Three of the prisoners with whom I do volunteer work were very young men on death row in the 1970s. When SCOTUS suspended the death penalty, Oregon commuted their sentences to Natural Life. Although they will never be released from prison themselves, they have dedicated their lives to helping other prisoners learn to avoid the mistakes they have made and become law-abiding citizens. I have known all three for years, and they are a huge factor in my opposition to the death penalty in all situations, with only one possible exception. On the other hand, four horrid Republicans help make theirs the Party of Death.
One kept a paperweight model of an electric chair on his desk. Another boasted about being named the “deadliest prosecutor in America” by the Guinness Book of World Records and mocked defendants with intellectual disabilities. A third was dragged from the courtroom when jurors who acquitted six defendants he had charged with shooting police officers said he approached them and reached for his gun.
These five people are members of a very small club: The death sentences they have obtained are equal to 15 percent of the current national death row population.
Even as most states have moved away from capital punishment, the practice continues to be used in a tiny fraction of counties, and under the leadership of specific prosecutors, according to a new report by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard Law School.
The prosecutors are Joe Freeman Britt in North Carolina, Robert Macy in Oklahoma, Donnie Myers in South Carolina, Lynne Abraham [DINO] in Philadelphia and Johnny Holmes in Texas. Of these five, only Mr. Myers remains in office. But during their tenures, each either secured dozens of death sentences personally or led offices that won hundreds. And each, in his or her way, embodies the vindictive, idiosyncratic nature of state-sanctioned killing.
The five prosecutors also share a disturbing tendency to break the rules to win. Mr. Macy — the one who pulled a gun on the jury — won 54 death sentences during two decades as Oklahoma County’s district attorney. But courts overturned almost half of them, and they found him guilty of misconduct in one-third of them. Three people he sent to death row were later exonerated…[emphasis added]
From <NY Times>
Oregon still has the death penalty, but they actively seek death warrants only when prisoners request execution. Even that is too much, but it’s far better than Republican dominated states’ practices.
I can see only one possible circumstance in which the death penalty might be warranted. The US system of injustice is already heavily stacked against criminal defendants. If a prosecutor obtains a conviction through criminal means, and the defendant subsequently is proven innocent, that prosecutor should receive the same sentence the innocent defendant endured. If the state has already murdered the innocent defendant, should the prosecutor be killed also? At least the prosecutor could serve Natural Life. What do you think?
20 Responses to “Four Horrid Republicans and One DINO”
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OK, you big old tease, spill the beans … we're on tenterhooks here.
You toyed with us TWICE by mentioning your "one possible exception". So what is it???
I did say it. It's executing the prosecutor who gets a conviction through criminal means that results in the execution of an innocent defendant.
Well, I guess you did. Sorry.
(But you kinda buried the lede)
What about Republicans who lie and cheat their way . . . who inflict severe damage on the people they are supposed to represent, not the ones that bribe them?
Natural Life.
Colorado still has the death penalty also. We have 54 counties, but are courts are divided onto 22 judicial districts. I thought I had read that one of those districts had more inmates on Death Row than the reast of the state put together, and that they were mostly of color, but I cannot find that anywhere, and I have been looking at solid references, so it must be wrong. We have only executed one since our death penalty, which had been abolished, was reinstated, and that was Gary Davis.
I agree with your creative karma solution myself, but I'll bet you would get a lot of pushback on it from Republicans. They would complain it would remove the incentive to get convictions. In reality, it would – or should – only remove the incentive to get FALSE convictions.
Amen! to removing the incentive to get false convictons!!!
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas. In 1982, the state became the first jurisdiction in the world to carry out an execution by lethal injection, when it put to death Charles Brooks, Jr.. It was the first execution in the state since 1964.
Texas, which is the second most populous state of the Union, executed 531 offenders from the U.S. capital punishment resumption in 1976 to January 1, 2016, more than a third of the national total.*wiki
Its time to oppose the death penalty, once and for all.
CA's prison population and death row are geographically skewed–some counties are still in mega tough on crime mode resisting what the drug courts mandated via proposition, etc. could do. Although last time around we narrowly missed ending the death penalty, it will again be on our Nov. ballot and I hope the issues/challenges emerging related to lethal injection (getting the drugs, etc.) are a portion of the updated analysis voters get. Saw that AZ had run out of their drugs and some were speculating that would lead to its end for them.
Three people have been executed inKentucky since 1976, the most recent was in 2008. This is three too many. Capital punishment should be banned every where. The guys you know who have spent their lives helping other prisoners are excellent examples of why it should be. Many innocents have been executed due to prosecutors like the ones you listed.
As for your question, if a prosecutor obtains a conviction through criminal means he should be prosecuted and sentenced, but not killed, since this is what we are trying to stop,– murder by government.
Excellent comment Edie–we should lead by example indeed.
Okay, I'll second Judi's comment.
Thanks!
Thanks,
Can't argue with your logic, Edie. Pretty spot on analysis.
Thanks, Nameless, it seemed obvious to me.
I do not believe in the death penalty, and never have. In Canada, as I have stated before, the last execution was in December 1962 in Toronto. From Wiki, the death penalty in Canada dated "… back to 1759, in its days as a British colony. Before Canada eliminated the death penalty for murder on July 14, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed." In 207 years, we executed 710 felons, approximately 3.5 persons per year. Steven Tru He wasscott was sentenced to death but the law changed fortunately. He served some time but was finally acquitted of murder in 2007 by avi Court of Appeals. He won $6.5 million in compensation from the Ontario government. David Milgaard is another that would have been executed had Canada still have capital punishment. He w as convicted of rape and murder, served 23 years only to be fully exonerated by DNA testing. He too received a large settlement. The death penalty would have been a gross miscarriage of justice for these 2 men. How many more are innocent and guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Sorry, TomCat, I'm not playing the game, no matter how innocent it is as a way to get a discussion going. I oppose the death penalty for ALL, no " vindictive, idiosyncratic [ ] state-sanctioned killing" for anyone no matter how guilty they are and no matter what they have done, not even for the five sadistic, sociopathic prosecutors mentioned in the article, no matter how Republican they are.
Thanks friends!! Hugs!!
As tempting as it is to execute corrupt prosecutors who cause the deaths of innocent defendants, I would give them Natural Life. However, I do think they should do the same time at the same prisons that was served by innocent defendants.
I "like" the idea of giving the prosecutors what they gave, but will agree that there should be no state sanctioned death penalty. On the other hand, if we could disinter Richard Nixon, whose pettiness got the "War on drugs" started, could I push the switch to incinerate his remains?