How could anyone be pro-death penalty after reading this?

NNN0LHI

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:27 PM
Original message

How could anyone be pro-death penalty after reading this?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/486566,CST-NWS-judge27.article

U.S. ordered to pay $100M

CRIME | Wrong men spent years behind bars

July 27, 2007
BY DENISE LAVOIE

BOSTON -- The FBI helped frame four men for a 1965 murder and withheld information that could have cleared them, a federal judge ruled Thursday in ordering the government to pay $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison.

''The FBI's misconduct was clearly the sole cause of this conviction,'' U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said in issuing her ruling in the civil lawsuit. snip

Peter Limone, 71, and Joseph Salvati, 75, who were exonerated in 2001, and the families of the two other men who died in prison had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution. snip

They said Barboza was protecting a fellow FBI informant who was involved in the hit. AP

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orleans

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:31 PM
Response to Original message

1. the best thing--probably the only good thing--ex illinois repuke governor

george ryan did was to put a moratorium on the illinois death penalty

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LoZoccolo

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:44 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. He fixed the part of the I-290 which we know as "The Hillside Strangler" as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Expressway#Lingo

Actually in some ways he was more liberal than Glenn Poshard, the Democrat who ran against him. The 1998 election was somewhat unusual due to this polar reversal.

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orleans

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Fri Jul-27-07 11:51 PM
Response to Reply #2

10. ok, that was a good thing. i'll give him that too. n/t

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reichstag911

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:55 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. My published (9/3/02) LTTE...

...to the Chicago Sun-Times when Ryan was still figuring out what to do about the death row inmates:

In Illinois, it takes some serious gall to publish tripe like John O'Sullivan's advocating capital punishment <"Death penalty foes thwart majority will," column, Aug. 27>. Given all of those who've been freed after being exonerated by DNA evidence, witness recantations, proof of coerced confessions and/or the suppression of exculpatory evidence by prosecutors, even one so clearly bloodthirsty as O'Sullivan should recognize that while execution is theoretically a just punishment, it should not be the law when the primacy of prosecutors' political aspirations is so manifest. One need look no further than Jim Ryan, the GOP gubernatorial candidate. This is a man who should be charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of Rolando Cruz--not running for the highest state office.

Should Gov. Ryan grant clemency to those on Death Row and repeal Illinois' death penalty, it would be the only positive legacy of his otherwise thoroughly disgraced stewardship of two of the state's highest offices. While O'Sullivan obviously feels that these would be undemocratic measures--and they are--the position of a leader sometimes mandates that he resist the temptation to follow the mob and instead lead the people down a path to which they are otherwise blinded by their sense of outrage.

Me

For anyone loking to know more about the FBI/Boston Irish Mob connections, check out Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. I assume the guy named Flemmi, one of the real killers in this Boston case, is related to Whitey Bulger's top henchman in the Boston Irish Mob. Interestingly, while the whole Bulger/FBI scenario didn't exactly inspire Martin Scorsese's The Departed, it certainly informed it, and the parallels are discussed at length in the DVD's Extras.

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orleans

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Fri Jul-27-07 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #4

11. great ltte--thanks for posting that.

check into the illinois forum sometime.
we just did another roll call.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=150x14867#top

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Forkboy

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:49 PM
Response to Original message

3. I'm totally against it,even though there are times I feel that same urge the ones for it feel.

Edited on Fri Jul-27-07 03:43 PM by Forkboy

I think about the people who dragged James Byrd to death.I think about the people who killed Matthew Sheppard.I can feel the urge to do things to these people that would make Abu Ghraib seem like a vacation.The scary part of that comment is that I'm not sure how much of it is a joke and how much isn't.

I think we're giving into that urge,that little ball of ugliness that is in all of us,whether we want to admit it's there or not,when we go along with killing in any way except as a last measure of self defense.The death penalty is revenge,plain and simple,and the mentality to give into that desire is the same mentality that allowed all too many to be manipulated by this Administration into that same need for revenge after 9/11.

Then there's just the plain hypocrisy angle of it,at least from anyone who tells me with a straight face that they're religious.There's no addendum to the Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" that starts with the word "unless...".

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wicket

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Fri Jul-27-07 03:35 PM
Response to Reply #3

8. Well said

:thumbsup:

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Ezlivin

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Fri Jul-27-07 02:57 PM
Response to Original message

5. I used to be pro death penalty...'til I read a little book

The Death Game: Capital Punishment and the Luck of the Draw by Mike Gray.

I would challenge anyone who still believes that justice is served by executing people to read that little book. It destroys any reason for supporting the death penalty.

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VP505

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Fri Jul-27-07 03:14 PM
Response to Original message

6. The Innocence Project was the reason

I did a re-think on supporting the death penalty. I still think there are some crimes that are heinous enough to deserve death but as long as there is ANY possibility of law enforcement, prosecutor's misconduct or incompetence as well as Defense misconduct or incompetence we should NOT have a death penalty.

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ieoeja

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Fri Jul-27-07 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. The Innocence Project did it for me too when they finally reached the 50% mark.

For people not familiar with the project, the State Supreme Court in Illinois ultimately overturned the convictions of over 50% of the people on death row in this state. When it was proved that there were more innocent people on death row than guilty ones, I finally paid attention. And the governor put a moratorium on the death penalty.

Of course, we have another one of those WTF moments going on right now. For some reason a lot of people are making a lot of noise about finding some way to punish the officers who were found guilty of torturing innocent people into confessions. Unfortunately, this was proven AFTER the statute of limitations had expired.

But the really WTF point is that everyone is screaming for the heads of these retired cops while ignoring the fact that the innocent people ... are still in jail. I suppose someone, somewhere must be working on getting them out of jail. But all you hear from the activists, etc concerns punishing the cops. I never hear anything about releasing the innocents.

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wicket

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Fri Jul-27-07 10:11 PM
Response to Original message

9. kick

:kick:

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