Why I Am Against The Death Penalty.

The Trump administration is ramping up murders in our name, they are killing off the backlog of prisoners executions. They even want to bring back the firing squad. Meanwhile down in Texas the federal prison is getting ready to execute a black man who admits to an armed robbery but was not involved in the killings of two youth pastors, his execution is schedule for the 10^th.

During the trail the medical examiner said the woman was still alive when the car was set on fire but other medical examiners said she was brain dead.

Federal judge denies stay of execution for Killeen man on death row
Killeen Daily Herald
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
December 2, 2020


A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request to stop the execution of a Killeen man who is set to be executed next week for his role in the murder of two youth pastors more than 21 years ago on Fort Hood property.

During the hourlong remote hearing, one of the attorneys for Brandon Bernard, set to be executed on Dec. 10, argued for the judge to rule to halt the execution until new evidence could be presented and reviewed.

After listening to arguments by attorneys, U.S. District Judge Alan Albright denied the defense team’s request because he said he did not have the jurisdiction.

“My role is to call balls and strikes and it gives me no joy to make this ruling,” Albright said. “I feel the appropriate place to take up the issue is the Texas Supreme Court.”

The call for an appeal is because…

Bernard’s attorneys argued that the U.S. did not disclose the entirety of its evidence to the defense, a violation of the Brady Rule, which requires prosecutors to disclose evidence to the defense. The evidence could have led to Bernard being sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty, his attorneys said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Frazier did not address the new evidence discussed by the defense attorney during the hearing.

He argued that Bernard’s case has not met the legal standards for a stay of execution.

And that gets to the heart of my objections to the death penalty. We are the only “civilized” country that still has the death penalty. According to the Innocence Project.

To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row.

Our justice system is not perfect, there are corrupt or incompetent law officers and prosecutors, there are prosecutors who want to make a name for themselves, and the system just make mistakes. When you execute someone there is no do-over to correct the errors.

My other objection is the question why execute someone? For what purpose do we execute someone?

To stop them from committing another crime? Well life in prison without parole does the same thing.

To prevent others from killing? Well research has shown that it doesn’t deter crime, let’s face it criminals just don’t think they are going to be caught.

Violent crimes has been decreasing in all the states, since the 1990s

The homicide rate for 2018 for Connecticut was 2.3 per 100,000 and for Texas was 4.6 per 100,000. Connecticut has no death penalty while Texas does have a death penalty. If you look at the data for the other states there is the same difference, states without a death penalty have lower murder rates. So having a death penalty does not deter murders.

I think that the only reason we have the death penalty is for politicians can say they are tough on crime.