Why Do Juries Wimp Out On Death Penalty?
Two men, just doing their jobs as armored car guards in Northeast Philadelphia are shot to death in cold blood. Last week, the triggerman, Mustafa Ali, was convicted. Last night, a common pleas court jury sentenced him to life in prison, rejecting the DA’s appeals for a death sentence.
It has always amazed me how juries are reluctant to impose death penalties. I want to know what goes into the mind of a jury,which heard uncontested testimony of the vicious killings of William Widmaier and Joseph Allulo. The killer expressed no emotion during the trial, but for the victim’s families, the pain was all-too-familiar.
Why do juries rarely impose death as the punishment? It is true that death penalties are rarely carried out, but the threat of dying is always there. And the killer never knows when the solitary march to execution, will come.
All juries must decide on the merits. The testimony in this case was so dead-on. Why did the jury let this man live? So many juries follow the same pattern. When you sentence someone to death for a heinous crime, is it a sin? Perhaps some of these soft jury members think more about the killer, than they do about those left behind – the families of the victims.
Does the punishment fit the crime? Certainly, not in this case.
Comments(11)
Larry – A wiser man than I once said “an eye for an eye only winds up making the whole world blind and toothless.” State sanctioned execution is nothing more than revenge, it’s not justice.
KILL THEM ALL! DEATH TO ALL WHO BREAK THE LAW (UNLESS THEY’RE RICH WHITE EXECUTIVE TYPES WHO PERPETRATE BROAD ECONOMIC CRIMES AGAINST THOUSANDS–THEY ONLY GET A SMACK ON THE WRIST)!
If you’re not part of the family an eye for an eye doesn’t work. So in your mind if you condemn to death you’re no better than the person you’re judging. No body has the right to take a life, that’s why the killer is on trial. I would have thought you would have figured that out.
You’re asking a complete stranger to tell you whether a person lives or dies. This idiot deserves to die but for the rest of my life I have to remember I killed him.
I’m with you Larry,the death penalty is greatly underused.Not only would I apply it in this case,I would also apply it in cases where someone is arrested for the,oh I don’t know,maybe the 23rd time.Really,is someone like that ever going to make a contribution to society ? Instead,when they’re finally put away for some real time,they get to enjoy cable tv,3 meals a day & workout time in the gym.Plus they often convert to Islam & take one of those catchy names like Amir or Suliman.All this on out dime of course.I say use the death penalty more often or make prison life intolerable,like the Turkish jail in “Midnight Express.”
Larry: What a bizarre post. Whatever your feelings on the death penalty, to so callously refer to decisions about state sanctioned execution as “wimping out” is really, really odd.
Larry, it is not the juries, but the slick talking lawyers that exaggerate a perv’s abused childhood as a sorry excuse for committing murder.
Difference between first and second degree murder is that you stay in jail forever but are able to commingle with inmates at Graterford if convicted of second degree murder. If sentenced to death for first degree murder, you are kept in a small room 23/24 hours a day with one hour allowed out to exercise in a small yard.
You will go stir crazy in death penalty prison while appeals are filed on your behalf and you will have human contact with your lawyers. That will stall your death penalty, but you still live in a little box of a room 23/24 a day.
Big difference between death penalty and second degree imprisonment for life without parole is that you are forgotten by all while living in the deepest bowels of prison and only remembered by death penalty opponents who file appeals for you if you are on death row.
Let the killer of the two former police men go stir crazy in his little cell forevermore!
When OJ was declared not guilty I knew our country was is trouble. Juries are loaded with misinformed, biased, and not too bright people. It’s as though every black man on trial gets a break simply because he might be descended from a slave.
On the other hand that family in Lower Merion suing for invasion of privacy has a lot to answer for. Those people use the court system to add to their pocket book. Who is worse a cold hearted killer or that scum sucking bunch who live the life of Reily on the Main Line and yet owe money to everyone.
I got a break from a cop I called “sugart*ts.”
For God’s sake Larry think before
you post, we can wait a few days,
and you can avoid looking clueless.
Mumia would not be a celebrated cop
killer and martyr to white liberals
had he been sentenced to life instead
of execution. The victims family would
not have celebrities and universities
hanging on his every musing.
Death penalty is racially and class biased
Against people of color and lesser means, I
thought you cared about them?
Advent of DNA evidenced has exonerated and
released over 100 death row inmates who could
have been executed in error.
States don’t met it out fairly, TX has
Macho juries sentencing death every day and
NY has pasty faced wimpy juries never
convicting for even the most heinous crimes.
All human life is sacred and even the worst
of the worst sometimes come to Jesus, repent
and give back in prison.
The multiple appeal process is actually
more expensive than hosuing the murders for
life, plus no chance for marttdom if killed.
If Charles Manson had been executed he might
be a folk hero or mystical leader to some, instead
we see a severly mentally ill man who was
shown to not be a genius or special person
With supernatural powers as many hippies beleived.
We learned from Jeffrey Dahlmer in prison, as
Sick as he was, what good would state sactioned
killing be? I was glad to see him murdered in prison
that’s okay, its not the state doing it.
I cannot believe how far off base you are on
this one Larry. Are you trying to impress your buddy
Smerkonsish? Anyone who supports death in US
Courts is a ill informed of facts. Military tribunal
for terrorists and death penalt are acceptable
because that is a matter of national security
and is in event of war.
Juries not handing out death is not a matter
of being “whimpy” but rather thoughtful and
well informed, and this is coming from a hard
right conservative who thought Cheney could
have been a bit tougher and darker.
I made a lot of money on a movie about the Roman death penalty. I’d like to film some more brutal murders for money. It’s fun and religious and I get to buy islands and lots of drinks.