the problem is states attorneys that rutinely convict people that are innocent to enhance thier sttanding while offering plea bargins to people whos lawyers can put up a better defence, in md a person on death row for the rape and murder of a 6 year old was cleared of the charges after the attorney that convicted him retired and his sucessor found the d.n.a. evidence of the case hidden in the bottom drawer of his desk the d.n.a. also incriminated a prson that had spent 6 months in the same cell as the convicted man. had the execution been faster than it was the innocent man would have died and the actual killer would have gone scott free. sadly the real killer was offered a plea bargin and never faced the death penulty that the innocent man had been condemed with and the states attorney that hid the evidenct was never charged with anything.

Well, Edward, that shouldn't be so simple to do in the slightest. If people are truly innocent, they should have other people who can say that they were nowhere near the crime scene at the time in question.

To James, yes, it is time to get rid of the death penalty because we KNOW that it is too expensive and impossible to correct if we make a mistake. Which it is known that we have put people to death who were actually innocent in every country that still has the death penalty.

Texas????? Texas, IN 2012, executd a man with an IQ of 61. That is BARBARIC. We should be proud to be the OPPOSITE of texas.

Of course, criminal rights first, victims last. Thats how wacked liberals think upside down.... No sense of reality...

FIFA - you liberals have perverted the criminal justice system.... Come to think of it - lots of liberals are perverts....

Nither has any self control or willpower. Every post they must respond to in their typical fashion. NAGGERS is all they are.

Ed Jr., you failed to answer my question. Why? Instead you resort to name calling? Why? One could make an argument that your "group" has a lot more of "perverts" as you call them? What is a "pervert" Ed Jr. Your priest? Please explain, we all want to know what you mean?

White Flag of Surrender Dog is a nagger. All you do is nag and all here see it and know it to be fact. Nag all you want nagger. It shows who you are with each post.

What you miss, Ed Jr., is that many of the 'career criminals' wouldn't be that if we stop trying to dictate what people put into their own bodies, i.e. legalize the drug trade. A good 75% of all crimes are directly or indirectly link-able to having the drug trade illegal.

Pachacutec, many of those people are not monsters and are extremely mentally ill at the time when they do those things. If we had gotten them the proper treatment, the fact is that 99% of them wouldn't have done the things in question.

So, yes... we have FAILED them as a society.

Poor, poor, crimanals! What goes around, comes around. When they murdered their victims they had no remore and were not thinking about what the consequenses of their actions would be or the ramifications. Put them to death, no sympathy for them!!!!!

Carole, you missed the point totally. Most mass murderers are exceptionally mentally ill at the time they do their mass murders. If we had gotten them the proper treatment, they would not have done their crimes and therefore would not have been criminals.

For once think on this subject.

You sound like the kind of guy we need in schoolhouse with an SKS, no mo'.

Hey hey - you are being culturally insensitive with the use of the word redneck. Where are the Lib's ?

Well as far I'm concerned there is nothing wrong with being a redneck,,, and for that matter so what? there can't be black rednecks,, never heard that one before, that is by choice,, and using dogs would cruel and insensitive to the dogs,, they have rights too ya know,, oh wait unless it is a pitbull right???

More like animals.

I support shari'a law and I hereby declare nic to be apostate.

Where is the 'Like' button ?

thats right almost like drive-thru,,,,, "I would like to order 4 lethal injections with a side 2 gas chambers",,,,,

Here is a guy who has played to many video games and whittled the wood too often. He went plumb crazy.

If they used Xanax and roofies, you'd be first in line.

It's called morality. Most Marylanders (and basically all civilized countries on this planet) are better than the barbaric thrust for revenge which you speak of. You need to go ahead and move to China/Iran/North Korea to fit in better, guy.

"there is no insensitive to not vomit these crimes."

Please learn to write in coherent English, you stupid gorilla.

