No lingering doubt?

During the penalty phase trial this week, Cho's attorney asked the jury to focus on the issue of "lingering doubt." Even though jurors had found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, attorney Andrew Flier contended there were questions that remained unanswered — including why Cho, an insurance salesman and a married father of two, would commit the murders.

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Public support

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of American Adults now favor the death penalty, while just 25% oppose it.

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Even in California...

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Even the defendant agrees.

A condemned inmate who says he wants to die can reject a reprieve from the death penalty issued by Oregon’s governor, a judge ruled Friday in a case that probes the limits on the governor’s power.

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Latest survey on support for DP repeal in CA:

So there is a punishment for those already serving a life sentence...

A state prison inmate in California already serving a life term for murder has been sentenced again to life after admitting he killed a man and a woman just 12 days apart in Alameda nearly 16 years ago.

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An interesting DP case that resulted in LWOP:

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Killing fellow inmate

The Jefferson County justice system sought the death penalty Monday in a case of an inmate, for killing a fellow prisoner.

Charles Moorman was already serving life without parole before being convicted of killing another in the Tucker Unit.

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A lot

With four months remaining, 2012 is already the deadliest year in more than a decade in Texas prisons.

[Could it be because the prison system is hardening and the parole system is tightening for violent offenders?]

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And you heard it first here at TDCAA.com, back in August.

Actually, Elasko Thomas is not the latest victim as reported in the article. Number 11 was Billy De Los Santos, who died as a result of injuries sustained in a riot at the Estelle Unit. The riot was on July 31, and De Los Santos died on August 7, 2012.

Protect Guards

A guard at a Southeast Texas prison was hurt this week in an attack blamed on an inmate.

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No Residual Doubt

DNA testing confirms that death row inmate Bobby Lee Hines is guilty of the murder of Michelle Wendy Haupt two decades ago, the Dallas County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.

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During closing arguments Monday, Deputy Pima County Attorney Nicol Green told jurors Carlson deserved the death penalty because he killed multiple people, has a past violent criminal history and was on parole at the time.

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North Carolina prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a convicted serial rapist charged with beating a Wilmington woman to death earlier this year.

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"It is something we in the law enforcement community felt it was an appropriate sentence based on the crime. It is never acceptable in our society for someone to deliberately take the life of a law enforcement officer in the performance of his or her duties," expressed Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones.

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Public Support

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Anger management problems

He had been released from a court-ordered anger management class just a few days before Dobson was killed, and he had a long history of burglary, criminal mischief, car theft and assault. He described himself as a "monster" during texts to a young woman he was courting, and on the day after the killings, he spent hours partying in a Dallas nightclub with a cross-dressing male lover, witnesses told jurors.

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Hurting a child

The Montgomery County District Attorney will ask for the death penalty for Verna McClain.
McClain, 30, is accused of killing Kala Golden Schuchardt and abducting her 3-day-old baby outside a Spring pediatric clinic last April.

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From blog:

There is evil in this world. It is not to be mistaken with lack of opportunity, a poor education, or racism. If none of those things existed, there would still be evil. It stands its vigil at the border of civilized life, ready to make its foray if given the chance. Often it is concealed or disguised, which makes the fight against it so hard. But there are times when it shows its face. These are the child murders, the torture and sadism murders, the drawn out killing of helpless people for the fun of it.

A society that has lost -- or, more correctly, has forfeited -- its right to set its face against horrors like that, to recognize some acts as beyond the pale of civilization, and to say no and mean it -- that society has fumbled away something of ineffable value, something hard won but easily lost. It has fumbled away that is, the moral strength without which evil will win.

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Gang membership

A gang member who killed a promising Los Angeles High School football player because he believed the athlete’s red Spider-Man backpack linked him to an opposing gang was sentenced to death on Friday.

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