An admitted white supremacist was condemned to death Tuesday for massacring nine black worshipers who'd invited him to study the Bible with them at a Charleston, S.C., church, ending a two-phase federal trial that exposed the killer's hate-fueled motives and plumbed the chasms of grief left by the victims' deaths.
The jury, the same that convicted Dylann Roof in the murders last month, announced its verdict after deliberating less than three hours.
Roof, 22, who represented himself in the penalty phase, did very little to persuade the panel to spare his life. He declined to present any witnesses or evidence, blocked standby defense lawyers' attempts to raise questions about his mental health, and suggested in his closing statement that arguing for life in prison wasn't worth the effort.
I am not typically a supporter of the death penalty but I have no problem with this outcome.
If anybody ever needs to be convinced that racism is alive and well, and that it is way too easy to get guns in this country, they need look no further than this case right here.
I hope justice will be served swiftly. The longer he remains on earth, the more the victims family members suffer. Get it over with. He knew exactly what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteAnd he has no remorse.
DeletePlease focus on how we can piss Trump off and make him explode rather than this creep who is no present threat.
ReplyDeleteHis ideas and what he did are a threat to ALL of us.
DeleteHe left many, many innocent people grieving for their loved ones. He should be put to death SOON, let their healing begin. Why should his life be spared, after killing all the people who tried to befriend him?
DeleteI'm torn about this one. I do support the death penalty, especially in cases like this one where there is no doubt of guilt. But the church where this a**hole committed this disgusting crime? They don't believe in the death penalty. I also believe that this is exactly what this little pissant of a boy wants.....death row will make him a martyr to the "cause". Instead of disappearing into the prison system with a life sentence, he will become a cause celeb (sp?) for all the other idiots out there who think killing people because of the color of their skin is perfectly okay.
ReplyDeleteI am a firm believer in thwarting evil plots and plans and this little pisher does not deserve the infamy he will receive from the death penalty. He deserves to serve life without parole - in solitary confinement for his own protection the poor lamb - until some timely accident comes his way.....and, while a member of the church of the open mind.....I sincerely hope there is a bunch of hell fire in his afterlife.
In prison, he could live as long as Charles Manson, on taxpayer money. Good healthcare, three meals a day, no worries about paying bills. He should lose his life FAST, just as he ended all those lives he took without a second thought.
Delete@7:43 Life in prison actually costs the taxpayers less than a death penalty.
DeleteThe appeals post-sentencing go on and we pay for that. The actual execution is EXPENSIVE. I have a sister in law who's a lawyer, she told me to look it up when I doubted her on this.
No, life in prison with no chance of parole and No Contact with the outside world is perfect for the little bigoted murderer.
We don't punish rapists with rape, do we?
I am in favor of the death penalty in some circumstances. Particularly when there is NO question that the person committed the crime. But sometimes when people say "abortion is murder and I don't want my tax payers paying for abortion" I respond with "I think the death penalty is murder and I don't want my tax dollars paying for that" I usually get told that I am am idiot but nobody attempts to make any arguments beyond that. Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteOh, and speaking of death, our Republican congress just voted for removing the "pre-existing" clause of Obamacare.
ReplyDeleteSo now millions of people will have no health insurance, and thousands will die in agony and misery and suffering.
How very Christian of these privileged bastards
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/this-is-a-death-sentence-for-me-patients-react-in-horror-to-gops-late-night-obamacare-repeal/comments/#disqus
And the cowards snuck in late at night to do it !!!!!
DeleteMidterm elections aren't that far off, let's make them pay !!!
What do they care, they do not have to rely on the ACA. The lobbyists will pay well for these changes. I wonder how many of THEIR constituents will lose their ACA insurance because of their greed?
DeleteThere's a 1959 movie called "Compulsion" in which Orson Welles stars as Clarence Darrow defending Loeb and Leopold. it's a pretty damn good movie.
ReplyDeleteThe speech given as the closing argument sums it up for me( you can google it, or watch on Netflix).
How is it civilized to state-sanction murder for a convicted murderer?
It's only human to want utter revenge about something like this. But to return murder with murder? have we not evolved beyond the code of Hammurabi yet?
I like the concept of the oubliette. Perfect for murderous assholes looking for either prison glory or martyrdom, like little Dylan Roof.
Death gets the hell of life in prison over with much too quickly. And it gives the Klan a martyr.
As others have pointed out, an execution actually costs taxpayers more money than imprisoning an offender for life. In that respect, I am opposed to its general usage.
DeleteHowever, sometimes a clear message needs to be sent that, as a society, we will not tolerate a certain kind of behavior - it offends us to the core.
Mixed feelings on this. On one side he wants to be the poster boy of sacrifice for "the cause". On the other, he is young and I think 30-50 years in general population would be more fitting.
ReplyDeleteWatch all of the Nazi's now scream for the ACLU to do something to save this piece of excrement.
ReplyDeleteBecause the death penalty is only for liberals, immigrants, non-Xians and people darker than white.
How dare anyone kill a white person for killing anyone, let alone black people.
Yeah, I'm just waiting for the Deplorables to jump on this one.
Just like Timothy McVeigh. He went out claiming unrepentant victory, saying the government could only take his life, and he 'beat them 168 to 1.'
ReplyDeleteWith Trump setting the tone, many more people with as little empathy are sure to become equally famous too.
I agree with those that worry that this guy will become a martyr after his execution.
ReplyDeleteI would rather see him rot in jail repeatedly listening to James Brown "I'm Black and I'm Proud" interspersed with Disco hits loudly piped into his cell 24 hrs a day and being fed only a diet of what he perceives to be racially unacceptable food.
I'm surprised he didn't end up on trump's short list for Secretary of Health and Human Services.