Death Penalty: For or Against

[Kimmie]

Summary of Offense:

On December 20, 2002, Cole was playing video games. He was interrupted by the crying of his nine-month-old ******* Brianna. He went to her crib and bent her legs backward and then flipped her over. This broke her spine and ruptured her aorta. He went back to playing video games, but eventually checked on Brianna, found her unresponsive, and called for emergency assistance. Cole had a conviction for abusing his ******* ******* in California in 1987.

Cole has been on death row since December 28, 2004.

 

[Kimmie]

Mass murderer Ballard gets Oct. 19 execution date

Lehigh Valley mass murderer Michael Eric Ballard is now scheduled to be put to death in less than two months, setting the stage for Gov. Tom Wolf to issue a delay amid a governor-declared moratorium on executions in the state.

On Wednesday, Corrections Secretary John Wetzel slated Oct. 19 for Ballard's execution for brutally murdering four people inside a Northampton home in 2010 while on parole for a prior killing. Wetzel did so under a state law that requires him to set an execution date if the governor fails to act within 30 days.

In July, Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano lifted a stay of execution that had been in place for eight months, after Ballard allowed his rights to further appeals to elapse without action.

Wolf spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan confirmed Wednesday that the governor intends to issue reprieves "in each future instance where an execution is imminent," though Sheridan did not offer a timeline for doing so in Ballard's case.

In imposing the moratorium in February, Wolf called the death penalty "error prone, expensive and anything but infallible," but said his decision was not an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row. Wolf intends to halt executions until a Senate task ******* studying capital punishment releases its recommendations and they are "satisfactorily addressed," his office said.

By Ballard's own account, he savagely knifed to death his former girlfriend, Denise Merhi, 39; her *******, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh Jr., 87; and Steven Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor who heard screams and tried to help.

At the time of the June 26, 2010, massacre, Ballard had recently been released from prison, where he served 17 years for murdering an Allentown man nearly two decades earlier. The state Supreme Court upheld Ballard's death sentence in 2013, citing overwhelming evidence in support of it.

That the 42-year-old Ballard allowed his appellate rights to expire was no surprise. He'd instructed his public defenders not to file any more appeals on his behalf, and he called them pointless in a death-row interview last year with The Morning Call.

But Ballard later decided to join two lawsuits challenging the state's lethal injection method, telling the newspaper that he had no faith that Pennsylvania could competently carry out an execution. One of those suits, filed in Commonwealth Court, is unresolved, though Giordano concluded it wasn't a basis for continuing to delay Ballard's sentence.

Wolf has already issued reprieves to three inmates facing the death chamber. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli has argued that Wolf is overstepping his authority, an issue that is before the state Supreme Court under a legal challenge by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/m...826-story.html

 

[Kimmie]

Gustavo Julian Garcia - Texas Execution - February 16, 2016

Gustavo Julian Garcia


Summary of Offense:

Gustavo Garcia was convicted in the shotgun slaying of Craig Turski, 43, during the robbery of a beverage store. Turski, a store clerk, was shot in the head and right side. Garcia was arrested following a second robbery at a Texaco station. Police found Garcia hiding in the beer cooler and his co-defendant, Christopher Vargas, standing over the station attendant after he had been shot once in the back of the head.

Garcia was sentenced to death in Collin County in January 1992.​

 

[Kimmie]

Raphael Deon Holiday - Texas Execution - November 18, 2015

Summary of Offense:

On September 6, 2000, in Madison County, Holiday murdered his stepdaughters, ages seven and five, and his one-year-old natural *******, by burning their home.​

 

[Kimmie]

Kimber Edwards - Missouri Execution - October 6, 2015

Kimber-Edwards.jpg


Summary of Offense:

In 1990, Kimber Edwards and Kimberly Cantrell divorced. Cantrell received primary physical custody of their *******, Erica, and Edwards was ordered to pay baby support. In 1995, his baby support obligation was raised to $351 per month. In March 2000, Edwards was charged with failing to pay any of his baby support obligation for one year. He pleaded not guilty, and his case was set for a court appearance on August 25, 2000. Erica stayed with her *******, his wife and their two children for three weeks prior to August 22, 2000, at their St. Louis city home.

