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Marathon bomber one of three federal inmates with death sentences who didn't get a presidential reprieve
By adamg on Mon, 12/23/2024 - 9:44am
President Biden has commuted the death sentences to life in prison for 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.
He believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.
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Comments
The timing is Terrible
Especially the day after a maniac torches a poor woman who was sleeping on a subway train and her painful murder was captured on video. The suspect was apprehended thanks to high school students who recognized him from the police bodycams photos. Another reason all police officers should be mandated to wear bodycams..
Kill the death penalty
The death penalty serves no purpose. It doesn't stop crimes from being committed, doesn't bring closure to victims, is a huge time and money sink, and sometimes kills innocent people.
The marathon bomber will be punished by being forced to spend almost his entire life in a tiny room forced to think about how he accomplished nothing. That's punishment enough.
Biden's exemption of the three people from his pardon undermines the rationale for other 37 people. But I guess I shouldn't expect much logical consistency from Biden when it comes to pardons.
The marathon bomber
wants to stay alive. Tsarnaev does not want to be executed. That's why he's appealing his sentence.
And who are you to say his execution won't "bring closure to victims". Some of his victims are dead.
Killing him won't bring back his dead victims
Nor will it heal any injuries. So what will it accomplish?
"Who are you to..."
Get off it, noble paladin. You're throwing your voice into the mouths of victims.
You're using those victims to your own ends. Classy A F.
Death penalty purposes
I'll begin this with saying I'm neither for nor against the death penalty, but it does serve a purpose. First, it brings closure to victims and the families of victims. Secondly, I'm not sure what the exact figure is the days, but I think it's around $40,000 a year for each prisoner in the system. That's quite a bit of tax dollars, I'd imagine it's probably a little more in those ultra max prisons such as the one in Colorado that houses these federal death row inmates. I can think of quite a few things our tax dollars would be better spent on. Sometimes people just can't be rehabilitated.
These arguments are often used against the death penalty
Litigation makes capital punishment extremely expensive - to the point housing them in perpetuity is often far cheaper.
This litigation process reopens and refreshes the case until it reaches its conclusion. So the victims get to be made aware of it again and again.
Not arguing for or against, just noting that these arguments feel a bit weak as "pro capital punishment".
"Closure" is not a great argument for the death penalty
Many families of victims have argued vociferously against the death penalty, like the Richard family did in the Tsarnaev case:
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-trial/boston-bombing-vi...
Don't their feelings also account for something?
Jeffrey Curley's dad's turnaround
When it comes to the families of victims being for or against the death penalty the father of Jeffrey Curley is a great case study. He was part of the movement that came within a whisker of bringing it back to Massachusetts, but has had a complete 180 in his opinion since those days.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2009/06/23/the-ride
I remember reading about Jeffrey Curley's father about-face.
I remember reading and hearing about the late Jeffrey Curley's father's about face regarding bringing back the death penalty to the Bay State. He'd waged a long, bitter campaign to bring the death penalty back to the Bay State, after his 10 year old son, Jeffrey, was abducted, gagged, driven up north to the MA/NH border, and brutally murdered by two men in their early 20's.
Jeffrey Curley's father waged a long & bitter campaign to bring the death penalty to the Bay State in the form of the electric chair, and the death penalty came one vote shy of being brought back to the Bay State, especially after the father of the late Jeffrey Curley made an about-face, and waged a campaign against the death penalty, and the Bay State came one vote shy of reviving the death penalty here in Massachusetts.
Not only did Jeffrey Curley's father wage a campaign against bringing the death penalty back to the Bay State, but he actually wrote to several out-of-state governors requesting them to spare death-row inmates in their states, as well. That, too, worked, I think.
"Closure"
"First, it brings closure to victims and the families of victims. "
Can we please get rid of this ridiculous concept of "closure" once and for all? It has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. Whether applied to the death penalty or to anything else, there is no such thing. A person's feelings do not instantaneously change or heal like the flipping of a light switch. There is certainly a concept of "resolution". Things can be resolved, but this is not in any way the same as the false concept of "closure".
C'mon Man
If you agree the death penalty is wrong what Biden did here is a net positive. He's an imperfect politician, like most of them, but this is more than any president has done in 50 years to limit federal executions.
Thank you Mr President
The right response to Biden's move by opponents of the death penalty is a great big Thank You! Save your disappointment that he didn't do 100% of what you wanted for another day.,This is a great piece of news.
Peace.
“ Biden's exemption of the
“ Biden's exemption of the three people from his pardon undermines the rationale for other 37 people. But I guess I shouldn't expect much logical consistency from Biden when it comes to pardons.”
This bears repeating. Well said.
FFS
Anyone who voted for trump has no basis from which to expect ANY pol be logical or consistent.
If you voted for Biden over Bernie in the primary
You're garbage, you're a cancer to America, and I have no respect or sympathy for you.
Your "best hope of stopping Trump" (who, BTW, forfeited on his second turn to do just that) is pardoning the worst of our people for bored, sociopathic sport. You know, the reason why Trump does anything.
