In honour of the hundreds of ( and many of them would describe themselves as )
‘guilty of the crime of being poor and black,’ and sentenced to death…

this argument is against the u.s. death penalty:
a disproportionate number of poor African Americans are on death row the majority because they simply couldn’t afford competent legal representation and corrupt and or racist members of the judiciary at all levels of the legal process.

killing another person can never bring back the victim of a murderer and judging by the amount of killings that still take place in America, it’s effect as a deterrent is ineffectual as well.

There is no current form of execution used in America today that is not cruel and unusual…
Is execution state sanctioned murder…yes

Should it be banned yes too.

i'd go so as to say it's a sign of a barbaric culture...

america and iran are two sides of the same coin whenit comes to execution

If the evidence is indisputable and the person is of sound body and mind and the crime is particuarly gruesome/pre-mediated/unprovoked then dude should fry

No, they should be forced to work in call centres.

rarely in life are murders premeditated, or a person of sound body and mind,

so you think a person should be killed regardless of his or her circumstance ?
what about...
Aileen Wuornos... Aileen Wuornos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

a product of american society if ever there was one...

i'm sure you know that many within the penal system have been victims of the very crimes that they have petrated, this includes being raped, growing up in an enviroment where all they know is 'crime' etcc.,

how can you convict a person of a crime when they really didn't know right or wrong in the first place. It’s no coincidence that the poor are on death row, don’t you think theres something wrong with a justice system that only convicts the poor. DNA EVIDENCE IS CERTAINlY NOT AN INDICATOR OF GUILT..
look at the case of
Tookie Williams Stanley Williams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Williams was repentant in the latter part of his life, he finally saw the error of his ways, earning much praise from the wider community.
psychologists have long known that successful business men have, what you could call, sociopathic tendencies, or psychopathic tendencies but their environment moulds the people that they are. Those born in anarchic environments and or abused mentally and physically will become tomorrows murderers rapists…those sociopaths and psychopaths born in wealthy and or loving environments will grow up to be the captains and sharks of industry that is well known.

Balderdash. Most of these parasites "see the error of their ways and get repentant" when their own time is drawing nigh. Big deal. Stop projecting white liberal, ghetto cliche mantras on to that dude. He could have been anything he WANTED to be. Do you know that he was once a youth COUNSELOR? Yes, that's right he worked COUNSELING young Black men at one time. In a group home setting or some ish. He inspired maximum respect in those dudes and they did whatever he told them to do. As I stated, he was not some poor,ignorant, put apon, follower who fell into the bad influences in his "environment. Mofos followed HIM did what HE SAID,LOL. He in short had leadership qualities. I worked as a youth counselor for 5 years, and still work with young people in a somewhat similar capacity. I KNOW that people who can do that kind of work successfuly are not dumb, or mealy mouthed, or lacking in strenghth of personality or persuasion skills. You can't be and work with troubled youth(they'll chew u up and spit u out if they perceive any weakness in u, or just play your ass). HE CHOSE TO DO WHAT HE DID, and he ultimately paid the price for that choice. That is as it should be.


Successful business men can posesss all of the socio/psychopathic tendencies they want, as long as they channel that shit properly and don't become an albatross around the neck of their own community. Once they do that, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, I say......

You repeat the right wing mantra of hang em shock em but it has real no meaning…most people that do witness the killing of their loved ones assailants may feel some momentary emotion of closure but it’s a fleeting emotion and the very next day they are still filled with loss and there are 1000 more criminals to take Williams place …executions are ultimately designed to give the illusion that the state can actually take care of you or keep you safe.
What do you feel when you hear that some one has been executed ?

It has the meaning of not having my taxes support someone who was a willful and gleeful murderer and terrorist towareds their own community. That is all the meaning it NEED have,for me.

If a 1000 more people want to follow in his footsteps then a 1000 more can get some of what he got, as far as I'm concerned.

Any fool knows that executions don't keep the public safe. They aren't carried out in most murder cases first of all, and they aren't carried out swiftly enough and consistently enough to have the impact they would have if things were done the way I think they should be done.