It'd be a reasonable cost cutting measure. Prisoners are expensive to keep alive. I'm not sure how anyone sentenced to life in prison without parole would consider the death penalty any more cruel or unusual.

Tim, no, it wouldn't. A death penalty case costs 1 million dollars to prosecute. To lock up someone for 40 years only costs 100K, so the cost savings are on the side of the life without parole option.

Polly, in regards to the pedosexual thing (that is what pedo'philes' are, just a normal sexuality), we had people saying that about heterosexuals outside of marriage, homosexuals and interracials at one time.

Most sexual encounters between adults and children are not forced and when you hide the age? Most people when they are described to them see them as no worse or better than adult/adult and child/child sexual relationships.

I was 'sexually abused' as a child and I call it what it was: consensual sex between me and the adults and older children in question.

Welcome, Max. I hear you.

Good for you, Max! Thanks for the intelligent post. But I would, one day, like to see the TOTAL death toll for W and his cronies who lied to EVERYBODY.

And Max conveniently leaves Barack Obama off of his list (look up "drones", perhaps). As usual, his blatant bias taints any posts that he makes. (Dems=always good, Repubs=always bad, Max=always wrong)

Frank, the comment was made in reference to the always reliable Max turning any topic into an excuse to slam conservatives and George Bush. He stated that they killed many citizens through wartime activities and failed to mention the same about ANY Democrat. My feelings on Afghanistan are immaterial to this statement.

Marty, even DNA evidence can be faked/misinterpreted.

We should just get rid of the death penalty and move on, life without parole is punishment enough.

Unless the accused asks for a judge to decide guilt, the jury is responsible for convicting.

Carole, killing another does not ever resurrect the dead. They remain dead. Would you just feel better if you killed the murderer. The loved one is still dead.

What about the family of the murderer? Don't you think it is quite degrading to them? Do they just not matter at all?

Bingo, you're right on. The families of murderers don't matter at all.

So you wouldn't mind if a cousin were sentenced to death? Or maybe your innocent father spending eight years on death row before being exonerated? How very considerate of you.

Don't do the crime if you don't want to pay the price.

You did not address either of my two points.

If the logic is "killing someone does not bring back your loved one", we could also say locking them up for life doesn't bring back your loved one either. I really am not too excited about this issue one way or another although I understand it costs lot to keep someone on death row with the appeals process and all. I do find the debate about it a little odd given the few number of actual executions which have taken place in this state.

What Balt Observer said. Although we don't agree on everything, we definitely agree on this:

"Balt Observer

9:17 pm on Thursday, January 24, 2013

Don't do the crime if you don't want to pay the price."

Carole, you're talking about revenge. That takes us, as a society, nowhere.

No it is not you idiot. Why can't death penalty proponents get this straight? Death penalty cases cost exponentially more than normal cases, and it is much more than just putting them away for life.

@meromictic..Did the murderer consider the family of the person he or she murdered? I doubt it!

No, John, you are terribly mistaken. Don't you read? Once the death pealty is imposed, it brings with it hundreds of thousands, up to a million (or more) dollars in additional costs (defense, anyone?)
To take someone's life is an enormous decision, with no turning back.
Life without parole is very much cheaper, and still leaves room in case of a changed verdict.

John good common sense along with a strong financial IQ will not be tolerated here on the Patch forum. Shame on you. ;)

@carole, you are incorrect. It is less expensive not to kill them.

http://www.goccp.maryland.gov/capital-punishment/documents/death-penalty-commission-final-report.pdf

Thanks again for a good laugh FIFA! The link to a state originated report is especially hilarious, you really should hit the comedy circuit! Financial alchemy can hide reality, that said someday very soon the piper will be paid and the smoke and mirrors parlor tricks will be exposed. Again thanks for the laugh! Cheers

One born every minute.

Seriously Frank? Like the state cares what costs taxpayers less. Come on wake up geezer dude!

Back to your feeble insults, eh Fido? It appears that your brain will always consist of fecal matter. LMAO

Wow must have struck the nerves of the trolltards with that one.....I LOVE THAT!!

