Do you think the state should have continued to pursue the death penalty against Jared Loughner after he changed his plea to guilty?

7 comments:

• Arizona Willie posted at 1:47 pm on Wed, Aug 8, 2012.

  Posts: 1917

  No ... he was mentally deranged. I don't see what purpose execution would serve. People generally can't help being crazy.

  And, a death sentence would produce multiple appeals and it generally takes about 25 years to get someone executed it seems. Just today they executed a guy for murders he committed in 87!

  So a death sentence would only be expensive for the community because society has to pay for his lawyers and all the forms and paperwork and appeals. And he still doesn't get executed for years and years.

  A life sentence is cheaper for society and some of the inmates may take care of execution for free with no appeals.

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• Dale Whiting posted at 10:11 am on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.

  Posts: 3705

  Finally the editors give us a new poll! ! ! [smile]

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• Dale Whiting posted at 10:13 am on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.

  Posts: 3705

  Willie,

  Ordinarily I would agree. But where we have only suspecions of his insanity, pursuing the death penalty would make him prove it. Once proven, the death penalty and even a trial on the merits would evaporate. So I voted to pursue the death penalty.

  Once again, our Editors miss the point.

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• Cerulean posted at 10:29 am on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.

  Posts: 1342

  Steve Benson pictured a good cartoon titled; The difference between Loughner, NRA. His message is that the NRA gets off “scot-free”. Good point Steve.

  See it here:http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/stevebenson/
  

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• Rich posted at 10:01 pm on Fri, Aug 10, 2012.

  Posts: 1871

  A) Shooting a politician is a borderline crime, probably shouldn't be a felony, at best a misdemeanor.
  B) Killing a child, hurting a child should bring a death penalty even for the deranged.
  C) Shooting a politician is simply the sincerest form of voting.
  D) Shooting average people cannot be tolerated even for the deranged and the death penalty needs to be applied.

  Those who rule should live in the shadow of our guns, The rest of us should be protected from them. Mr. Loughner should be executed for the crime of poor marksmanship, and feed him drugs until we do it, just like we fed them to him to get a confession, we aren't barbarians after all. A manifesto from him however would be great. If we knew why in the future we might save the child's life, the older lady's life, and lost the politicos, and that would have been a win-win.

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• Dale Whiting posted at 1:35 pm on Sat, Aug 11, 2012.

  Posts: 3705

  Rich,

  Are you having a bad day? Apparently so! Please turn in all of your guns!

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• Wisenold posted at 9:34 am on Fri, Aug 17, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  Rich's observations are the reason we have such violence, intolerance, biggotry, and racism in Arizona. Too bad he has the rights of every citizen, and is free to express his opinions.

  Saving the state what it would cost to put this whacko through a trial would be such a waste of money, and put the families through incredible pain. I do not usually believe in plea bargaining, but in this case, it was wise.

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