I have to continue to support the belief that the DP deters the cruel, heinous 'murders which in America are in most states occaisonally answered with the death penalty. Anyone who denies that the death penalty deters this type of murder is forced to concede that all murderers and potential murderers of this type-a minority of murderers and potential murderers-are like robots or demonic zombies, who unlike the rest of humanity will not alter their plans when they are revealed as life-threatening, nor be impressed our influenced in any way by the prospect of their own physical death.
Note the enormous increase in serial killer murders in the 60s when death senences in America were reduced radically and the US in 1972 then followed Europe's example of abolishing the DP. I do concede that a minority of murderers, e.g. suicidal rage killers, eligible for the DP in America are not deterred by the DP and for this type of offender LWOP is apparently the greater punishment.
Click the lower link below on my profile for the source of these statistics and article.
thanks for this miss ..its interesting and impressing to check ...
Mo-DAWG[/quote]
I fail to see the reasoning here. First most murders are not done by serial killers. A serial killer is a special breed of killer who is usually motivated by strong factors that make deterrence difficult to say.
But what doesn't the chart show? Well it does not show most murders and it also shows only discovered murders. As technology increases and crime solving has become much more advanced, detection of these crimes have gone up exponentially.
What does it show?
Well the death penalty was in widespread use for most of the time the chart covers. Murders go up by a large factor in the 1970s which is the decade that the Supreme Court began it's micromanagement of capital punishment and turned the process into a legal mess as opposed to a search for justice. Death for murder was mandatory in most cases in most states before the early-mid 1970s.
After the restoration of the death penalty, which occurred at various times, we see a drop in murders on the chart. Once the Supreme Court reversed itself and began affirming death penalty laws, lawyers were able to keep executives to a minimum for many years. It was not until the mid 1980s that appeals in significant number began to run out and the number of executions rose by a large factor, and the rate of murders listed continues to shrink.
This shows LWOP does not have a significantly better deterrent rate. When death was the favored penalty, murders were low, when death fell out of favor with the court we see a huge surge in murders listed.A surge that tapers off as executions increased.
This is really a slam dunk for the death penalty. Washington DC is and has long been the murder capital of the nation, and life sentences there don't seem to be a deterrent.
If life was a deterrent; why is it that the vast majority if death row inmates appeal there sentences and fight to the last day? Yes some do in fact waive their appeals, but 99% do not waive their appeals. Many of the inmates are guilty and make no claim to be innocent, but instead seek a life sentence in a plea for mercy, not a plea for release due to innocence. So in most cases knowing the alternative is a long prison term, most inmates fight for this as opposed to death.
A life sentence is in no way a deterrent from those who commit crimes aside from murder which can lead to a life sentence. In many cases armed robbery or kidnapping itself can lead to a life sentence, if there is no death penalty there is no reason a person would be deterred from committing murder, two or three life sentences don't generally deter more than one or two life terms. Should we lessen the penalty for other crimes to make murder carry a harsher penalty? Should we instead allow criminals to walk free and terrorize the public in order to say there is deterrence in the system?
We know the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader, was very concerned about the death penalty. He confessed to ten murders, all committed before Kansas reenacted the death penalty. I don't know if it's true but there are those who say he most likely comitted other murders he simply omitted because he knew he could face death after a certain time. If Dennis Rader does not want the death penalty, then that is exactly the sentence he should receive.
Now I turn to a case from Virginia to see what a criminal thinks about the death penalty.
If Paul Powell does not want the death penalty, then I think it is the exact sentence he should receive.
See:
www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1031421.pdf January 16, 2004
PAUL WARNER POWELL
v.
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
Record No. 031421
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY
Herman A. Whisenant, Jr., Judge
OPINION BY JUSTICE LAWRENCE L. KOONTZ, JR.
In this appeal, we review the capital murder conviction and sentence of death imposed upon Paul Warner Powell for the murder of Stacey Lynn Reed in the commission of, or subsequent to, attempted rape. Code § 18.2-31(5).
Powell was originally convicted of the capital murder of Stacey Lynn Reed in 2000 and sentenced to death. See Powell v. Commonwealth, 261 Va. 512, 530, 552 S.E.2d 344, 354 (2001). In the same trial, Powell was convicted of the abduction, rape, and attempted capital murder of Stacey’s younger sister, Kristie Erin Reed, and was sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment and fines totaling $200,000 for those crimes.
