11 yr old molested over 3 year period, youth volunteer facing the death penalty

[dimbear]

http://m.christianpost.com/news/11-year-old-molested-during-sunday-school-over-3-year-period-youth-volunteer-facing-death-penalty--107834/

"Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies arrested 47-year-old William Richardson II on charges that between 2010 and October 2013 he molested a girl who was nine-years-old at the time the alleged abuse began at First Baptist Church of Mango.

In a news release, law enforcement also claimed that the most recent attack came this month, when "at 11 years old, Richardson on at least one occasion sexually battered [the girl.]"

Richardson is currently facing the death penalty for his actions because of the ages of himself and the alleged victim. Under Florida law, sexual battery is a capital felony when the victim is under the age of 12 and perpetrator over the age of 17.
(snip)
According to Hillsborough County deputies, Richardson is an associate youth pastor and choir director at First Baptist Church of Mango. However, church staff told 10 News that Richardson only served as a volunteer with the youth."
***************
dimbear: talk about your moral dilemmas. If this chap is really the wretch he seems to be, should he get the needle? A real puzzler, IMHO.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. He's scum, but I oppose the death penalty in all cases.

Life without parole would be fine with me, though.

[enlightenment]

6. Agreed. nt

[demosincebirth]

16. Ditto

[Warpy]

33. Same here, just lock him in a cage and keep him there

for as long as his fellow inmates let him live.

He's very typical of a child rapist, hiding behind the cross.

[yodermon]

2. I Thought death penalty for anything besides murder

was against federal law?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Federal law doesn't apply here; this was a state crime.

[yodermon]

10. I guess I'm thinking about the cruel and unusual punishment

restriction.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. The Supreme Court has held (long ago) that the death penalty doesn't violate

the 8th Amendment as long as it carried out using "humane" modern methods. I would beg to differ but I don't get to decide these things.

[yodermon]

18. I'm off mobile so i can explain better now:

I thought that the SC held that the death penalty for any crime other than murder is by definition cruel & unusual.

However, I do remember Poppy Bush arguing for the death penalty for drug dealers(!) so I could be wrong here.

[xfundy]

12. What this bastard did to that child is cruel and unusual.

It seems that reports of those in church 'authority' abusing chidren or worse flow in on a daily basis. And many congregations are super-secret in their operations. I can't help but wonder how many similar stories go unreported, ignored or covered up as they were for so many years in the Catholic church and others.

And still, the rest of us are supposed to give "christians" the benefit of the doubt in most things, as they are historically considered "the good folks" who would never do anything wrong. "Trust us!" they say.

Hell, no, never again.

[morningfog]

27. The US Constitution applies. Supreme Court precedent applies.

He can't be put to death unless he took a life. A small caveat for crimes against the state, treason for example, has not been decided. But, crimes against the person, unles you take a life, you cannot get death.

[morningfog]

28. You are correct. Unless he took a life, he can't get death.

[Thinkingabout]

3. This is a horrible thing to happen, for the life of me I don't understand why the perverts

Chooses to place themselves to have access to our children. I doubt this is his first time to abuse. Sick, sick sick. Sometimes the punishment should fit the crime.

[DURHAM D]

8. Perverts choose their professions and volunteer activities so they CAN HAVE ACCESS to children.

[madrchsod]

5. he will wish he was dead....

[longship]

7. I cannot support the DP for any crime.

All the arguments for the DP are vacuous. And the revenge argument is especially so.

[Poddy Fries]

9. No dilemma here. If he's guilty of the crimes described, he's a monster. Kill him.

[bowens43]

14. So you're cool with government sponsored murder? How sad.

[Thinkingabout]

31. Are you okay with his crime? This child is sentenced to living with this for life.

[bowens43]

13. No death penalty ever under any circumstance. It's a no brainier.

[Iggo]

15. No death penalty. Ever.

See? No moral dilemma.

[doxyluv13]

17. No capital punishment for crimes other than murder.

Kennedy v. Louisiana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_v._Louisiana

Supreme Court decided Capital Punishment is only constitutional for murder, and specifically not for child rape. The state just hasn't changed their procedures to conform to the law. Surprising.

Also, the constitutionality of the Death Penalty in a U.S. constitutional issue so the state courts are largely irrelevant in determining those boundaries.

[TreasonousBastard]

19. If you accept the death penalty it is...

Back when prison was and expense and inconvenience for government, the death penalty was an easy out. No prisoners to feed, no appeals, and no watching them after they got out.

Here's some Colonial money:



They took counterfeiting seriously back then.

However, these days the death penalty isn't all that popular, and more and more people started thinking that dying to pay for killing makes no sense. Dying to pay for crimes less than killing makes even less sense.

So, heinous as the crime is, killing the bastid should be out of the question.

[hrmjustin]

20. I am against the death penalty so I say life if found guilty.

[okasha]

22. If he gets life in prison

he will wish he'd gotten the death penalty. That's the greater punishment, imo.

[arely staircase]

23. I am pretty sure it is unconstitutional to execute someone for a crime in which nobody died.

I could be wrong.

[SpartanDem]

24. It's still legal for things like espionage, treason, but otherwise you're right

it's been ruled unconstitutional for every other crime

[arely staircase]

25. ok ftr I will shed no tears for this person if he has done what he is acused of

regardless.

[morningfog]

29. You are right that any crime against a person

That doesn't take a life cannot get the death penalty. For some crimes against the state, such as treason and large scale drug trafficking, it is an open question.

[Mariana]

26. It's a terrible idea to execute him.

I think it would make child molesters more likely to kill their victims in the future. Why would child rapists leave their victims alive to report and testify, if they're going to get the needle either way?

I also oppose the DP in all cases.

[morningfog]

30. If Florida seeks death, his sentence will be vacated

and their statute officially struck down as unconstitutional. In the meantime, they will was a million or so dollars going through this stupid exercise. Death penalty for rape is unconstitutional, regardless of age.

[gopiscrap]

32. No death penalty ever