Some (Victims' families) decry N.J. death penalty abolition

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/18/07 | Tom Hester, Jr. - ap

[bill1952]

Interesting.

Down here we had two guys who had their heads burst into flames, but didn’t die with the first jolt.

Thats why we have lethal injection and Old Sparky was retired.

[Trailerpark Badass]

When we start executing rich white people, I may reconsider my opposition to the death penalty.

When rich white people murder, kidnap and rape people with any kind of regularity, your opposition to the death penalty will seem less absurd.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

The whole point to the death penalty is to give the victims and their families justice. By giving those that commit murder the death penalty we are in fact avenging their shed blood. It is right, it is moral and shame on New Jersey for caring more about perpetrators than victims.

[vpintheak]

Mwaaahaaaa-ha-ha! The will of the sane and rational people has been defeated again!

[Popocatapetl]

Not too long ago here, they gassed a guy and he kept breathing normally. That was pretty gross as well. The problem with the electric chair is that it *must* have the proper voltage and current.

The only case I’ve heard of where a properly run chair didn’t work was Albert Fish, the cannibal, who for years had been inserting needles under his skin and leaving them there. He actually shorted the chair out.

[muawiyah]

Typically the sort of killer who commits a particularly heinous sort of murder will do it again. This will happen whether or not he's in jail or walking the steets.

All the New Jersey legislature and Don Corizone did here is to decide that some other "lifer", or white collar criminal in the same prison, or a guard, should be killed rather than the murderer.

The victim's families should not be the only ones outraged ~ the families of their future victims should be sufficiently outraged to threaten mayhem on any member of the legislature who voted for this abomination.

I sure would if one of New Jersey's killers were to murder one of my loved ones.

No member of the NJ legislature should ever again sleep soundly at night thinking he or she is safe ~ none of them are and never will be.

[muawiyah]

Rich white people who manage to get sent to prison for a period of time stand a tremendous chance of being murdered by other prisoners IF the state has no death penalty and does not keep murderers separate from the white collar types.

Your opposition to the death penalty turns out to be misdirected ~ these pukes all end up killing someone else in prsion ~ you didn't stop an execution, you just changed the name of the person to be executed.

All in a night's work for you folks isn't it ~ to support executing the innocent at the hands of heimous murderers just so long as you don't know the victim and have never heard of him.

[starlifter]

Interesting string on non sequiturs.

Would be interesting to see the statistics which underly your notion of a “tremendous chance of being murdered...” Your leap in logic in the second paragraph is stunning, the same as one might find on the Daily Kos.

If you commit a crime where capital punishment is an option, but you are white and rich, your probability of execution is about zero. I should have been clear in my original post that I was not referring to white-collar criminals (who, curiously enough, can even be non-whiite, but that’s another conversation.)

If you are non-white or not rich, your probability rises exponentially. Of course the people who’ve been wrongly convicted and then released is trivial. (The previous sentence is sarcasm.)

Not entirely certain who the “you folks” are to which you refer in your last paragraph. Who are they and how did I become one of them? Do we meet often and pay membership dues?

While I cannot possibly know all the stereotypes you ascribe to others, let me say (1) I served more than two decades on active duty, (2) vote Republican, and (3) own several firearms.

[muawiyah]

Showing how terribly uninformed you are my source is former Governor Dean himself, currently DNC National Chairman.

About the only folks who ever challenge what he said on the matter of "life with no parole" vs. "death penalty" are Liberls, virtually none of whom have ever bothered to check any of the statistics concerning recidivism on the part of those who commit heinous murders.

So, as it turns out, you've never bothered to examine the information. About time you did. I figure Dr. Dean is a fairly good source on this one ~ he had to "make choices" as Governor.

[starlifter]

Well...if you believe Governor Dean on just about anything, then I have a bridge you might be interested in.

[muawiyah]

It was so surprising of Dean to discuss how he'd had his mind changed on the issue by looking at the statistics regarding the type/category of people who end up getting the death penalty.

I'm sorry for you in your belief that those guys are not "special".

[Kolb]

I’m all for abolishing lethal injection in Texas as long as it is replaced with the options of death by firing squad, hanging by the neck until dead or gas chamber.

[VOA]

Another of the eight is Jesse Timmendequas, the sex offender who
murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. The case inspired
Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the
public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.

I'm late to this story.
When I heard on the radio this morning that NJ/Corzine was making
sure the monster that inspired "Megan's Law" wouldn't be
"thinned from the herd" by New Jersey authorities, I had to
see if the report was "for real".
Of course, FR is the place to check up on this sort of outrage.