Death Row Inmate Wants Clemency Based on Bad Childhood

[guywithashovel]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stor...childhood.html

A man on Ohio's death row is asking for clemency, and his case is that he had a nightmarish, abusive childhood.

I have to admit, his childhood WAS really bad. However, I find myself agreeing with this statement made by one of the prosecuting attorneys.

“Other people have had terrible childhoods, and they didn’t murder people,” he said.

I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but it annoys me when people try to explain their bad behavior with "bad childhoods." Heck, here is a comment from one of the commentors on the news article that had me clapping.

It really is injustice to give him clemancy. I don't buy into the notion that we should give him slack because of wrongs done to him in his childhood. In fact, he should be held to a higher standard because he as experienced first hand the horror of abuse and violence and should know what his victim (s) were going through. With all that, he still went ahead and did what he did. Not an excuse.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't really care about his upbringing either way; it's mostly irrelevant. The crime in question was not "worst of the worst" and shouldn't be eligible for the death penalty as is.

I honestly don't believe that anything at all would be served by killing this man. Not even the victim's family think it should happen.

^-.-^

[tropicsgoddess]

"My childhood was so bad it caused me to kill people! waaaaaaah!!" Boo fucking hoo. Save the crocodile tears. There's other people with bad childhoods that didn't rob and kill! If I was the governor, I wouldn't blink in denying clemency and stays of execution for this asshole!

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but it annoys me when people try to explain their bad behavior with "bad childhoods."

That would be the lawyers blaming his childhood, not him, my issue would be this:

a grown man with the mental capacity of a second-grader

He is borderline mentally disabled, it's generally not ok to execute someone with down's syndrome, why is it ok for someone else who is mentally deficient for a reason other than a genetic disorder?

[Andara Bledin]

He is borderline mentally disabled, it's generally not ok to execute someone with down's syndrome, why is it ok for someone else who is mentally deficient for a reason other than a genetic disorder?

Bingo.

He should never have been given the death penalty in the first place, and it's a travesty of Justice that he is still on death row.

^-.-^

[Eisa]

^If that's the case, then no, he should not be on death row.

In general, however, trying to blame your crimes on a "bad childhood" is fucking ridiculous. I had a bad childhood. Not in the same ways exactly as he did. But I had a fucking suck-ass childhood. And oh look! I've never killed anyone!

They should stick with the mental disability thing.

[Gravekeeper]

I must admit any case where it sounds like everything is portrayed in black and white ( Victim was the single most wonderful person in the universe, accused is the god damn devil ) makes me uneasy. Whether that's the prosecution's case or just the media's usual witch hunting I don't know.

But it really says something about how fucked up this is when the victim's family is supporting clemency, yet the perpetrator's can't even be bothered to show up for a hearing.

I'm curious how this case went originally. Ohio law lets them crank him up to a capital offence on par with first degree murder by using a felony murder charge ( aka if you kill someone while committing a crime, even by accident, its automatically first degree. Unless that crime is assault, ironically. ). Even though its pretty easy to argue this wasn't premeditated and that the perpetrator isn't what you would call competent. ( Robbing someone 2 blocks from you for pennies then returning to your own house after cashing in the pennies at a local gas station isn't exactly criminal mastermind level ).

On a side note, it sounds like this guy's been in jail for 24 years already in part thanks to Ohio's lurid history with the death penalty. Ohio didn't actually execute anyone between 1963 and 1999. ( Their death penalty law was struck down twice by the supreme court in the 70-80s ). They seem to have spent the time since desperately trying to find people to execute to the point of overturning clemency granted by the governer not once but twice ( on the same group of convicts ).

Even if I wasn't morally opposed to the death penalty already, its grey areas like this that help make me intellectually opposed as well.

[BlaqueKatt]

Even if I wasn't morally opposed to the death penalty already, its grey areas like this that help make me intellectually opposed as well.

well this should help with that a bit-Troy Davis, convicted solely on coerced eyewitness testimony, zero other evidence, all but two of the 9 trial witnesses have written affidavits explaining the police coercion, and recanting (one that hasn't is the prime suspect that got off implicating Davis), yet his trial was "fair", and the federal appeals court can't grant him a new trial, EVEN IF HE COULD PROVE HIS INNOCENCE, due to a lovely law, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. He is scheduled to die on September 21st.

[Andara Bledin]

Anyone who continues to support the death penalty when we've got proof that we're murdering innocent people is as big a monster as the people being put to death legitimately.

^-.-^

[Rageaholic]

I don't have much to say that hasn't been said. The "bad childhood" excuse doesn't excuse his murder. But I'm not for the death penalty. He's still off the street and paying for his crimes in prison. No need to kill him now.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The "bad childhood" thing is bullshit. Loads of people suffer thru abuse and neglect and don't end up killers. I remember reading in the paper once about a girl who was claiming that years of bullying at school was the reason why she joined a girl gang and kicked another girl to death. Boo hoo. I was bullied, and you don't see me using it as an excuse for kicking someone to death. You make your choice, you live with it; if you can't do the time, then don't do the crime.

However, if this guy really IS mentally disabled, then he shouldn't be on Death Row. Not sure on what the rules on the mentally ill/disabled are in America, but in the UK they use rules based on the McNaughten Rules. (they've been added to and amended since McNaughten, I believe.) Did he know what he was doing? Did he know it was wrong?

There's also a chance he's faking it; he wouldn't be the first to fake mental disability/illness to try and save his neck.

[Evandril]

Anyone who continues to support the death penalty when we've got proof that we're murdering innocent people is as big a monster as the people being put to death legitimately.

^-.-^

IMO, this is not valid...I support the death penalty, but I agree there needs to be huge reforms in how it's used. The fact the procedures leading up to it are deeply flawed does not mean the sentance itself is at fault. A similar argument would be that people should not be denied flights because TSA is pathetic.

Do I feel that people on death row at the moment seriously need to have their cases reviewed before the sentance is carried out? Very much so. Do I believe that the death penalty deserves a place in our court system? Without a doubt. To me, they are two seperate issues.