_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/us/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-death-sentence.html?_r=0 I apologize for ignorant remarks on another thread saying I couldn't imagine jury unanimity on the death penalty in Boston. Maybe folks up there aren't so much different than us.
That is what he deserves IMO. Now the appeals process will start. Even though there is no death penalty in Mass. I suspect this sentence will not be overturned. However, it may be years before he gets the lethal injection.
Crock, you shouldn't be too shocked. Massachusetts is liberal, but liberals are far from unanimous on the issue. First, many liberals support the death penalty - probably a minority but a significant one. Second, many liberals who oppose the death penalty do so because they don't trust the system (especially in the South and with black defendants) to only convict the guilty, not because they think the guilty don't deserve death. Third, some conscientious liberals truly find the death penalty to be a per se injustice but respect the law enough to follow a jury charge. The point is that if you combine those groups with the few conservatives that do live in Massachusetts, it's probably not that hard to impanel a jury that would impose the death penalty in case in which guilt isn't in question.
Worster Wasn't this a federal case and the death sentence would be carried out in a federal prison like McVeigh's was?
I believe you are correct, so a Federal conviction and death sentence for terrorism would trump Mass. law. He will be put to death in a humane way, unlike what he and his brother did to the victims of their cowardly terrorist act.
A better punishment would be to put him in a room with a pressure cooker bomb set to go off at a random, undisclosed time. For a little while we could think of him as Schroedinger's terrorist.
My understanding is that every potential juror who opposed the death penalty was immediately removed from the pool.
Not quite. In Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 522, n.21 (1968), the US Supreme Court wrote that disqualification occurs only if the jurors make it "unmistakably clear” that (1) they would “automatically vote against the death penalty” no matter what, or (2) that “their attitude about the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision”. The Court later clarified in Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162, 176 (1986) that those who oppose the death penalty can sometimes still serve as jurors in a death case: This is why jury selection takes so long in capital questions. Every juror has to be put through a battery of questions to determine not only what his or her position is, but how firmly held the position is and whether the prospective juror would listen to the judge and apply the law.
Good analysis, NJ. Like he says, the key factor isn't a general opposition to the death penalty but the ability to follow the law as set forth in the jury charge (which could be manifested in a particularly deeply held opposition to the death penalty). For example, if a juror was unwilling to follow the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard in determining guilt or innocence, he'd be stricken from the panel as well.
I figured it was time to dump the wheelchair and go with something else. Since HRC is the spare politician in need of some ridicule nowadays, I decided to do a little "research" and found a good one. Lol.
Sadly enough at first glance (hey I'm getting older) I thought "Wow, Hillary can (or at least could) look sexy." Closer evaluation ... not my type.
Deez, thanks to your new sig, I now have to fast-scroll through your posts, so just know that if your comment is less than a couple of sentences long, I'm probably not going to be able to read it without seeing something I can't unsee.
yea sigs can be pretty obnoxious. first it was years of goodhair eating a corndog , now we get tranny hillary. it is cute or whatever for a once viewing then it really is distasteful. can we pick and choose which sigs we see without it affecting the text content?
zork, don't sweat it. If it's in poor taste (and I can see why someone would think it was), then I'll get rid of it and come up with something else. I'll also try to get a smaller photo that's a little less conspicuous.
