The death penalty is dying. The federal government will not execute Tsarnaev.

[morningfog]

The federal government has not executed a prisoner since 2003. There were 2 in 2001. The most recent federal execution prior to that was 1963. A total of 37 federal prisoners have been executed by the US government since 1927.

Setting aside the Dubya Bush administration, who was a blood thirsty sociopath, the federal government has not bee in the business of killing its prisoners. By and large, it is just the 32 states who still kill that carry the executions.

There is a de facto moratorium on federal executions. Obama and Holder each have personal distaste with executing prisoners. Which makes their sanction of the US Attorney's blood lust against Tsarnaev all the more troubling.

The Supreme Court is coming to realize that there is no humane way to execute a prisoner. There is no non-cruel way to intentionally take a healthy human's life. And as more states and more countries cease the barbaric practice, it becomes all the more unusual.

I don't believe the federal government will ever execute Tsarnaev. I don't think it was ever really the objective. This was all simply to throw red meat to the sadistic, blood thirsty ignorant minority of this country who believe they are entitled to say who lives and dies. Whatever. The fuckers got their archaic verdict. They won't get the execution. And one day in the not too distant future, they will live in a country where no one, no matter how reprehensible their acts, will be sentenced to death for their crimes. They'll have to get their vengeful hard-ons elsewhere.

[roamer65]

1. I certainly hope you are right. N/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. me too.

[zipplewrath]

2. That's my bet.

He's a young man. I suspect he will live to see the day when his sentence is over turned.

[Hoppy]

3. On what basis would it be overturned? Do you think he didn't do it?Did

you, maybe, mean commuted to life in prison?

[morningfog]

8. All death penalty sentences will be communted to life when the Supreme Court finally rules

the DP unconstitutional.

I didn't say anything as to whether Tsarnaev's conviction would be reversed.

[Calista241]

19. The Death Penalty may (and probably should) go away as a form of punishment.

But it won't be because it's unconstitutional. The DP is explicitly allowed for in the Constitution, and there have been dozens of Supreme Court decisions upholding it as a valid sentence.

[morningfog]

22. There have been many recent decisions chipping away at it.

And if it is in conflict with other portions of the constitution, one will yield.

It will be found unconstitutional. The only question is when.

[sabrina 1]

4. Archaic is the right word for this abhorrent practice. I hope you are right, but considering

we now conduct extra-judicial assassinations without any trial or conviction, ordered by one person in this government, I wouldn't bet on it, sadly.

[Maedhros]

9. The last person we executed in this manner was a propagandist

who likely never touched a weapon or explosive.

[Big Blue Marble]

6. A life sentence in a Maximum Security prison could actually be worse than execution.

We need to ban the death penalty and we need prison reform.

[hrmjustin]

7. I hope you are right.

I would have voted for life imprisonment.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. The Super Max is not far behind...Tsarnaev will also not be housed in a super max for life

You're quite right. Mr. Tsarnaev will not be executed. Federal executions will be a thing of the past long before his appeals run out. He will also not spend life in a Super Max. The Super max is little more than a penal fad that is now long past its sell-by date. There will be no super-maxes in 10 years. And thank all the REAL liberal activists and lawyers for that.

The internet liberals are actually conservative punishment fetishists at this point. They done got took.

[morningfog]

11. The supermaxes cannot close fast enough.

It was a huge step backwards.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. It's a horror

The faster the (actual liberal) lawyers shut it down the better.

[WestSideStory]

14. Tsarnev lucked out with the death penalty by not going to supermax

[former9thward]

13. " the Dubya Bush administration, who was a blood thirsty sociopath"

How many federal prisoners were executed when Bush was president?

[morningfog]

18. Three.

[NuclearDem]

20. McVeigh and Juan Garza in 2001, Louis Jones Jr in 2003.

[former9thward]

21. Exactly.

And that is the point.

[unblock]

27. add 152 if you want to count while he was governor of texas.

[former9thward]

32. The OP was about federal executions so I won't add anything.

TX has a "weak governor" system and can't stop executions -- not that Bush would have if he could. On the other hand it was Clinton who deliberately stopped his campaigning in 1992 to come back to Arkansas to sign the papers to execute a mentally retarded prisoner.

[morningfog]

34. Three were executed under bush, the only three since 1963.

Last edited Mon May 18, 2015, 10:35 AM - Edit history (1)

That he presided over three executions is in the context of his sociopathy, which includes the million Iraqis he killed.

[former9thward]

36. You oppose Tim McVeigh dying?

I am happy he is gone.

[morningfog]

37. My personal and absolute opposition to the DP is not the point of

this thread. I oppose the death penalty, always and in every case, including McVeigh.

The point of this thread is that the federal government, except under the sociopath bush administration is no longer in the execution of prisoners business. Bush is an outlier, 3 executions since 1963, all under him.

The Supreme Court is moving away from allowing executions. It has been limiting the crimes and the defendants eligible for death. The next step will limit the means of execution, which will end it in the US. The Court will get there before Tsarnaevs appeals are exhausted. The quest for, and return of, a death verdict was all for show.

[TheCowsCameHome]

15. House him in the general population while he appeals.

Let nature take it's course.

[Major Nikon]

16. humane execution is an oxymoron

[Cassidy1]

24. Agreed.

Sometimes the head would separate from the torso in a botched hanging. Some have lived through electrocution. I heard about a man who did not die when the drugs were injected.

[Major Nikon]

25. True those are the worst examples

But even the best examples aren't. There's nothing humane about killing a perfectly healthy human that doesn't want to die regardless of what they may have done. The rest of the civilized world seems to have figured that out.

[Cassidy1]

26. I agree

I don't think people have a right to determine this. There are also all the exonerated people due to DNA and other things. I remember Amnesty International had a count of 25 wrongly executed (they weren't actually guilty in their trials) in the 20th century, but that figure was awhile back.

[Major Nikon]

28. An imperfect justice system insures innocent people will eventually die

But even if the system were perfect, there's still be plenty of reasons why the DP is wrong and no reasons why it's right.

[Cassidy1]

29. Yes.

[bigwillq]

17. That's fine.

I hope he rots in Super Max.

[Cassidy1]

23. I'm not sure.

Maybe they want to make an example of him? Not exactly like McVeigh, but a high profile case nonetheless.

[DeadEyeDyck]

30. Timothy McVeigh was executed in Federal prison

[morningfog]

31. Yes, I know.

I mentioned the three under the last bush administration.

[darkangel218]

33. I hope you are right. The DP is barbaric and it needs to be federally abolished.

[MindPilot]

35. If we are going allow the state the power to execute, then make it worth something.

Take the guy to a hospital operating room, put him under and harvest the organs.

Then we are actually sacrificing his life to save others...literally an "eye for an eye..."