Georgia Plans to Execute a Mentally Retarded Man Tomorrow

reply to post by zonetripper2065


It's a proven fact that the death penalty does not deter people from killing. "Killing more people" would be equally ineffective. There's no evidence or data that suggests an increase in executions will lower the murder rate.

Originally posted by GrimReaper86
You misunderstand, when I say it's a means of prevention I don't mean that it prevents people who haven't murdered anyone from wanting to murder someone, I mean it prevents anyone who has already murdered someone from murdering anyone else because you can't murder someone if you're dead.

Separating them from the general population would achieve the exact same ends. No need to kill anyone.

Also please, explain how keeping someone alive for the duration of their life is more expensive then just killing them. I'd love to hear anyone explain that. The cost of housing them, feeding them, and paying other people to watch them is somehow less expensive then just executing them.....I don't even understand how executing them could cost that much by comparison.

I already posted the links for that. But if you don't want to go back and look it up, here it is again: Cost of the death penalty

Also for further info you can Google "Cost of incarceration vs death penalty" for more results. I invite you to do that.

Originally posted by CoolerAbdullah786
Also, if anyone wants to get into the death penalty, how come this guy is being executed but Charles Manson is still alive? How come this guy is being executed but Jeffrey Dahmer was given life in prison (although later murdered by a skinhead.)

Manson was given the Death penalty but the supreme court made a white elephant out of the whole case when it banned the death penalty a while ago, than re-instated it. Problem with that was, people who had the death penalty that was converted couldn't be reinstated. So Manson got life, the death penalty cannot be retroactively activated.

Hope that helps.

this man is sentence to death for killing.. yet the person/persons who kill him are let off. Are they who sign the paper or inject etc comminting murder themself, so why is it ok for the law to kill a person and get off free.

Originally posted by CoolerAbdullah786

It's a proven fact that the death penalty does not deter people from killing.

It deters them from killing again...

reply to post by spoor


I see what you did there!

Update on Georgia’s Imminent Execution of Man Deemed Mentally Disabled

On Thursday, Judge Thomas Wilson of the Superior Court of Butts County, GA again found Mr. Hill to be a person with mental retardation, stating: “The Court finds that this Court’s previous finding in Hill v. Head, Butts Co. Case No. 94-V-216, that Mr. Hill has an I.Q. of 70 beyond a reasonable doubt and meets the overall criteria for mental retardation by a preponderance of the evidence is justified by the evidence in this case.”

However, Judge Wilson refused to stay Monday’s scheduled execution, finding that Mr. Hill does not meet Georgia’s strict and unusual beyond a reasonable doubt standard. GA’s strict standard was highlighted in a recent New York Times editorial.

[...]

In her dissent to the majority finding by the Georgia Supreme Court, Justice Leah Sears wrote, "Despite the federal ban on executing the mentally retarded, Georgia's statute, and the majority decision upholding it, do not prohibit the state from executing mentally retarded people. To the contrary, the State may still execute people who are in all probability mentally retarded. The State may execute people who are more than likely mentally retarded. The State may even execute people who are almost certainly mentally retarded." (Head v. Hill, 277 Ga. 255, 274 (2003).)

Mr. Hill's case has been the subject of diverse and extensive support for clemency. The family of the victim does not wish to see Mr. Hill executed and has submitted an affidavit supporting commuting Mr. Hill's death sentence to life without the possibility of parole, citing his mental retardation. President Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn Carter have called for a commutation of Mr. Hill's death sentence to life without parole, as have numerous mental health and disability groups. Several jurors who sat on Mr. Hill's original jury have stated under oath that they believe that life without parole is the appropriate sentence. It was not offered to them as an option at trial in 1991. Earlier this week, the nation of France, a United Nations official, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for a stay of execution for Mr. Hill.

So apparently Georgia has an insanely strict "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard which is the only thing really blocking this man from being commuted. Both the family of the victim and several of the original jurors (as I italicized) think he should not be executed.

10 reasons why Georgia should not execute Warren Hill

reply to post by CoolerAbdullah786


While the link is nice it really doesn't do a good job of explaining where these costs come from or why they are so high. All you website appears to do is tell me that the cost is more expensive without explaining why it is so expensive. Also the costs they list are annual cost. Which means people are costing money for years while they are waiting on their death penalty to be carried out. So not only does your website FAIL to point out why these costs are so high it also brings up the question. Why are people on death row for years? Why when someone is sentenced to death does it take years to execute them? It's not like the tools we use to kill take that long. It's not like there's a line preventing it from happening. It must be the lengthy appeals and processes they have to jump through. I bet anything that the website you linked counts the costs of appeals and processing that goes with said appeals to the cost of the death penalty. But when I take the cost of the death penalty into account. I don't know if I would agree that counts as part of the cost. Court costs aren't that expensive strictly because it's the death penalty. No, the death penalty it's up costing so much because murders are allowed to bide their time until their departure with expensive and time consuming appeals. To me the death penalty works just fine. The court system is what's #ed up.

reply to post by CoolerAbdullah786


In general I think this is your best link but I find it's rational is lacking. So a person is less capable of learning and understanding right from wrong so we'll just keep them alive, so they can take up money/space even if they are housed by themselves and all the things they require to live are provided to them for the rest of their life. I don't get it. What's the point? He doesn't get freedom, he doesn't get a better standard of living and taxes end up paying for his crappy standard of living for the duration of his life and to what end? How does keeping him alive in a cage by himself forever improve his quality of life? If he's in prison to learn murdering people is wrong; he obviously isn't ever going to learn that if nothing else BECAUSE he has a handicap. So I mean really. What point is there in keeping him alive. What good does it do?

IQ tests aren't always accurate. Charles Manson is legally retarded according to IQ tests and he was still smart enough to brainwash dozens of people. This guy probably still knows the difference between right and wrong.

reply to post by lotusrose


It's simple. The person who executes this man is ordered to do so by society as justification for that persons crimes. However, that doesn't make the executioner guilty of anything other then carrying out the law. Also, if the person who was murdering people without the backing of their collective society is put to death they can no longer kill others as they are no longer alive to do so. Is that simple enough for you?

reply to post by Bodhi7


I agree, I even found some material to help me with evidence.

The state has cited expert testimony and IQ tests that concluded Hill is not mentally disabled. Before trial, Hill's family members described him as "the leader of the family" and "a father figure," the state notes. He was not in special education classes and served in the Navy, where he received promotions, the state has said.

that's from: CBS News

So ya, they probably just tried to slap that retarded label on him to try and get him out of being executed. Its bogus. He's guilty. Execute him and be done with trying to save the drowning rat.

Georgia halts execution of death-row inmate Warren Lee Hill

The GEORGIA SUPREME COURT halted the execution of Warren Lee Hill, a death-row inmate who had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. on Monday at the state penitentiary at Jackson.

Hill was convicted in the Aug. 17, 1990, beating death of another inmate. Hill was serving a life sentence at the time for the shooting death of his 18-year-old girlfriend.

His lawyers argue that Hill is mentally disabled – significant because federal law prohibits states from executing the mentally disabled. But the state said the defense hadn’t conclusively shown that Hill has a mental disability.