Upon review of the capital murder conviction and the death sentence imposed upon Powell, this Court reversed the conviction on various grounds including a finding that the indictment charging Powell with capital murder in the commission of robbery and/or attempted robbery had been improperly amended to include a charge of capital murder “during the commission of or subsequent to rape and/or attempted rape and/or sodomy and/or attempted sodomy.”2 Id. at 532, 552 S.E.2d at 355-56.
Upon review of the record, we further held that the wording of the indictment limited the Commonwealth to proving that the
“gradation crime was a rape occurring before or during the killing,” id. at 538-39, 535 S.E.2d at 359, and there was “no evidence upon which the jury could have found that Powell committed the rape of Kristie before or during the murder of Stacey.” Id. at 541, 535 S.E.2d at 361.
We summarized the consequence of these holdings in the conclusion of the opinion, stating:
there is simply no evidence upon which the jury could have relied to find that Powell committed or attempted to commit any sexual assault against Stacey before or during her murder, or that the rape of Kristie did not occur after the murder of her sister. Accordingly, under the circumstances of this case, the evidence at best would have supported a conviction for first degree murder.
For these reasons, we will reverse Powell’s conviction for capital murder . . . and remand the case for a new trial on a charge of no greater than first degree murder for the killing of Stacey Reed, if the Commonwealth be so advised.
On October 21, 2001, Powell wrote an obscenity-laced letter to the Commonwealth’s Attorney who had prosecuted Powell in his first trial.3 Powell stated in the letter that, because he believed he could not be retried for capital murder, “I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan. 29, 1999, to show you how stupid all y’all . . . are.” Admitting that he “planned to kill the whole family” on that day, Powell further stated that “I had other plans for [Stacey] before she died.”
The mandate from this Court to the trial court tracked the language of the opinion, and directed that “the case is remanded . . . for a new trial on a charge of no greater than first degree murder for the killing of Stacey Reed, if the Commonwealth be so advised.”
Text of letter, from:
www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1042716.pdf"Mr. Ebert,"Since I have already been indicted on first degree murder and the Va. Supreme Court said that I can't be charged with capital murder again, I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan. 29, 1999, to show you how stupid all of y'all mother f*ckers are.
"Y'all should have known that there is more to the story than what I told by what I said. You had it in writing that I planned to kill the whole family. Since I planned to kill the whole family, why would
I have fought with Stacie before killing her? She had no idea I was planning to kill everybody and talked and carried on like usual, so I could've stabbed her up at any time because she was unsuspecting.
"I had other plans for her before she died. You know I came back to the house after Bobby's lunch break was over and he had went back to work. When I got back, she was on the phone so I went inside and I laid down on the couch. When the cab came to bring me my pager, I ran out of the house and she jumped and got off the phone and came off the porch to see why I ran out of the house like I did.
"When the cab left we went in the house. I laid on the couch again and she went to her room and got her clothes and went downstairs to do her laundry. When she went downstairs, I got up and shut and locked the back door and went downstairs. We talked while she put her clothes in the wash. We continued talking when she had everything in the wash and I reached over and touched her tit and asked if she wanted to f*ck. She said no, because she had a boyfriend. "
I started arguing with her because she had never turned anybody down because of having a boyfriend. "We started walking upstairs, arguing the whole time. When we got upstairs we went to her room and she turned the radio off. After she turned the radio off I pushed her onto her bed and grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands down by her head and sat on top of her. I told her that all I wanted to do was f*ck her and then I would leave and that we
could do it the easy way or the hard way.
"She said she would f*ck me so I got up. After I got up, she got up and started fighting with me and clawed me face. We wrestled around a little and then I slammed her to the floor. When she hit the floor I sat on top of her and pinned her hands down again. She said she would f*ck me and I told her that if she tried fighting with me again, I would kill her.
"When I got up she stood up and kept asking me why I was doing this and all I kept saying is take your clothes off. Finally she undid her pants and pulled them down to her ankles. She was getting ready to take them the rest of the way off and the phone rang. When she heard the phone she pulled her pants back up and said she had to answer the phone. I pushed her back and said no. She said that she wouldn't say anything about me being there and I told her no and to take her clothes off.
"She tried to get out of the room again and I pushed her back and pulled out my knife. I guess she thought I was just trying to scare her and that I wouldn't really stab her because she tried to leave
again.
"When she got to me and tried to squeeze between me and the door jam I stabbed her. When I stabbed her, she fell back against the door jam and just looked at me with a shocked look on her face.
