VA - Robin Lovitt - 1,000th US execution since 1977

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Lethal landmark for America's death penalty
(Filed: 29/11/2005)

Tomorrow will mark the 1,000th execution since 1977, writes Harry Mount in New York

The modern era of capital punishment reaches a macabre milestone tomorrow with America's 1,000th execution since it reintroduced the death penalty in the 1970s.

Barring a miraculous last minute pardon, Robin Lovitt, 41, will be executed tomorrow for the crime of fatally stabbing a man with scissors in a Virginia pool hall robbery in 1998.

Were it not for the landmark it represents, Lovitt's death would be as unremarkable as that of those condemned to death before him - or even the murder of his victim.

Over the past 28 years the United States has on average executed one person every 10 days.

And the conveyor belt is so efficient that reports of executions are hidden inside the local papers.

Indeed the condemned criminal's choice of menu for his last meal inspires as much interest as the method with which the sentence is carried out.

More ... http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/29/wdeath29.xml
 
I am just glad that the death penalty is available and used. Although it is infrequent.
 
concernedperson said:
I am just glad that the death penalty is available and used. Although it is infrequent.
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Me too. I was surprised the total was already at 1,000 ... especially the way California leaves them sitting there for years!
 
can we do another 1,000 as soon as possible,, please.....???
 
:woohoo:

Let's hope the next 1000 goes far faster than the previous!
 
I agree! What's taking them so long? They've got at least another 1,000 who should be taken in ASAP!
 
And way more than just 1,000 of those left on death row are child killers alone. The Carlie Brucia trial has totally made me believe perverts convicted of hurting/killing children should just be taken out immediately and killed. No long years on death row, no appeals, no painless deaths for them. They should be executed in the same manner their victims were.
 
I assume ya'll don't mind executing innocent people as well, since it becomes increasingly clear that happens as well.

Apparently, as long as we kill somebody really fast, that suffices.
 
Nova said:
I assume ya'll don't mind executing innocent people as well, since it becomes increasingly clear that happens as well.

Apparently, as long as we kill somebody really fast, that suffices.
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Nova, I feel that its spectacularly unfair for you to make that assumption.
 
...it has been shown over and over ad nauseum that the death penalty does not deter crime...never has and never will...Furthermore, death penalty cases/prisoners are more expensive...and since it is impossible to "restore" someone who has been executed in error, (unlike compensating someone who has been wrongly imprisoned), we, as a civilized nation whould not use it.

OTOH, I do believe in harsher and "truer", i.e., mandatory sentencing for certain crimes...i.e., LWOP, should mean just that...or the "hard 40" types of laws that are in effect in some places. I think that LWOP should be mandatory for certain crimes...

It's a very simplistic and "knee-jerk" reaction, IMO, to call for the death penalty....It doesn't get to any of the roots of the problems we have in society to begin with...I find it especially deplorable when pro-death penalty sentiment is combined with fundamentalist Christianity...quite bizarre and scary...
 
Jeana (DP) said:
Nova, I feel that its spectacularly unfair for you to make that assumption.
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How unfair, Jeana? As Mama used to say, "Haste makes waste." More and faster executions must lead to more killing of the wrongly convicted.

Now you know I am not "soft" on violent crime. As a matter of fact, I am in complete agreement with Cappy's post above: sentences for violent crimes should be harsher and more certain.

You also know I oppose the d.p. and why. But setting that aside for the moment, surely putting any human being to death is something that should be done carefully and with due consideration, not in a rush.

(ETA: thanks for the "howdy" over in the PP. I think of you often and fondly, even when I don't have a lot of time to post. (And, yes, even when you are pissed off at me. :) ))
 
Nova said:
How unfair, Jeana? As Mama used to say, "Haste makes waste." More and faster executions must lead to more killing of the wrongly convicted.

Now you know I am not "soft" on violent crime. As a matter of fact, I am in complete agreement with Cappy's post above: sentences for violent crimes should be harsher and more certain.

You also know I oppose the d.p. and why. But setting that aside for the moment, surely putting any human being to death is something that should be done carefully and with due consideration, not in a rush.