How do I feel when someone has been executed? Well the first thing I do,if I'm not familiar with the case is wonder how the executed person's VICTIM/VICTIMS felt when he killed them,(something that anti death penalty do gooder crusaders strangely don't concern themselves with in spite of all their compassion for the murdering piece of scum they insist on crusading for). I ponder if the executed person felt any of the fear and terror that his victims felt. THen I ponder the victim's family and how they might be feeling at that time, and HOPE that the fact that the person who CHOSE to take their loved one's life, has now had HIS/HER life taken, gives them SOME solace or peace, if not I hope it at least satisfies their RIGHTEOUS desire for revenge.


More ghetto cliche mantras..... I reiterate, the 1000's more can get the same fate of those they seek to emulate, as far as I'm concerned.

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Says New Jersey's Historic Rejection of Death Penalty Reflects Shift in Public Opinion


NEW YORK - Today Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill that ends capital punishment in the state of New Jersey. The measure, which passed the state legislature last week with bipartisan majorities, replaces the death penalty with life imprisonment for the most serious offenders. New Jersey becomes the first state since 1965 to legislatively repeal the death penalty, generating forward momentum in the campaign to end capital punishment nationwide, said the American Civil Liberties Union.

Freed from death row in Mississippi


Innocence Blog: DNA evidence clears two men in Mississippi and uncovers serious misconduct (02/08/08)

Evidence Proves that Innocent Men Were Wrongfully Convicted in Two Mississippi Murder Cases; Hearing Set for Thursday

Actual perpetrator of both crimes is apprehended; widespread misconduct by police and forensic analysts shows urgent need for forensic oversight

(NOXUBEE COUNTY, MS; February 8, 2008) – Two men who were convicted of separate child murders in Noxubee County, Mississippi, are innocent and should be fully exonerated shortly, the Innocence Project said today. New evidence, which includes DNA testing and a confession, has identified the actual perpetrator in both cases, who was arrested earlier this week.

A hearing is set for Thursday morning in Noxubee County. Kennedy Brewer, who was wrongfully convicted in one of the cases and sentenced to death, will appear in court on a motion to dismiss the case against him, which would make him the first person in Mississippi to be exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing. Papers filed today on behalf of Levon Brooks, who was convicted in the other case, seek to also vacate his conviction and dismiss the case. It is possible that Brooks’ case will also be heard Thursday, and both Brooks and Brewer could leave the hearing exonerated. The Innocence Project (which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law) represents both men.

"Both of these men are innocent, and they should be fully exonerated very quickly," Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld said. "In two decades of working on these cases, we have never seen a more stark and troubling example of a rush to judgment at the hands of notorious forensic analysts who conspired to commit fraud. The system wasn’t just broken in these cases – different elements within the system actually conspired to convict two innocent men of heinous crimes, while the actual perpetrator remained at large. These cases should haunt Mississippi and the nation, and they should lead to a top-to-bottom review of how the state is investigating and prosecuting cases."

In 1992, Brooks was convicted of the 1990 rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter. The child was taken from her home in the middle of the night and her body was later found in a pond near her home. Her skin had slippage and other marks consistent with a child who had been killed and then dumped in a pond – but the local forensic analysts falsely claimed that the marks on her wrists were “bite marks” from Brooks. In 1995, Brewer was convicted of an identical crime that happened just 18 months after the one for which Brooks was convicted. Brewer’s girlfriend also had a three-year-old daughter who was taken from her home in the middle of the night, raped and murdered. Her body was found in a creek near her home, with cuts that the same prosecution witness said were “bite marks” from Brewer but were actually caused by insects and animals in the creek. The same sheriff’s officer investigated both crimes, the same District Attorney prosecuted both crimes, and the same discredited forensic dentist and same controversial pathologist conducted the post mortems and misled juries in both cases with false testimony implicating Brooks and Brewer.

