Can someone tell me why this man (assuming the bodies are discovered) should not be taken out and shot like a dog? Really, why should the state spend thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, to keep him in relative luxury for the next 40 years?
The Weaver family history is a deeply troubled and especially violent one. The family patriarch sits on California's Death Row for clubbing a stranded motorist to death in 1981, then raping and strangling the man's fiancee before dumping her body in a backyard grave he told his unwitting 10-year-old son, Rodney, to dig.
Ward Weaver III spent time in prison in the mid-1980s for striking a baby sitter with a 12-pound chunk of cement, and his two former wives have accused him of abuse. Weaver's son, Francis, rattled the sleepy Idaho town of Shoshone in 1999, when he shot a rifle into a truckload of teens, injuring one.
The roots of the Weaver family troubles stretch back at least four generations to Dorothy Weaver, Ward Weaver Jr.'s mother, who, according to a Kern County, Calif., prosecutor, harbored a deep hatred of men. Ron Shumaker, who prosecuted the death penalty case against Weaver Jr., cited court testimony from a witness who said Dorothy, wielding a butcher knife, once declared that she wanted to "cut off all their penises."
posted on August 25, 2002 01:35:13 PM new
Can someone tell me why this man (assuming the bodies are discovered) should not be taken out and shot like a dog?
I like to think we, as a society, are better than cold-blooded killers. Killing someone to show that killing is wrong is just illogical.
Really, why should the state spend thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, to keep him in relative luxury for the next 40 years?
It costs millions (something like 3-5 million per application) more to apply the death penalty than to house a criminal for life.
posted on August 25, 2002 02:21:28 PM newBecause he's clearly mentally ill?
Not so clear. Apparently he was sane enough to hold down a job and function adequately. Are you suggesting that anyone who commits murder is therefore mentally ill and should be excluded from the death penalty?
In my opinion, potential killers should KNOW from the start that if they commit murder, they have forfeited their lives and WILL be put to death. What kind of deterrent is life behind bars, with all their needs cared for, free food, medical care, television, etc., to many people?
The fact that our legal system is bloated with lawyers charging $400/hr to appeal the rights of convicted child murderers should not be a reason to diminish their penalty.
posted on August 25, 2002 02:34:14 PM newThe fact that our legal system is bloated with lawyers charging $400/hr to appeal the rights of convicted child murderers should not be a reason to diminish their penalty.
And what planet are you from? 99.9% of death row inmates/defendants are represented by low-paid, over-worked, sometimes inexperienced public-defenders.
Are you one of those folks who wants to do away with the lengthy appeals process allowed to death row inmates? If so, what's to become of those folks who might be exonerated as a result of those appeals? Remember what happened in Illinois?
You, Twinsoft, are an example of why the death penalty should be repealed. How can you, and so many others, support a system that you are so ignorant about?
posted on August 25, 2002 02:48:16 PM new
Nice to see you again, Julesy. Sorry you feel that way. Do you have kids? Are you sure you'd be moaning about rights if this happened to your kid? Interesting to see what turns up under that slab of concrete he poured just after the girl disappeared.
For God's sakes, a body was discovered in his tool shed. Why are you even bringing up this nonsense about innocent people being executed?
posted on August 25, 2002 03:57:48 PM new
twinsoft- Until the bleeding heart liberals get it through their thick skulls that not everyone who commits a violent crime is mentally ill, they will never concede that anyone should be given the death penalty. Now with DNA testing exonerating some deathrowers, their position is even more steadfast. This is an issue like abortion where logic gives way to emotionalism. Save your breath.
posted on August 25, 2002 04:21:39 PM new
Yes, Twinsoft, I have kids, and I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like if anything like this happened to them. I base my opinion on what I do know, and not an unknown or a worst-case-scenario type of thing.
I will say that I've seen parents interviewed, who'd had children murdered, and they were vehemently anti-death penalty. I saw it during the McVeigh case and with a couple mothers whose children were murdered.
While I am liberal, I don't think I'm of the bleeding-heart set. I don't feel pity for murderers or feel they're all mentally ill. I simply think our system of executing people is badly flawed, and we'd be much better served if every state enforced strong, life-without-parole sentences.
Sorry if I came off curt, Twinsoft; this is a subject that bothers me more than anything and I should know better than to post to a thread about it.
[ edited by Julesy on Aug 25, 2002 04:24 PM ]
posted on August 25, 2002 05:21:35 PM new
No problem, obviously I expect contrary opinions. I do think there's a world of difference between someone raping and murdering a child, and someone setting off a bomb.
I've said it before. In my opinion, a person who murders has forfeited his life, and the family has A RIGHT TO JUSTICE. Please don't tell me, when a man with a history of violent sexual assault, is caught burying the child's body in his back yard, that "we don't know the facts for sure."
The person who does that doesn't deserve to live a comfortable life at taxpayers' expense. He needs to be shot like a mad dog. JMHO.
posted on August 25, 2002 06:05:34 PM new
According to news reports, the first body was identified as one of the missing teens. The other teen's body was found under the concrete.
posted on August 25, 2002 08:34:27 PM new
>Not so clear. Apparently he was sane enough to hold down a job and function adequately. Are you suggesting that anyone who commits murder is therefore mentally ill and should be excluded from the death penalty?
Read that article. Only someone highly insane would kill like that, then just leave the body(s) lying around like they were so much cordwood. Or, are you suggesting that this was the work of a perfectly sane person?
posted on August 25, 2002 08:37:03 PM new
>Does anyone know the truth about the relative costs of life imprisonment vs. execution?
I've seen the cost comparisons before elsewhere than here. A Death Penalty conviction from trial to burial is staggeringly more expensive than just to house the inmate for around $35,000 per year. Some incredibly stupid politicians and radio talk show hosts have tried to cut the costs down by trying to limit the appeal process or just doing away with the appeal process. Seeing as how many convicts that are on Death Row are innocent, that was quite a horror to have suggested such a thing.
posted on August 25, 2002 09:37:24 PM new
Borillar, I admit I am not in a position to provide expert opinion on insanity. However, to assume that anyone who would commit murder must be insane, as I feel Helen is inclined to argue, is right out there.
posted on August 26, 2002 04:57:53 AM new
Here's a slightly off topic comment or question. Suppose we discover that these murderous tendencies or behaviors are caused by genetics? Then what? Do we screen people for a particular gene? Do we screen only the children of murderers? And if we find the genetic link, do we alter it? Do we have the right to do so as a society?
posted on August 26, 2002 06:05:39 AM new
Twinsoft
"Borillar, I admit I am not in a position to provide expert opinion on insanity. However, to assume that anyone who would commit murder must be insane, as I feel Helen is inclined to argue, is right out there."
Even if we assume that everyone convicted of murder is sane, I am still opposed to the death penalty.
