People under the legal age of 18 should be executed for their crimes. A lot of people think that kids under 18 should not face the death penalty. I beg to differ. People get the death penalty for premeditated murder. In other words they thought about it, possibly planned it out intricately and did it. These are not accidental killing's we're talking about. One of the most obvious cases of premeditated murder by someone under 18 would be Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the beltway snipers.
The Supreme Court yesterday declared the execution of those under 18 "cruel and unusual punishment" and therefore unconstitutional. The states that currently allow it are now not able to and therefore this decision commutes the sentence of about 100 death row inmates under 18 across the nation.
Lets analyze this for a minute. These "kids" thought about and planned the murder of one or more individuals. Then they went on to carry out the murder. The loss of life to one of these vile individuals unalterably affects the life of everyone related to the person murdered -- from the mothers to the children to the spouses. Sometimes it devastates a family financially as the main "bread winner" of the family is taken out in a vicious manner by some "kid".
There's "right to life" and then there's keeping those who have really screwed over a lot of other peoples lives alive. There is the argument that these "kids" didn't know what they were doing, but they were found in a court of law to know the difference between right and wrong and continued on their course of destruction. You do the crime you better be prepared to face the consequences.
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Lee Boyd Malvo
No Longer Has To Worry About The Death Penalty |
This is a slap in the face of all those in the Washington DC area who lost a love one because of Lee Boyd Malvo. Malvo will now sit in jail watching cable TV, having a roof over his head and a warm bed, playing some chess and probably taking some school courses. His life continues unabated while those he has directly affected by his planned actions will face the consequences of his actions for the rest of their lives because their loved one happened to get some gas or go to the store at the wrong time.
Vicious animals like these deserve immediate execution. There is no doubt that they were the ones who did it. No DNA test down the road is going to prove it wasn't them and that they were innocent. In order to have a civilized society you must have severe consequences for those who wish to deliberately go against society.
Other Commentary:
Baldilocks also points out that the Columbine teen's would have escaped the death penalty.
Professor Bainbridge
Ben's Law
On The Third Hand who argues that they don't know the difference between right and wrong
Legal XXX
Right Thinking From The Left Coast
PoliBlog here and here
Outside The Beltway
Say Anything who plays the "might be innocent" card.
Damnum Absque Injuria and on Lee Boyd Malvo
Hennessy's View
ThoughtsOnline
GOP Bloggers
Signifying Nothing
Grapevine's Rambling
Chris Short
The Punning Pundit
Deans World
