From Newsday.com (well, it's an AP article, but close enough), Who Will Punish Them?
Jurisdictions jockey for right to prosecute sniper suspectsOfficials continued to debate which jurisdiction would get first crack at sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17. They were to be charged today in Virginia, where three of the killings took place. The suspects already face multiple murder charges in Maryland and murder charges in Alabama unrelated to the sniper shootings. They also could be charged with federal extortion and murder counts that could bring the death penalty.
"Wherever the case is strongest, with the stiffest penalties, that's where they need to go," said Douglas Duncan, the top elected official in Montgomery County, where the rampage began Oct. 2 and where six people were slain.
[. . .] Maryland "comes in dead last" in terms of the strength of its law on the death penalty, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Virginia and Alabama may be more likely than Maryland to carry out executions. Maryland has put just three people to death, and all executions have been suspended under a moratorium imposed by Gov. Parris Glendening.
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said his state would be best positioned to prosecute because it can more easily apply the death penalty.
"You know, we have the death penalty for both parties," he said. "We can try this juvenile as an adult and subject him to the death penalty, and we can move quickly."
Emphasis added here and there.
You have to appreciate the undisguised bloodthirst.
Well, maybe appreciate isn't the right word.
No mention of why Maryland has a moratorium.
The state of Maryland declared a temporary death penalty moratorium on Thursday, citing "reasonable questions" about the integrity of capital punishment in the state and across the United States.[. . .] Glendening, who supports the death penalty for especially heinous crimes, had been under pressure to halt executions until he receives a study that is due to be completed in September by a researcher at the University of Maryland.
[Gov. Parris] Glendening said he would not lift the moratorium until the study is completed and reviewed by the state legislature, which he estimated would be in about a year.
"I continue to believe that there are certain crimes that are so brutal and so vile that they call for society to impose the ultimate punishment," Glendening, a Democrat, said in issuing a stay of execution for convicted killer Wesley Eugene Baker, who was due to die by lethal injection next week.
"However, reasonable questions have been raised in Maryland and across the country about the application of the death penalty," the governor added.
Probably because it would merely confuse the issue.
Showing enthusiasm for executing a juvenile probably ain't winning us points in the U.N., either. At least, not with the folks we're supposed to be building a coalition with. Luckily, we don't give a fuck what the rest of the world thinks of our internal affairs.
We can meddle in theirs all we want, though. Convenient, no?
Well, at least the states are close enough together that surviving family members can just drive to the execution(s), instead of having to just watch it on closed-circuit, like the Oklahoma City people did with McVeigh. Something else that helped win friends and influence people worldwide. . .
Aaron, I know this is probably completely inappropriate considering the subject matter, but...I totally love you, man. You are so fucking right ON.
I'd trackback, but I have nothing at all to add to this.
i don't like capital punishment, particularly when the term refers to death being meted out by a bureaucracy as beleaguered as most governmental/ law enforcement agencies are... and i don't like war either for the same reason, that we always seem to be hitting the wrong targets... but i don't know how to resolve the feelings of anger i have toward this guy who (may have) shot all those people, and his (alleged) accomplice.
then i think about how manipulated my emotions are due to our american way of "trial by TV", and i get even madder. i can't find any solid ground to stand on in this thing, it just makes me sick. i think we live in a gun-nut culture. there's something in america that inspires desperate crazy people to solve their problems by getting a gun and opening up on whoever's handy (people need to start listening to more punk rock!). i keep waiting for the n.r.a. to come around eventually and say "if only those people had guns of their own, they could've shot back..."
Kill 'em all.
Sorry. Just play-acting again.
I would contribute but I don't want to appear to be a sympathizer to terrorists or murderers or crazy cuckoos or whatever by suggesting that life, all life, has value or anything.
Putting my rose-colored glasses back on.
And, on the bang-bang-you're-dead tip, we've got today's bumper crop:
Three dead in a shooting at U. of Arizona
2 killed, 8 injured in Oklahoma shooting spree
Sheesh.
The evening news had clips from the Virginia guy. I just *howled*, I was so furious.
Unbelievable. Let's try them here, 'cuz we can kill the kid! Yay!
I keep saying I've got to get out of this country. One more straw just landed on the camel's back.
ahh, the lynch mob mentality. *shakes head*
great post.
I *am* horrified by the bloodlust, but this guy DID (allegedly) kill, what - 11 people?
Consider this: can you imagine the furor if this guy was an Arab?
There's not a lot of good at all about this case. I'm just babbling . . .
Great to meet you yesterday, Aaron, and WELCOME TO CHICAGO!