He didn’t pardon them, he
He didn’t pardon them, he commuted them to life without parole. I thought Bernie was anti death penalty as well, but I could be wrong.
I was referring more
To the Pennsylvania judge whom he pardoned.
I'm actually fine with the government not being in the killing people business.
Well that’s not the pardon
Well that’s not the pardon that the post is about, so it seems like you are backtracking or just flip flopping. This post is about the most recent set of commutations for death penalty prisoners so you saying Biden is doing this for sport and then saying “oh I meant a totally different action” he did is odd.
Weird
First of all, these people weren't "pardoned", second of all how do you decide this was done for "sport"?
But most of all, how can you be a self-described "libertarian" and still support government sponsored murder? Based on statistics, you'll know that several of those commuted were likely innocent anyway.
Because Will is a Massive Hypocrite
He doesn't get the bulk of his money from working, he gets it from state-sponsored murder. He brags about investing stock anywhere the government "drops bombs in the Middle East." When called out, he started sugarcoating the terminology to "defense spending" because it distracts from thinking about those bombs murdering innocent civilians. He even called it "sweet." Profiting off the murders of women and children is sweet? Who is the sociopath here? *
* Will LaTulippe
See my response
To the anon above.
The death penalty serves no purpose to society.
That has been proven again and again. So I no longer support capital punishment.
If I hated someone so much for murdering someone I loved, I’d feel cheated if the murderer got the easy way out with a comfortable death.
I also believe that any desire for revenge that I might have should have no bearing on any sentencing. Nor should anyone else’s. Justice is only true justice when it is impartial. Blind like the statue.
Not revenge.
The death penalty is not revenge. It's fate.
The death penalty also really smacks of hypocrisy.
The death penalty also really smacks of hypocrisy. How can one say that it's against the law to go out and kill somebody, when the state itself does precisely that? It makes no sense whatsoever, and, all too often people are executed for a certain crime, the person who actually committed the crime is found later, and all too often ends up getting off scott-free, if one gets the drift.
Also, the death penalty is often used in a discriminatory manner; against poorer people, and/or non-whites, as well.
Years ago, I read an article in the paper that poignantly argued against the death penalty from a guy down in Texas, which stated the following:
A) Prisoners who've ended up digging the graves and burying executed death-row inmates, or who've attended the death row inmates memorial/funerals end up acting even worse than they normally would, because it upset them so much.
B) Religious leaders (albeit ministers and priests and other religious leaders) who've presided over executed death-row inmates' funerals/memorials have become so profoundly depressed afterwards that they've felt compelled to quit the religious life altogether and leave their calling.
C) The chances are that if a criminal is that hardened, s/he will not stop to weigh the consequences of his/her actions and behaviors.
D) In countries where the death penalty is used, life is cheapened and coarsened a great deal, as well.
E) Also, many people who thought that they'd get some closure after somebody close to them was brutally murdered, and the victim's murderer was executed, discovered that they did not get any closure, at all.
I agree with most of your points.
They are why I reconsidered and am now anti the death penalty.
I do believe that the psychological harm done to ministers and priests is wrong as well as that done to other prisoners. But if it leads them to give up religion, I see good in that. Religions are how many people justify killing.
I don’t think it’s hypocritical for the state to kill. We kill in wars, though many are unethical and I believe suicide and assisted suicide are rights that should be guaranteed by the state. I just no longer trust the state to effectively sort out the truly guilty from the innocent, those who could be rehabilitated from those who can’t or those for whom death over lifelong imprisonment would be a mercy.
only in some cases
I don't think it's a deterrent; people are going to do what they're going to do. My feeling has always been that the death penalty should be for serial killers and serial rapists. They don't show signs of remorse. These people are not going to be rehabilitated, and the possibility, however low, of them being released would only cause the pattern to start again.
Yes, it’s a very weak deterrent, if at all.
Not worth the consequences of possibly executing the wrong person.
I don’t care about lack of show of remorse, though it can be an indicator of possible future recidivism.
But if someone has killed more than once and is beyond all shadow of a doubt likely to do so again, I could possibly see being in favor of putting them down as we do to dangerous animals. Hell, we do it to perfectly fine or rehabilitatable but unwanted animals.
Vicious rape and torture are also something I might consider grounds for making a person best disposed of.
But for now I remain against capital punishment. Better to be safe than sorry.
A shadow Presidency has been running the oval office
And the Pardons and commutations prove it
Also if "he" is against the death penalty why not commute all of them? Killing a 12yr old girl and bombing parade are just as despicable
Shadow presidency?
Like your boy Elmo already trying to dictate what congress does?
Sure. Any evidence or just projection?
Yes. A stronger affirmation
Yes. A stronger affirmation of the death penalty I have not seen. The President just provided the most salient, affirmative case for the death penalty by keeping these three on it while doubling-down on the cynical (and hateful to the victimized families) pandering that got us our hats handed to us in November.
Curious
Why did you put "he" in quotes, boy?