Nebraska High Court Outlaws Electric Chair
Associated Press / Feb. 8, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23071996/
So I'm scanning through the news early this morning and I come across an article that talks about Nebraska outlawing the electric chair. The death penalty isn't being removed completely though. The state legislature can vote on another form of execution. Whew, that's a relief! Because as I scrolled further through the article and discovered what Raymond Mata, Jr., did to his ex-girlfriend's 3-year-old son, I wanted to throw up. He deserves to die. And quite frankly, I don't think electrocution (which Nebraska has now deemed cruel and unusual punishment) would be such a bad way for him to go. If we were truly a Biblical society, it would be 'eye for an eye' and he'd really be pissing his pants then.
Here's an excerpt from the article, describing Mata's crime: "The high court ruled in the case of Raymond Mata, Jr., convicted of the 1999 killing and dismemberment of 3-year-old Adam Gomez of Scottsbluff, the son of his former girlfriend... Investigators testified that parts of the toddler's body were found at Mata's home in a freezer, a dog bowl and dog-food bag. Human bone fragments also were recovered from the stomach of Mata's dog."
Judge William Connolly, in his infinite wisdom, stated in the 6-1 opinion: "Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes." He stated further: "Contrary to the State's argument, there is abundant evidence that prisoners sometimes will retain enough brain functioning to consciously suffer the torture high voltage electric current inflicts on a human body." One can only hope so!
This is remarkable to me. Isn't there something written somewhere about punishment fitting the crime, or is that only a cautionary moral tale many of our parents have tried to instill in us to make sure we follow the right path in life? We're all just turning into a bunch of pushovers! No wonder we're loathed and targeted by middle eastern cultures - cultures who don't hesitate for a second to swing a sword or drop 5 men from the gallows, all in one day, as Iran did on Wednesday at Evin Prison just north of Tehran.
Cruel and unusual punishment is what Mata did to that harmless, innocent child in 1999. What he suffers in return - whether a jolt of electricity to fry his already black heart, an injection of poison to stop his rotted heart, or a whiff of mixed gases to put his sick mind to sleep - is swift and painless and pales in comparison to his crimes.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Terrible Mother
Article Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22916651/
Why someone didn't eliminate this woman's ability to procreate years ago is a mystery to me. She left 8 children (ranging in age from 1 to 16) at home alone with her 15-year-old daughter in charge while she flew to Nigeria to marry a man she met online. Two of the children (ages 3 and 4) weren't even her own. She left on December 31 and was arrested upon arrival at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on January 28. She was gone almost an entire month, leaving them "with little food and no money..." (although she swears otherwise). Sure, the prosecutor is lying when he says the woman's children "were starving and her older children couldn't recall their own birth dates." Her 9-year-old son said he and the 1-year-old "ate still-frozen pizza for breakfast..." When they found the children (now in foster care) in early January, authorities also discovered "there were no diapers, baby food or formula for the infant, no sheets on beds and fruit was rotting in a basket..."
My opinion, not that it really matters: put her in a cell for a month with similarly squalid conditions and see how she feels. Make her rummage through a scarcely stocked refrigerator and resort to eating frozen pizza. Make her sleep on a mattress with no sheets. Put a pile of rotting fruit in the corner and make sure fruit flies can hover and drive her crazy. Or better yet, just leave her there to rot like the fruit. Someone else can raise her children and make sure they're fed and loved.
Why someone didn't eliminate this woman's ability to procreate years ago is a mystery to me. She left 8 children (ranging in age from 1 to 16) at home alone with her 15-year-old daughter in charge while she flew to Nigeria to marry a man she met online. Two of the children (ages 3 and 4) weren't even her own. She left on December 31 and was arrested upon arrival at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on January 28. She was gone almost an entire month, leaving them "with little food and no money..." (although she swears otherwise). Sure, the prosecutor is lying when he says the woman's children "were starving and her older children couldn't recall their own birth dates." Her 9-year-old son said he and the 1-year-old "ate still-frozen pizza for breakfast..." When they found the children (now in foster care) in early January, authorities also discovered "there were no diapers, baby food or formula for the infant, no sheets on beds and fruit was rotting in a basket..."
My opinion, not that it really matters: put her in a cell for a month with similarly squalid conditions and see how she feels. Make her rummage through a scarcely stocked refrigerator and resort to eating frozen pizza. Make her sleep on a mattress with no sheets. Put a pile of rotting fruit in the corner and make sure fruit flies can hover and drive her crazy. Or better yet, just leave her there to rot like the fruit. Someone else can raise her children and make sure they're fed and loved.
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