In 2001, while Brewer was on death row, DNA tests excluded him as the source of the semen recovered from the girl’s body. His conviction was vacated, but the District Attorney (who had prosecuted the case at trial) said he was going to re-try Brewer for the crime, and again seek the death penalty. For a full five years, the prosecutor did not move the case to trial – so Brewer waited for five years in the county jail. Finally, last summer, the Innocence Project helped Andre de Gruy of the Office of Capital Defense Counsel in Mississippi secure Brewer’s release from jail and geared up to represent him at a new trial. Meanwhile, seeing the similarities between the two cases, the Innocence Project took Brooks’ case – but quickly learned that the biological evidence from the crime was too degraded to yield results from DNA testing.

The Innocence Project was concerned that conflicts of interest in Noxubee County would hamper efforts to secure justice for Brewer, so the Innocence Project asked the Mississippi Attorney General to intervene. Ben Creekmore, the District Attorney of Oxford, was appointed Special Prosecutor of the Brewer case.

Meanwhile the Innocence Project continued its own investigation of both cases – which led to Justin Albert Johnson, a 51-year-old Noxubee County man who was an initial suspect in both cases. At the time of the Brooks case, Johnson frequently stayed in a house very close to the victim’s home; at the time of the Brewer case, he lived with his parents just a couple of houses down from that victim’s home. Although Johnson was the only suspect with a history of committing sexual assaults against women and young girls, local law enforcement investigating both crimes ignored him after they prematurely locked onto Brooks and Brewer as prime suspects. In recent months, the Innocence Project secured DNA testing on evidence from the Brewer case which matched Johnson’s DNA profile.

Just as it had in Brewer’s case, the Innocence Project feared that local conflicts and regional concerns could compromise Brooks’ quest for justice. Neufeld appealed to the Attorney General to intervene and take over the arrest, interview and prosecution of Johnson. The Attorney General assigned its elite Integrity Unit to work on the continuing investigation of the case. Once Brewer and Brooks are fully cleared, it will be the first time that a case has ended in exoneration after a state Attorney General has intervened and removed it from a local prosecutor, according to the Innocence Project.

This week, based on the DNA match, the almost identical modus operandi and his proximity to both crimes, investigators from the Attorney General’s office arrested Johnson and questioned him about both cases – and he confessed to both. He also assured the investigators that he acted alone. The confession was recorded. The Innocence Project expects that he will be prosecuted for both crimes.

"If local law enforcement had properly investigated these crimes, they would have stayed focused on Albert Johnson from the beginning. In fact, if Albert Johnson had been apprehended for the first crime, the second one would never have happened – and the three-year-old victim would be approaching her 18th birthday," said Innocence Project Staff Attorney Vanessa Potkin.

The forensic analysis and testimony in both trials was deeply flawed and further illustrates the corruption that led to the two wrongful convictions, the Innocence Project said. Dr. Michael West, a Mississippi dentist who has testified for the prosecution in cases in nine states, claimed that cuts on the victims’ bodies were human bite marks caused by only the two top teeth; in each case, he testified with certainty that Brewer and Brooks were the sources of the alleged bite marks. By the time of Brewer’s trial, West had already been widely discredited; he was the first member ever suspended by the American Board of Forensic Odontology. Regardless, prosecutors continued to use West as an expert for years and courts allowed his testimony.

West has routinely collaborated with Steven Hayne, a medical examiner for hire who conducts nearly every autopsy for prosecutors in Mississippi – even though he flunked his board certification. He nets nearly $1 million a year from conducting autopsies across the state, and West helped set up the system that allows Hayne to handle so many autopsies (each year, Haynes conducts six times more autopsies than the recommended standard). Hayne conducted the autopsies on the victims in the Brewer and Brooks cases – and called West in for both autopsies. At Brewer’s trial, full video footage of the victim’s autopsy was deemed inadmissible in court because it was so offensive and inappropriate; throughout the autopsy of the raped and murdered three-year-old girl, Haynes listened to loud music, so the trial judge ruled that the sound from the video could not be played in court. West held the video camera during that autopsy.


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