(ETA: thanks for the "howdy" over in the PP. I think of you often and fondly, even when I don't have a lot of time to post. (And, yes, even when you are pissed off at me. :) ))
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I think of you too and am glad to see you posting! Never pissed at you though, just frustrated sometimes!!! I think the death penalty is asked for too many times when it shouldn't be asked for. I think that it should be used sparingly and fairly. I'd like to see the system reformed, but yes, I do think 25 years is too long for a prisoner to sit on the row.
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I think of you too and am glad to see you posting! Never pissed at you though, just frustrated sometimes!!! I think the death penalty is asked for too many times when it shouldn't be asked for. I think that it should be used sparingly and fairly. I'd like to see the system reformed, but yes, I do think 25 years is too long for a prisoner to sit on the row.
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"Sparingly and fairly" is a good place to start, IMHO. Part of the delay is the general backlog of the courts, isn't it?
 
I think execution should be immediate for those murderers where there is solid forensic evidence and no doubt who committed the crime.
 
Nova said:
"Sparingly and fairly" is a good place to start, IMHO. Part of the delay is the general backlog of the courts, isn't it?
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I guess that's one of the problems. One of my biggest problems is that there are cases where any sort of DNA testing is the hold up. If there was DNA evidence used against them in the trial, that should be upheld. If they claim that they're innocent and DNA can prove that, it should be done WAY before the week their executions are scheduled. I mean 20+ years should be enough time to test evidence. If the evidence can prove their innocence, why are they sitting in prison for 20+ years in the first place? The guy who was supposed to have been executed the other night had his sentence commuted because evidence had been destroyed. Cases like that I can get behind. The guy in California who started the Crips gang, doesn't deny that he's guilty, he just claims that he's now a nice guy and guys like Snoop Dog like him, so he should be sparred. I can't get behind that argument.
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I guess that's one of the problems. One of my biggest problems is that there are cases where any sort of DNA testing is the hold up. If there was DNA evidence used against them in the trial, that should be upheld. If they claim that they're innocent and DNA can prove that, it should be done WAY before the week their executions are scheduled. I mean 20+ years should be enough time to test evidence. If the evidence can prove their innocence, why are they sitting in prison for 20+ years in the first place? The guy who was supposed to have been executed the other night had his sentence commuted because evidence had been destroyed. Cases like that I can get behind. The guy in California who started the Crips gang, doesn't deny that he's guilty, he just claims that he's now a nice guy and guys like Snoop Dog like him, so he should be sparred. I can't get behind that argument.
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I totally agree.
 
As Catholic bishops, we teach and preach the Gospel vision of a 'culture of life.' We believe that we are created in God's image, which compels us to teach a consistent ethic of life and obligates us to preach that the use of the death penalty does not protect human life nor promote human dignity.

"We recognize that human beings can and do commit grievous crimes, but we reject the use of the death penalty -- especially when we can protect society with the alternate penalty of life imprisonment. In addition, of particular concern to us is the fact that the application of the death penalty is deeply flawed -- with those who are poor or from racial minorities most often its subjects. The three pending executions in California illustrate these facts."
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20051130005714&newsLang=en

Churches protest death penalty
Bells ring out as 1,000th inmate awaits execution
By Brian Saxton

THE NEWS-TIMES DANBURY — As Kenneth Lee Boyd sat on death row in North Carolina on Wednesday night, hundreds of bells in churches throughout Connecticut were schedule
http://news.newstimeslive.com/story.php?id=77226&category=Locald to ring out their opposition to the death penalty.
 
nanandjim said:
I think execution should be immediate for those murderers where there is solid forensic evidence and no doubt who committed the crime.
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I don't believe our system has a "no doubt" standard. Which is probably a good thing since eye witnesses are often mistaken and even confessions may be coerced or otherwise false.
 
Jeana,

As I'm sure you know, delays in DNA testing are often the fault of prosecutors, who don't want their convictions reexamined.

And while some of the "last minute" DNA testing may be simply a matter of trying anything at the last minute, I suspect that isn't always the case. Most death row defendants rely on public-aid organizations to handle appeals, ask for testing, etc. And surely that sort of help usually goes to those whose executions are imminent, one more reason DNA requests may be "last minute."

But as for deathrow "conversions," I don't care much about that either. Lots of people behave well amid the rigid structure of prison. (Don't mean to be disingenuous here: I'm happy to have any d.p. sentence commuted to LWP. But I am in general agreement with you that it doesn't matter if an inmate "finds God" after his/her conviction.)
 
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