I'll consider using it in my argument.

What are you talking about? What the fuck does jaywalking have to do with this? My point is 3 people saw Mumia approach a cop doing a traffic stop and shoot and kill him. Using him as an example for the abolition of the death penalty is silly. The doubt of his guilt is quite minimal compared to somebody who was not found at the scene of a killing with a gun with 5 spent cartridges in it.

I am absolutely 100% against the death penalty and guilt or innocence has nothing to do with it. I personally feel that the death penalty is revenge rather than justice.

I just hate people using Mumia as an example because I have little doubt of his guilt and feel using him in arguments against the death penalty is ridiculous. He is a weak example.

 

[satinguy]

But if anyone is to be honest, they cannot claim any other justification or argument for the motivations behind capital punishment than pure revenge. Revenge may provide some illusion of justice for society, victims and family of victims but it does no such thing.

I understand your point Miss Bijou and you presented it well but we differ in our opinions on this. I won't deny what you said about revenge, that is part of it but not the only part. THe bible says an eye for an eye so it is part of Christian values. Is capital punishment a deterent, we can't ay for sure but giving murderers early release and house arrest is a joke and no deterrent at all.

How about public safety? Far too many of the violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders. Capital Punishment will ensure these people are no longer harming innnocent victims.