When Erica did not hear from her mom by August 23, and Cantrell did not arrive to pick Erica up, Erica called her aunt. The aunt went to Cantrell's home and found her dead, shot twice in the head at close range. Cantrell's 12-year-old neighbor told police he heard shots and a woman's scream early in the evening of August 22, and his older brother had seen a black man with a black backpack banging on Cantrell's door that afternoon.

Ortell Wilson, a tenant in one of Edwards' rental properties who matched the boy's description ultimately was arrested for and convicted of murdering Cantrell. Wilson implicated Edwards in the *******, and Edwards was arrested August 27, 2000. Edwards waived his Miranda rights and told police he had hired someone named "Michael" to ******* Cantrell for $1,600 and that Edwards had helped in the *******.The jury found Edwards guilty of first-degree *******, found the existence of one statutory aggravating circumstance and recommended the death penalty. The court sentenced Edwards to death, and he appeals.​

 

[Kimmie]

Gilmar Alexander Guevara - Texas Execution - November 10, 2015

Gilmar Alexander Guevara


Summary of Offense:

On June 2, 2000, in Houston, Guevara and two co-defendants attempted to rob a market. A struggle ensued between Guevara and the two store employees. Guevara shot and killed both employees, a 48-year-old South Korean man, Tae Youk, and a 21-year-old Guatemalan man, Gerardo Yaxon.

Guevara was sentenced to death in Harris County in June 2001.​

 

[Kimmie]

Richard Allen Masterson - Texas Execution - January 20, 2016

Facts of the Crime:

On February 9, 2001, in Houston, Masterson choked Darin Shane Honeycutt to death. Masterson also took Honeycutt's vehicle after the *******.

Masterson was sentenced to death in Harris County on May 15, 2002.​

 

[Kimmie]

John Marion Grant - Oklahoma Execution - October 28, 2015

Gay Carter

Summary of Offense:

He was convicted in 2000 of stabbing to death prison cafeteria worker Gay Carter in 1998 at the Dick Conner Correctional Facility near Hominy. Grant had been in prison since 1980, serving various felony sentences from Oklahoma and Cleveland counties.

Grant has been on death row since May 9, 2000.​

 

[Kimmie]

Christopher Chubasco Wilkins - Texas Execution - October 28, 2015

Summary of Offense:

A jury convicted Wilkins of capital ******* for fatally shooting Willie Freeman and Mike Silva on October 27, 2005. A day earlier, according to prosecutors and to Wilkins himself, he killed Gilbert Vallejo outside a south-side bar during a dispute about the pay phone. "I make bad decisions," Wilkins explained. "I know they are bad decisions. I make them anyway."

Wilkins told the jury that he disapproved of many things that occurred during his trial. First, he said, he wanted to plead guilty to everything and just go straight to the penalty phase, but his attorneys, Wes Ball and J. Warren St. John, wanted to "bill up a whole bunch of hours," he joked. Second, he said, he did not want his family to testify on his behalf -- something that his attorneys arranged because they wanted the jury to hear what Wilkins was like when he was a baby and young man.

Wilkins was sentenced to death in Tarrant County on March 12, 2008.​

 

[Kimmie]

Police Officer Chris James

Summary of Offense:

On November 25, 2001, in Dallas, Escamilla got into a fight in the parking lot of a nightclub. When Dallas City police officers arrived to stop the fight, Escamilla shot a police officer, Chris James, twice. The officer died en-route to the hospital.

 

[Kimmie]

Timothy Hoffner - Ohio Execution - May 29, 2019

Timothy Hoffner


Facts of the Crime:

On September 22, 1993, Hoffner and his accomplice, Archie Dixon, murdered their roommate, 22-year-old Christopher Hammer in a park in Toledo. Hoffner and Dixon planned to ******* Mr. Hammer to assume his identity and collect the anticipated insurance proceeds that Mr. Hammer would receive from an automobile accident. Hoffner and Dixon repeatedly beat Mr. Hammer, tied him up, took him into the woods and buried him alive. Hoffner and Dixon stole $11 in cash from Mr. Hammer's wallet, his driver's license, his Social Security card, his birth certificate and his car. Hoffner and Dixon confessed to police, and Hoffner showed police where they buried Mr. Hammer alive. Dixon also received a death sentence.