Robert, usually that is true. If someone is convicted two times of a capital offense, there is little to no possibility (save if their second crime was in prison, where you sometimes have to defend yourself with deadly force against others) of it being wrong.

Oh wait..... yeah, there is that possibility, as Texas found out recently when a person convicted of two rape/murders was exonerated by DNA evidence in BOTH cases.

Please just move to Iran or North Korea.

Also Norway's crime rates are lower than Iran's, and the absolute maximum sentence for any criminal is 21 years in jail with possible parole after 10 years.

All I'm saying is that public hangings are VERY EFFECTIVE at deterring crime. Criminals are given the message that no matter what heinous crime they commit in a state without a death penalty they will not pay for that crime with their life. It seems quite obvious to me that this is not the message that will deter other heinous criminals. Unfortunately I assume it's the precise message you wish to send to criminals. Personally I would rather stop the criminals instead of giving them a green light to target my state. But hey,it's still a free country for the moment, you're entitled to your opinion.

You think brutally beating up a 92 year old woman is just fine, "Stank"? As if any confirmation was needed, you are a sick and twisted little twerp.

Always amusing and rather sickening to see the bleeding heart libbie nutters defend murderers.

Shawn you're just an abhorrent person for saying that.

Stop it meromictic your hurting my feelings.....ROTFLMAO! ;)

Good, "Stank", you've hit on another problem with the justice system. Too many bleeding heart libbie nutters calling cold-blooded murder manslaughter.

Defending the brutal murder of an old lady again, "Stank"? What's your angle? She deserved it?

And you seem to think the brutal murder of an old woman is a-ok, "Stank". What a repulsive cretin you are.

An eye for an eye....plain and simple. You end a life, your life shall end as well. I believe the death penalty should go a step further and execute the murderers in the same fashion they murdered their victims. Then parade their lifeless corpses around the prisons, so every prisoner will be fully aware that in this state we do not reward heinous criminals, we execute them! Now that's fair justice.

Trying to project your grievous ailments down there in the hospice ward onto others there Ike? Is it diaper changing time again? LMAO

Who cares? I have my trusty Street Sweeper right by my computer.

Oh if you only knew Frank....uh I mean trolltard.

Hey Frank you old has been geezer, FYI typing one word every 20 minutes does not make you computer literate. You can thank me later grandpa.

What a stupid question. He was clearly mentally ill. Who should have been severely punished was whoever allowed him access to the deadly weapons, and encouraged his activities. But, when you really think about it, that is a terribly difficult issues altogether, since he killed her (his mother) first. This all illuminates the incredibly lousy health care system we have in this country.

To make it clear enough for you, not even people like Pol Pot or Stalin should be sentenced to death.

Of course. The little twerp that carried out the Newtown murders should have been executed and probably would have been.

Perhaps he would have been charged federally, "Stank". It's a moot point now, but his execution would have been called for and deserved.

The mother was the first victim of this tragedy. She received the ultimate punishment for poor gun safety. Sad, very sad. I'm sure she was trying to do the best she could with a severly disturbed son, with poor support from the mental health system.

In fairness to Mr. Lanza, we do not know the circumstances of his divorce other than he was paying a significant amount of alimony. We don't know what his relationship was with this 20 year old son also. It is impossible to know what the family situation was before and after the divorce.

The Newtown shooter was one of the dirtballs that the death penalty was tailor made for. They would have found a way to get it done.

I think that the lunatic's crimes could have been considered terrorism.

I was just interested to see what the response would be. I would have thought someone might have said something like "I oppose the death penalty but if you gave me 5 minutes alone with Lanza he would wish he'd gotten the death penalty". Although I respect someone's position on this issue whatever it may be, some of the replies remind me a bit of the one Dukakis gave in the 1988 debate.

So where is Walter "Stank" Mitty and his wild tales, Ike? Any idea?