US Military to proceed with execution

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Irish Sun

US Military to proceed with execution
Irish Sun
Friday 21st November, 2008

The US military will execute a former Army cook on December 10th due to his guilt in murder and rape incidents.

The man, former North Carolina soldier Ronald A. Gray, will die in what will be the US military's first execution in nearly 50 years.

Gray was convicted in connection with four murders and eight rapes in North Carolina between April 1986 and January 1987, while he was stationed at Fort Bragg.

President Bush approved Gray's execution in July.


Read more: http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/432795/cs/1/

[Demeter]

1. Okinawa Must Be Fascinated By This

[LynnTheDem]

14. That thought had occurred to me.

Amongst others.

There's so much wrong...where the fuck do we even begin???

[shadowknows69]

2. Bush must be creaming in his jeans

He hasn't been able to order an official death in a while.

[acmavm]

3. bush** would love to bring back beheadings I bet. I think he'd even

volunteer to wield the axe.

[saigon68]

4. The sight of blood would probably disgust him

Since he is a COWARD and an AWOL CHIMPANZEE

He has a Himmler type personality. It was said that despite ordering 6 million Jews to the gas chambers that Himmler didn't like to see the suffering of a sick dog.

[acmavm]

6. No, you're wrong. He loved to blow up frogs, torture his frat buddies

with hot coat hangers, etc. He'd get off on it. Maybe even make Laura watch (as a kind of foreplay).

[leftchick]

5. yep, that will bring them back

:sarcasm:

the rest of his life in the brig is sufficient. bush loves blood.

[cobalt1999]

7. The "that will bring them back" is a stupid argument.

Will being in the brig for the rest of his life "bring them back"?

If not, you're just being silly.

[leftchick]

9. killing him does exactly what?

deter murderers? No, it does not. Punishment felt daily by being confined for life is appropriate. Killing never is.

[cobalt1999]

10. It does exactly the same thing as locking him, but better.

Neither punishment brings anyone back, so it's a disingenuous argument.

Life in Prison or Death Penalty removes the threat from society. Only the DP ensures the threat never escapes.

[leftchick]

12. lovely thoughts

so it is about revenge? :eyes: completely and morally wrong.

[cobalt1999]

13. Revenge is the argument now?

Where did I mention revenge? You are all over the map.

Fine, let's play your game.

Life in Prison all about revenge so you are completely and morally wrong.

:eyes:

[customerserviceguy]

17. It's ridiculous to pooh-pooh the deterrent value of the death penalty

when in the tiny percent of capital crimes it's actually carried out, it happens some two decades after the commission of the offense. If it were administered with greater certainty and more swiftness, we could begin to examine its efficacy as a deterrent.

[leftchick]

18. ah yes! DIE baby DIE! The SOONER the BETTER!

tell that to these men and their families. If just ONE innocent is put to death for crimes not committed then the whole process needs to be ended.

Innocents Saved from Death Row Join Lawmakers to Promote Study into Reducing the Risk of Death Penalty Mistakes (6/12/2002)


WASHINGTON - Three innocent men, recently exonerated and released from death row, today joined with lawmakers here to promote an independent federal study into potentially widespread incidences of innocent men and women being put to death by a faulty capital punishment system in America.

"Were it not for the persistence of my family, I would never see the outside of a prison. I know first-hand that the system doesn't work," said Ray Krone, who became the 100th exoneree in March. "Congress needs to act now to prevent other innocent Americans from facing the injustice that I have witnessed."

Floridian Juan Melendez who spent seventeen years on death row before finally being exonerated and Kurt Bloodsworth, a Maryland man who was sentenced to die based solely on circumstantial evidence, both joined Krone at the hearings.

The exonerees timed their trip to Washington to coincide and draw attention to a hearing in the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee examining ways to reduce the risk of innocent persons being executed in America. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI), who chairs the subcommittee, has introduced legislation that would impose a moratorium on the federal death penalty and empanel a national, independent commission to investigate flaws in the system that allow innocent persons to be sentenced to death.

Sen. Feingold's bill, called the "National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001" (S. 233) will be discussed at the hearing along with the recommendations of a Governor's Commission in Illinois. The Illinois commission was formed by Republican Gov. George Ryan after 13 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row in quick succession. Gov. Ryan also declared a moratorium on executions in his state The commission recommended 85 sweeping changes to the state's use of the death penalty, including reducing the number of capital crimes and beefing up competent counsel protections.

Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening of Maryland followed suit in May, declaring a moratorium and appointing a panel to study the fairness of his state's death penalty. Supporters of the federal legislation, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also upped the intensity of their advocacy last month after Pennsylvania inmate Thomas Kimbell became the 101 person to be saved from death row since the death sentence was reintroduced in 1976. The ACLU sponsored the exoneree trip to Capitol Hill.

"The government is losing in the ultimate zero-sum game," said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "In the life and death questions posed by the death penalty, the state does not get another chance to make right when they kill the wrong person. Legislation is needed to prevent further tragedy."


http://www.aclu.org/capital/innocence/10347prs20020612.html

[customerserviceguy]

20. To oppose the death penalty because "it isn't a deterrent"

is to not understand the meaning of the principle of deterrence. There are other reasons to oppose it, I suppose, but that's a useless argument.

The same DNA evidence that has been used to exonerate people can also be used to make certain that we really have caught the guilty. Unless you think that every cop is a Mark Furman.

[Pithlet]

21. It's even more ridiculous to pooh pooh the fact you can't undo death.

People are found innocent after conviction, sometimes years after the fact, all the time. Even in murder cases that looked airtight. So, how do you bring someone back from death?

That's why we get rid of the death penalty. That reason, right there. That trumps any deterrent value that may or may not exist 1000 times over.

[scrinmaster]

22. Do you also think it's strange

that we lock up kidnappers to show them that locking up people is wrong.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. I wonder why is a military trial necessary in this case.

Wouldn't a civilian court pretty much certainly yield the same outcome?

[Princess Turandot]

11. Some of the victims, including a woman he murdered were in the army..

would that be the reason?

Gray, 43, is being confined at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. He was convicted by a six-member court-martial panel for:

_ Raping and killing Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of Fayetteville on Dec. 15, 1986. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol that Gray confessed to stealing. She also suffered blunt force trauma over much of her body.

_Raping and killing Kimberly Ann Ruggles, a civilian cab driver in Fayetteville. She was bound, gagged, stabbed repeatedly and had bruises and lacerations on her face. Her body was found on the base.

_Raping, robbing and attempting to kill an Army private in her barracks at Fort Bragg on Jan. 3, 1987. The victim testified against Gray and identified him as her assailant. Gray raped her and stabbed her several times in the neck and side.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5GAUkcdh0ge-8KRXP6X44ADYJXQD94IUC604

[legin]

15. Don't let it happen

it will establish a precedent.

Gray is a lowlife for sure but that is why he got picked.

[AlphaCentauri]

16. Obviously this guy was not deploy to any country where prostitution is legal n/t

[Tikki]

19. You have to wonder if Steven D. Green will...

be executed or pardoned to life in prison.

Tikki