For more on Dixon, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...Ohio-Death-Row​

 

[Kimmie]

Summary of Offense:

On September 22, 1993, Dixon and his accomplice, Timothy Hoffner, murdered their roommate, 22-year-old Christopher Hammer in a park in Toledo. Hoffner and Dixon planned to ******* Mr. Hammer to assume his identity and collect the anticipated insurance proceeds that Mr. Hammer would receive from an automobile accident. Hoffner and Dixon repeatedly beat Mr. Hammer, tied him up, took him into the woods and buried him alive. Hoffner and Dixon stole $11 in cash from Mr. Hammer's wallet, his driver's license, his Social Security card, his birth certificate and his car. Hoffner and Dixon confessed to police, and Hoffner showed police where they buried Mr. Hammer alive. Hoffner also received a death sentence.

For more on Hoffner, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...hlight=hoffner

 

[Kimmie]

James Derrick O'Neal - Ohio Execution - October 10, 2018

James Derrick O'Neal


Facts of the Crime:

On Decemeber 11, 1993, O'Neal murdered his estranged wife, 31-year-old Carol Ann O'Neal, at her home in Cincinnati. Ms. O'Neal had filed for a protection order against O'Neal, who had brutally beaten her before moving out of their home. O'Neal kicked in the front door and chased Ms. O'Neal upstairs. When Ms. O'Neal closed a bedroom door to keep O'Neal out, O'Neal shot through the door, entered the room and shot Ms. O'Neal, who had fallen to the floor. O'Neal confessed to police.​

 

[Kimmie]

David Sneed - Ohio Execution - August 1, 2018

David Sneed


Facts of the Crime:

On November 19, 1984, Sneed and an accomplice, Chevette Brown, murdered 26-year-old Herbert Rowan in Canton. Mr. Rowan agreed to give Sneed and Brown a ride when they approached his car. Sneed pulled a gun and demanded money. When Mr. Rowan refused, Sneed shot him through the temple. Sneed also ordered Brown to shoot Mr. Rowan in the back of the head.​

 

[MacNfries]

....

Kimmie, there are currently over 3,000 individuals on death row, waiting executions, in 36 states ... as adamantly as you obviously feel about the death sentence, I hope it isn't your intention to list all 3,000+ death row inmates with their ******* bio's. I assume you have something to contribute to the forum other than flooding a thead with redundant "overkill".
Could you please make your point(s) and cease & desist with the death row bio's?
.....Mac
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-death-row-year

 

[Kimmie]

Don't worry I don't want to list all death row inmates

 

[MacNfries]

Never miss a chance to get in a dig against the NRA, do you?

So which guns exactly are you talking about? The types of guns that American citizens can own are already limited by statute, as well as what types of guns can be imported

This mass gun killing has taken place since I posted of the 9 yo being killed ... this one happened on Sunday, and 5 people, including another blackchild (under age 10) were killed ... our TV stations say there were "assault weapons" ... but didn't give details, but this story is just developing.

http://www.twcnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2015/09/6/deadly-shootings-in-charlotte.html

So, what is the solution? Does our government allow ALL citizens to become armed to protect themselves from this growing problem; do we go the Texas route? Or, do we say "enough" and start really address the problems causing it?

 

[MikeD]

This mass gun killing has taken place since I posted of the 9 yo being killed ... this one happened on Sunday, and 5 people, including another baby were killed ... our TV stations say use of "assault weapons" ... but weren't detailed.

http://www.twcnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2015/09/6/deadly-shootings-in-charlotte.html

Guns and gun violence are baked into the bread of American society. I barely notice anymore when another mass casualty shooting happens. Always hope the shooter kills himself so we don't have to waste taxpayer money to try and incarcerate them.

 

[MacNfries]

Guns and gun violence are baked into the bread of American society.

That logic may be ok if you don't have young ******* of your own, but the fact is, the NRA has spent more than practically any organization influencing the legislation on guns in Washington. How can we, as a government, seriously address the multi-facet problem of gun violence when there is so much money influencing bad legislation?

I'm a gun owner, but there are lots of things that can be done to cut the gun violence. Charlotte, NC has had 2 difference shootings this week in which young ******* (under 10 years of age) were killed. Our current gun laws are failing our *******. The hammer needs to come down on this crap ... just my opinion.

 

[stud83ch]

Even if there are people who deserve death AND WORSE. I am against it for one simple reason: it cant be undone once the penalty is carried out. Sometimes it turns out that the person sentenced to death was the wrong one. That risk will always exist as long death penalty exist. That, for me, is unacceptable in a modern state and society.