I don't get the viciousness of the attack. Whenever I burgle a home, if the inhabitants are present, I just sneak out through the same catflap I came in. #murder
@blix: I vow to stop being vague just for you, blixy! It's just too bad they couldn't get a two-for-one deal with the Beltway sniper the other day. Save on paperwork, that sort of thing. #murder
@scroll_lock:
Yes, killing people is terrible. That's why we as a society need our blood vengeance... so that we can show people that killing people is wrong. #murder
@BettyCrocker: Well, he did kill her. I don't believe in the death penalty, but are you suggesting that it oughtn't to be applied in cases where it seems 'too obvious'? #murder
@chinaplate: I think the point is more that in the case of a black man, it's pretty much a certainty that the death penalty will be applied, where it wouldn't be a certainty were it a white man. #murder
@BettyCrocker: @BettyCrocker: Yeah, or someone murders someone and capital punishment works (well, works if you agree with it) like the law says it does. Not everything is about race, even in the south. Crazy, right! tl;dr - a nilla would have gotten the dealth penalty too. #murder
@Buttafooco, @Angriest Greek: I was ignorant of the law and statistics in this particular case, so I thank you, but I was just trying to give an interpretation of BettyCrocker's comment. But even so, from what knowledge I did have, it's been found that the death penalty is applied unevenly between blacks and whites (in general). #murder
@Lucky: Point well taken. I think one of the reasons for that may be because when it's applied to whites, we don't often hear about it in the media as much as when it applies to blacks, which is especially true if it's black on white crime. #murder
@Buttafooco: We heard about this not because he is a black man but because she was so loved by the community. The murder was gruesome and devastating to the area. I think the death penalty would be sought regardless of who did it because of the role of Anne Pressley.
@AlexSea: Oh, it totally works. Once they pump the poison into this fella, (1) Anne Pressly will come back to life and (2) homicidal maniacs with incurable sociopathic tendencies will stop in their tracks, so deterred from committing acts of violence they'll be.
@Buttafooco: Interesting chart. Did you look at the population numbers for the state by race? Because according to the U.S. Census bureau, the racial divide in Alabama is 71% white and 26% black, making a nearly equal division in executions by race disproportionately applied.
@Scooter34: I actually did not and I must confess I suck at statistics and maths. However, wouldn't you have to look the racial makeup of the prison population, rather than the general population? It may be a 71% white to 26% black in the general population but when you look at the prison population, the numbers are much different. However, there is no denying the fact that the media seems give more traction to crimes that involve black men against white women. #murder
@Lucky: From what I remember of the class on the death penalty that I took in college, it's applied proportionately between blacks and whites when you control for the race of the victim. A killer of any race is FAR more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for killing a black person. Tells you about which lives we value as a society, I think.
Although I don't think this is a clear case of that bias since the white victim was prominent and well-liked in the community, and the brutality of the murder combined with the victim's visibility probably means that anyone convicted of it would face death. The statistic overall is telling, though. #murder
@pssshwhatever: It has been a while since I've read anything about it, though I'm sure one of my classes will cover it at some point as I'm a Soc/Poli Sci major (I know...). I almost took criminal justice this quarter.
And that the divide is revealed when you look at the race of the victim is very telling indeed. I'll have to look out for info on that. Thanks! #murder
@Lucky: The death penalty class I took was really fascinating, one of the best that I took in college. There are a lot of BS "facts" out there about the DP and it was nice to cut through some of that. I had always heard black offenders were disproportionately executed, and I was surprised to find that that's not exactly the case. #murder
@Buttafooco: I didn't mean this as a be-all, end-all of the discussion. Statistics are manipulated from many points of view.
One of the dirty little secrets in law enforcement is crime reporting. For years, we have reported under Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), which allows us to report only the most serious in a series of crimes. So, for example, a rape and robbery that end in murder are reported as a murder. The FBI is pushing hard to switch to NIBRS, which is National Incident Based Reporting System, which would count all three offenses in the above example. So, you're already comparing apples to oranges if you're looking at crime statistics, because you're probably looking at UCR vs. NIBRS. #murder
@Scooter34: actually, I have zero interest in comparing any sort of crime stats. I was merely pointing out that if you're speaking about comparisons regarding death penalty cases as it relates to fact vs public perception when it comes to race, it would be more appropriate to do comparisons within the prison populations when making the argument. And now I am off to eat an apple............and then.....perhaps an orange. #murder
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
Yes, killing people is terrible. That's why we as a society need our blood vengeance... so that we can show people that killing people is wrong. #murder
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
[quickfacts.census.gov] #murder
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
Although I don't think this is a clear case of that bias since the white victim was prominent and well-liked in the community, and the brutality of the murder combined with the victim's visibility probably means that anyone convicted of it would face death. The statistic overall is telling, though. #murder
11/12/09
And that the divide is revealed when you look at the race of the victim is very telling indeed. I'll have to look out for info on that. Thanks! #murder
11/12/09
11/12/09
One of the dirty little secrets in law enforcement is crime reporting. For years, we have reported under Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), which allows us to report only the most serious in a series of crimes. So, for example, a rape and robbery that end in murder are reported as a murder. The FBI is pushing hard to switch to NIBRS, which is National Incident Based Reporting System, which would count all three offenses in the above example. So, you're already comparing apples to oranges if you're looking at crime statistics, because you're probably looking at UCR vs. NIBRS. #murder
11/12/09
11/13/09