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An Alabama inmate was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday after a deadlocked Supreme Court refused to stay his execution, The Associated Press reported. The inmate, Ronald B. Smith, had been sentenced to death by a judge despite a jury's recommendation of life without parole.
Mr. Smith was convicted in 1995 of murdering Casey Wilson, a convenience store clerk, the previous year. By a vote of 7 to 5, the jury rejected the death penalty and recommended a sentence of life without parole. The judge overrode that recommendation, sentencing Mr. Smith to death.
[...] In January, the Supreme Court struck down Florida's capital sentencing system, which also allowed judicial overrides of jury recommendations of life sentences. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,"
Should judges be allowed to overrule a jury's decision for sentencing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @09:31PM
The death penalty is more humane than prison in any case. Close 90% of prisons, convert the remaining to labor camps for crooked stock traders and bankers, and make death the only enforceable penalty for non-economic crimes. So murder, rape, molestation, kidnapping = death, and insider trading, fraud, embezzlement, illegal drug dealing, noon-violent theft/robbery get sentenced to labor camp until they've repaid the estimated economic impact of their crimes (at federal minimum wage salary 40 hrs/week). The actual work will be given by companies that purchase labor from .gov. Hmm... Well it would be better than the current system but not perfect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @10:45PM
So someone punches someone else in the nose, they get put to death.
I had a roommate who advocated that at a summer camp when I was like 12. I thought he was a crank even then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @11:13PM
Brilliant satire. I'd like to add, all Americans over the age of 12 should be given a gun and they should be allowed to shoot whoever they like and for whatever reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @11:35PM
So you're saying that all Americans over the age of 12 should be police officers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @11:50PM
That all persons 12 and over should partake of single life FPSing until the whole situation is under control :)