"When I pulled the knife out she stumbled a couple steps and fell in her sister's room. I walked over and looked at her. I saw that she was still breathing so I stepped over her body and into the
bedroom. Then I put my foot on her throat and stepped up so she couldn't breath. Then I stepped down and started stomping on her throat. Then I stepped back onto her throat and moved up and down putting more pressure to make it harder to breathe.
"When I didn't see her breathing anymore, I left the room and got some iced tea and sat on the couch and smoked a cigarette. You know the rest of what happened after that point.
"I would like to thank you for saving my life. I know you're probably wondering how you saved my life, so I'll tell you.
"You saved my life by f*cking up. There were 2 main f*ck-ups you made that saved me. The first was the way you worded my capital murder indictment. The second was the comment you made in your closing argument when you said we won't know because he
won't tell us.
"One more time, thank you! Now y'all know everything that happened in that house at 8023 McLean St. on Jan. 29, 1999.
"I guess I forgot to mention these events when I was being questioned. Ha Ha! Sike!
"I knew what y'all would be able to prove in court, so I told you what you already knew. Stacey was dead and no one else was in the house so I knew ya'll would never know everything she went through unless she came back to life.
"Since the Supreme Court said I can't be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I just told you because I no longer have to worry about the death penalty. And y'all are supposed to be so goddamn smart. I can't believe that y'all
thought I told you everything.
"Well, it's too late now. Nothing you can do about it now so f*ck you you fat, cocksucking, cum guzzling, gutter slut. I guess I'll see your bitch ass on Dec. 18 at trial because I'm not pleading to
sh*t. Tell the family to be ready to testify and relive it all again because if I have to suffer for the next 50 or 60 years or however long then they can suffer the torment of reliving what happened for
a couple of days.
"I'm gone. f*ck you and anyone like you or that associates with people like you. I almost forgot, f*ck your god, too. Jesus knows how to suck a dick real good. Did you teach him?
"Well, die a slow, painful, miserable death. See ya punk.
"Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid and for f*ckin' up and saving me?
"Sincerely,
"Paul Powell."
The New Indictment
Armed with
this new evidence, the Commonwealth elected to nolle prosequi the indictment in the remanded case, under which it was limited to trying Powell for first degree murder under our mandate, and sought a new indictment against Powell for capital murder. On December 3, 2001, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Powell with the capital murder of “Stacey Lynn Reed during the commission of or subsequent to the attempted rape of Stacey Lynn Reed.”
Powell’s second trial commenced on January 13, 2003. The trial court conducted voir dire of the venire in panels of five potential jurors.
The jury was instructed, heard closing arguments, and retired to consider its verdict. After two hours of deliberation, the jury found Powell guilty of capital murder. Powell requested a poll of the jury, which confirmed that the verdict was unanimous.
After ninety minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict sentencing Powell to death. The jury indicated that the sentence was predicated on both the future dangerousness and vileness aggravating factors.On May 8, 2003, the trial court held a sentencing hearing and received a pre-sentence report and victim impact evidence from Stacey’s mother. Powell’s counsel argued that imposition of the death sentence was not appropriate, asserting that so long as Powell were confined and properly medicated, he did not present a continuing danger to society and that a life sentence without possibility of parole was adequate punishment. The Commonwealth responded that Powell had shown no remorse following his conviction in the first trial.
The trial court then confirmed the jury’s sentence of death. We consolidated the automatic review of Powell’s death sentence with his appeal of the capital murder conviction and expedited the appeal on our docket. Code § 17.1-313(F).
Our conclusion that, lacking evidence of a sexual assault on Stacey or the attempt to commit one, Powell could be retried only for first degree murder was based upon “the circumstances of this case.” Powell, 261 Va. at 545-46, 552 S.E.2d at 363. Nothing in that statement implies that Powell had been acquitted of capital murder premised on any possible gradation offense, nor, as we have already demonstrated, did it preclude the Commonwealth from seeking to indict Powell for the capital murder of Stacey with the attempted rape of Stacey as the gradation offense under the exceptional circumstances occasioned by Powell’s voluntary confession.
Accordingly, we hold that the trial court did not err in denying Powell’s motions to dismiss the indictment for capital murder on the ground that the Commonwealth was prohibited from proving Powell attempted to rape Stacey by the law of the case of his former trial and appeal.
III. CONCLUSION
Having found no error below and perceiving no other reason to commute or set aside the sentence of death, we will affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Affirmed.