Supreme Court won't overturn death sentences

[Mara]

The Supreme Court refused Thursday to overturn the death sentences of more than 100 inmates who argued their fates were improperly determined by judges, not jurors.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5285880/

[Terry Penrod]

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WHEN in - the - name - of - God will people just STOP whining about their situation?

I'm getting REALLY sick of it, aren't you?

These death row convicts ought to be dancing with glee that a "professional" judge sentenced them to die instead of a bunch of common, know-nothing, yoyos from who-the-hell-knows-where?

If I was sentenced to die, I'd sure as hell want it to be by someone in a nice, clean, black robe and a nifty, walnut gavel who paid top dollar for their job.

Cheers, Terry

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[Cronus]

You're still executing people?

[Gaim Mastr]

Can't blame someone for not wanting to be put to death, even if they are degenerate murdering scum themselves.

Yes, some states in the US do still kill off their worst criminals. Un-ironically, our President George Bush used to be the governor of Texas. The death sentence has become a state mantra in Texas. The entire time as governor, Bush never stayed the execution of a single prisoner. Is that because not a single truly innocent person was ever sentenced to death? No, it's because George didn't want to appear 'soft' on crime. So it was political move for him as he prepared for a run at America's White House.

In America we have these television commercials promoting tourism to Texas. The tag line is "Texas, it's like a whole other country". And they're partly right. Compared to any other state, Texas has been the most unwilling to halt executions until better measures of determining guilt or innocence has been established (ie. DNA sampling).

Texas still has and enforces a law which states that if it's after sunset and you believe that someone is on your property to steal something, that you have the right to shoot them to death.

So yeah, compared to the other 50 states in America, Texas is like a whole other country. A country stuck in the mid 1800s.

I know that the article mentioned in this thread relates to all states, and that Texas certainly isn't the only state to still use the death penalty. I just picked on Texas because of all 50 states, when it comes to the death penalty, Texas stands heads & shoulders above all others in the minds of American people.


As for the judge vs jury sentencing decisions..... it's a tough call. On the one hand, Terry is right in that some jury panels have consisted of people I wouldn't trust to watch a pet hamster for 30 minutes, let alone hold the capacity to reasonably judge the appropriate sentence for a convicted criminal.

On the other hand I think that it should be the defendant's right to choose if he would like to be sentenced by a judge or jury.

I've also met some judges with a very clear personal agenda, who have no qualms about always dishing out the maximum penalties available to them by law. In those cases, I sure wouldn't want my fate decided by some holier-then-thou judge with a dozen notches carved into the side of his gavel.

When a person is charged with a crime, it is their right to choose if they want a trial by jury or just the judge. Whichever they choose for their trial should automatically also be the means by which their punishment is dictated.