Erika
call me crazy, but i say good for virginia for wanting to try him as an adult and execute him. you wouldn't be crying over how "gun-happy" america is if that psychopath killed your mother/father/brother/sister/best friend/aunt/uncle. u name it. just because it didnt hit close to home, u think they are blood thirsty for wanting to put him to death. you are entitled to your opinion, but maybe you should put yourself in somebody else's shoes before you go shooting your mouth off and badmouthing good-honest people who are trying to rid this world of the sickest assholes out there.
If you are opposed to killing other people you are opposed to killing other people. It doesn't matter who does the killing or what they did to 'deserve' it.
Erika, nice meeting you too. Normally I'm capable of stringing words together into sentences, but it had been a long day. Several days. And I'm still having trouble with that stringing thing, obviously. Which is why I'm Not Thinking about what would have happened if the sniper had been an Arab.
Greg, what Michelle said. And thank you for telling me I'm entitled to my own opinion, on my own site. That's very thoughtful of you.
"You," by the bye, has three letters in it.
Michelle: You probably won't understand this, as I have a bad habit of making annalogies that people can't understand, but it goes like this. I like vanilla ice cream, but I don't like vanilla ice cream with hot sauce on it. Point being, executing someone for having (allegedly) murdering 11 people is completely different than (allegedly) murdering 11 people. Anyone who argues otherwise is not entitled to their own opinion, though I would gladly humor that conversation any day -- provided I'm drunk off my ass.
Aaron: I'm sorry you don't value other people's opinions, as you have taken the low road by insulting my grammar. As far as allowing you to have an opinion on your own webpage, I'm glad you feel better knowing you have my consent. And as far as my grammar is concerned, get over it and give me a fucking break. If you don't like other people's opinions, remove the comments box option and u won't have to hear about them. Good day.
Greg, you might find it easier to give yourself "a fucking break" by not dropping by. A casual perusal of the site would reveal I generally appreciate comments, but prefer they be written in standard English. Elitist, I know, but I'm entitled to my little quirks, no?
And by give me a fucking break, I mean remove the stick from your obviously incredibly sore ass.
You know what I like? I like "A Scenario of Legal Sniping," that's what I like. Yup.
*looks down at ground, kicks imaginary stone*
Screw the UN, kill 'em. Line the two up and let surviving family members take a whack at them with a meat cleaver.
Oh wait, they both can be rehabilitated into upstanding citizens... just like the people they killed can be raised from the dead.
Greg, taking a living, thinking being, and either shooting him in cold blood from the trunk of a car, or shooting him up with a lethal poison in cold blood, are in fact *precisely* the same. Do I think we should let somone who is obviously dangerous roam at large? No. Do I think that his individual death has any relelvance whatever to anyone else's? Nope. If these two die, it does not bring back the other eleven, or even make the rest of us safer. It's sheerly as cold, mean, and calculated as their murderous behavior was. And if 'u' want to sink to that level, have at thee. I personally would like to believe I'm a notch above cold-blooded murder, ethically speaking.
And, byt he way, that's said with no disrespect whatever to those who lost a loved one. Indeed, it comes from a serious consideraton of what it means to take ANY life -- including eleven innocent people going about their daily business.
I would mention that there's an issue of Ultimate X-Men in which Marvel Girl tries to prevent her compatriots from committing murder against their captors who forced them to kill and do other horrible things while performing experiments on them.
Most of the X-Men can't understand why she is stopping them...they can't see that to become murderers themselves will make them no better than those who sought to take their lives from them.
I would mention that but it's a comic book and, you know, there's nothing poignant, relevant or worldly about comic books.
Jason, remember that one time when Faith was in Buffy's body, and a bunch of vamps were going to kill hostages in a church. . .
I mean, geek.
I just think, when it comes to punishing someone for a so-called brutal and calculating crime by inflicting the death penalty, what does that really solve? Nothing. We get rid of the problem, so we don't have to deal with it. What about the reason why people commit these crimes in the first place? It is my opinion that if anyone wants to understand and/or fix some of the problems with crime, we should put money into asking why instead of creating harsher sentences, more jails, more police, etc....really, what does that say? By creating more jails, this suggests that crime is out of control, when really, it is the LAWS that are out of control. Does someone who was caught selling pot really deserve to spend life in prison? Are they really a danger to society? What is the point in that? And let's not forget that most of the people in prisons are the poor and marginalized in society. Not the middle classed CEO's that are poluting the environment.
sorry for the long rant, just had to get it out
You call that a rant? With no profanity and an explicit statement that it's your opinion, and not God's Own Truth?
Honestly. You're as bad as Ginger.
golly willickers! those gosh-darned snipers, why...they're worse than hitler!!!