There's another push in the state to allow courts to sentence people to death without a unanimous jury. This attempt is sponsored by Republican state Rep. Tim Bearden in the wake of the Nichols trial.
From the AP:
The Georgia House has twice passed proposals over the last two years to allow judges to
impose a death sentence if one or two jurors vote against it. Both plans failed in the Senate
amid concerns it would put too much power in the hands of a judge.
Georgia would also become the only state with the death penalty to have a "hybrid" system that factors in both the jury and judge's decision, said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center."Georgia would have the only statute in the country like this, and it could lead to the argument that it's cruel and unusual because its purpose is to get more death sentences," he said. "The more out of line to the rest of the country it is, the greater the risk that it could be overturned."
Georgia is tied for sixth in number of state executions. (We're tied for ninth in most people released from death row for innocence. Troy Davis, if they decide to look into it, could put us into eighth.) For 2007, the average murder rate of death penalty states was 5.5, while the average murder rate of states without the death penalty was 3.1
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You missed (or ignored) my piece in the Spirit this week discussing this issue and giving some much needed background. Spirit editor Tom Grant changed my headline, which was, and follows:
ReplyDeleteAR
"State Senator Preston Smith Can Kiss My Ass!"
STATE SENATOR PRESTON SMITH CAN KISS MY ASS
I can agree to disagree with just about anyone that comes down the pike, but I cannot, nor have I ever been able, to stand liars and hypocrites.
Georgia State Senator Preston Smith (Rep-Rome) is the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee. In each of the last two years he has seen to it that legislation changing Georgia's death penalty requirements was blocked.
The world saw first hand last week how Lady Justice can be bent over the legal bar and taken without regard when rogue jurors decide they want to gum up the works. It was a 9-3 vote to execute, and the 3 that voted no haven't even attempted to justify their outrageous stand.
That a man like Brian Nichols, an escaped rapist who kills a Judge, a court reporter, a deputy sheriff, and a Federal agent is able to sidestep the death penalty in the state of Georgia , should be an outrage to any conservative that happens to stumble across the putrid story.
This is GEORGIA...not Wisconsin. We execute cold blooded killers in this state, we don't feed and clothe them for life.
Well...given the current system, and our track record with it, maybe I speak too soon.
Twice now Columbia County's own Barry Fleming wrote bills that would have addressed situations like we saw in the Brian Nichols20case, twice those plans passed the State House, twice the bills were pulled by Preston Smith, before the Senate could vote them up or down.
Monday I pulled up the Atlanta Journal Constitution's "Thinking Right" column, written by my friend Jim Wooten, in it Jim quotes Fleming long and eloquent:
"“We’re in a day and age when people get on a jury and they’ll say they will vote for a death penalty, but simply won’t do it. That has to be accounted for.”
Wooten wrote himself:
"Those who most vigorously oppose the death penalty have great incentive to work their way onto capital cases to keep the penalty from being imposed. There’s no way to detect their bias until the deed’s done.
Without question, Nichols deserved death. He’s an evil man, dangerous to every correctional officer he encounters for the remainder of his life. He sets the standard for application of the death penalty."
Beautiful...and reminiscent of several columns I have written for this paper, in anticipation of BOTH Fleming attempts in 2007 and 2008 to fix this hideous system.
Fleming's plans would have allowed a 9-3, 10-2, or 11-1 pro death penalty jury to forward their vote to a Superior Court Judge for he/she to handle as they see fit. Not a perfect solution, but vastly superior to the system in place right now.
Thanks to Preston Smith, Fleming's plan wasn't in place.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is now leading the charge to get Nichols t ried in Federal court , where he would again face the death penalty because one of his four murder victims just happened to be a Federal Customs Officer. That is all fine and good, but if Senator Smith and his well heeled colleagues on the judiciary committee had done their damn duty Nichols wouldn't be giggling about his victory...and you better believe it was a victory.
Anytime such an obviously guilty multiple killer can escape the needle it is an offense not only to the families of his victims, but to all Georgia families who put a premium on the lives of the innocent.
This scumbag was caught on tape (while incarcerated) plotting an escape, joking about murdering the team prosecuting him, and even faking mental illness to facilitate his defense. There is no rational excuse that he be allowed to live.
State Senator Preston Smith and the GOP controlled Georgia state government have had it within their power to fix this problem (and it has been a problem, ask ANY prosecutor) since 2005. That was when the Republicans took over ALL aspects of writing, debating, and passing legislation.
The Governor would have GLADLY signed Fleming's death penalty reform into law, and he has told me so several times.
And yet Smith had the audacity to say this to Wooten for his column: "“This case has rocked Georgia’s criminal justice system...This case has been a poster child for why there needs to be reform in the system.”
If he isn't lying by omission, and his failure to come clean, then the man has dementia and should be hospitalized.
State Senator Preston Smith didn't help Brian Nichols murder four people, but he did help him get away with it.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, murder rates have declined substantially in both death penalty and non-death penalty states. I does anyone know what's been working so well as a deterent?
ReplyDeleteNo one can afford bullets.
ReplyDeleteAR
We get to make our own headlines?
ReplyDelete