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Gov. McDonnell should think seriously about the need to expand the death-penalty-eligible crime list Date published: 3/14/2010
ON THURSDAY, former Spotsylvanian Paul Warner Powell is to be executed for the 1999 murder of Stacie Reed, a Manassas-area teen he first tried to rape. Absent a miracle, Powell will be the 106th person put to death by Virginia since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court rewrote the rules for capital punishment. Whether or not one cottons to the death penalty, several courts have ruled that--putting it in laymanese--if anybody deserves that punishment under Virginia law, this depraved man does. Virginia ranks second to Texas in the number of executions carried out since 1976. Nevertheless, Virginia lawmakers during the current General Assembly have feverishly advanced legislation to expand the list of crimes subject to death. This is not an avenue Virginia should choose to travel when the justice of capital punishment is under serious national debate and many executions are being delayed. Yet the avenue in the Old Dominion is congested with expansionist legislation. A bill that comes up annually, only to be tabled again this year, would redefine the state's "triggerman rule" to provide room on Death Row for accomplices to a murder--i.e., those who did not do the actual slaying--before, during, or after its commission. Defense attorneys would have a field day with that one. Other bills, still wending their way to Mr. McDonnell's desk, include ones that would add to the list of death-penalty-eligible crimes the slaying of auxiliary police officers and fire marshals in the line of duty. These are more sensible expansions. Yet Virginia law already allows death for 15 separate crimes, and the murder of such public servants often could be covered by one or more of those statutes. Politically, no doubt, proponents of such bills saw new opportunities under Mr. McDonnell. Former Gov. Kaine, a different type of Roman Catholic than Mr. McDonnell, vetoed 15 expansion bills during his tenure. Since the 1970s, 139 Death Row inmates have been cleared through DNA testing, emerging new evidence, and so on. Although it has yet to be shown that an innocent has been executed since 1976, increasing the Death House population by enlarging the periphery of capital crimes, besides smacking of demagoguery, is unwise. Even the strongest advocate of lethal justice should cringe at the idea of putting the wrong person under the sod.
that someone committed a heinous crime such as this then the death penalty should be used to protect society from this beast ever being able to hurt someone again. If there is any doubt that someone might not have done the crime then by all means stick them in prison for life, but when there?s concrete evidence such as DNA then there is no reason these monsters should 1. be given the chance to escape and or be let out and hurt someone else 2. soak up tax $ that could be better spent in a thousand other ways
hes a convicted killer whose own gloating and rants in a letter to the DA (albeit Ebert who was challenged by a ham sandwich write in) earned him a spot on death-row. Relax and wear your mouth piece Paul. The lightning bolt awaits.
Anyone who knowingly, deliberately, and maliciously takes another life has forfeited the right to their own. Just sayin' (read: writin') what I'm thinkin'.
I'm confident that having a sharp eye on out process will only make it better. It ensures no one gets sentenced to death unless they are well deserving of it, and that no one will be executed without a thorough review. Remember-it was not the act of execution, rather it was the process that led to the USSC to abolish it in "72. My thoughts will be on the Reed family, not on that miserable coward that will be getting his just deserts.
state of mind to provide justice for the victim(s) as well as their family.
Yes, DNA has cleared many, but I don't think we do away with the DP because the vast, overwhelming majority of those on death row are guilty. I look at CA's death row and can't help but feel overwhelming sympathy for so many who have waited for so long for justice to be served. I think the numbers on death row are about 700. Pathetic! Obviously, the state of VA knows how to deal with those who commit capital murder.
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