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11 10

LINK U.S. Supreme Court divided over condemned murderer's religious request | Reuters

  1. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo

Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared divided over a bid by a man sentenced to death for a fatal 2004 stabbing outside a convenience store to have his pastor lay hands on him during his execution in Texas in a case testing how far states must go to accommodate religious requests by condemned inmates.

snytiger6 9 Nov 10
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11 comments

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1

Jackasses sit around every day thinking up ways so subvert Democracy.

1

Why would this even go to the Supreme Court? He is going to die as punishment for his crime. If the religious requests keep on going in this manner, soon there might be a stay of punishment. Is it all about a last wish?

1

Who cares? Dead is dead.

2

My Connecticut used to use the Electric Chair........could be fun!

3

Fine, chuck the Pastor in as an extra attraction, no-one is going to miss a Pastor are they.
Cook the Pastor right and you can package him up, sell him to the Cannibals as "Pasta (Pastor) and as sauce of their own choosing....LOL.

You have to be careful with pastors to make sure you cook them properly, some of them are friars.

@PadraicM Like it, like it.

3

No someone who is condemned has not rights, none at all.

Of course they have rights. Not all who are condemned are even guilty.

@JonnaBononna To get an insight into what is US "justice" read "The innocent man" by John Grisham.
He relates the tale of four innocent men who were sentenced to death and spent time on death row in Oklahoma before being released. I wonder how many innocent people have been executed ?

@Moravian I saw the documentary about that case,
I also spent almost 4 years working as a social worker in what used to be known as America's bloodiest prison, Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. I learned there the state of our "justice" system. Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration of any state in the US, and therefore the highest rate in the world (since the US tops all other countries in incarceration). Second degree murder carries a mandatory life without parole sentence here, and Clinton's "three strikes law" paved the way for petty drug dealers, convicted three times with a relatively small amount of weed, to also get life without parole. I had a guy in one of my groups whose third conviction, for stealing a $159 jacket, earned him life without parole- his other 2 convictions were for car burglary, so no violent crimes. We also have about 1500 people serving life without parole who were not convicted by a unanimous jury. There is no justice in the justice system.

@JonnaBononna Appalling. I didn't realise that it was Clinton who introduced the three strikes law. He has now gone way down in my opinion.

5

Too bad the death isn't electrocution. Then I would say sure thing lay your hands on him as we pull the switch.

2

Why not have the pastor lay his hands firmly round the sentenced man's neck and kill two birds with one stone so to speak..

7

Since I oppose the death penalty on political reasons - I don't think a government should have the right to kill its own citizens - I really don't care about those of a religious ilk having hands laid on them at death, if all is equal, as in "I want a prostitute, paid by my estate, to lay her hands on me as well," or allowing some Islamist to be visited by an Imam and not an Xtion minister only.

6

Another shining example of how bad religion really is.

5

Fine ... Let his Pastor throw the switch.

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