Death Records Now

instead of cheering high numbers.
why do conservatives consider Texas’s record amount on death row inmates as a win?
they beat every state at the record amount of murderers. that’s a pathetic lose you people are proud of. whichever state has the record amount of abortions certainly isn’t getting any cheers from the left. that’s a tragedy. that’s why we want to provide social programs. so people wont have to resort to murder and thief just to make it to the end of their life.

My opinion has nothing to do with conservative v. liberal arguments. It is based on the death penalty system in action:

For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. I’m against the death penalty not because of sympathy for criminals but because it isn’t effective in reducing crime, prolongs the anguish of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.

The worst thing about it. Errors:
The system can make tragic mistakes. In 2004, the state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for starting the fire that killed his children. The Texas Forensic Science Commission found that the arson testimony that led to his conviction was based on flawed science. As of today, 138 wrongly convicted people on death row have been exonerated. DNA is rarely available in homicides, often irrelevant (as in Willingham’s case) and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. Capital juries are dominated by people who favor the death penalty and are more likely to vote to convict.

Keeping killers off the streets for good:
Life without parole, on the books in most states, also prevents reoffending. It means what it says, and spending the rest of your life locked up, knowing you’ll never be free, is no picnic. Two big advantages:
-an innocent person serving life can be released from prison
-life without parole costs less than the death penalty

Costs, a surprise to many people:
Study after study has found that the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison. Since the stakes are so high, the process is far more complex than for any other kind of criminal case. The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages. These apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.

Crime reduction (deterrence):
The death penalty doesn’t keep us safer. Homicide rates for states that use the death penalty are consistently higher than for those that don’t. The most recent FBI data confirms this. For people without a conscience, fear of being caught is the best deterrent.

Who gets it:
The death penalty isn’t reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn’t apply to people with money. Practically everyone sentenced to death had to rely on an overworked public defender. How many people with money have been executed??

Victims:
People assume that families of murder victims want the death penalty imposed. It isn’t necessarily so. Some are against it on moral grounds. But even families who have supported the death penalty in principle have testified to the protracted and unavoidable damage that the death penalty process does to families like theirs and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

It comes down to whether we should keep the death penalty for retribution or revenge in spite of its flaws and in spite of the huge toll it exacts on society.

im doing a project for english, and i wanted to see other peoples aspects on this peice of text.

There are serious economic consequences. Various state governments estimate that a single death penalty case, from the point of arrest to execution, ranges from $1 million to $3 million per case. Other studies have estimated the cost to be as high as $7 million. The millions of dollars spent on capital punishment cuts into resources for other community interests, such as schools, hospitals, public safety, and jobs. For example, Taxpayers in Florida are spending an average of $2.3 million on each execution which is over six times what it would cost for life without parole. In addition, New York brought back the death penalty in 1995, even though the department of corrections estimated that it would cost over $2 million per case and approximately $118 million annually. That same year, state leaders complained that there was a budget shortfall and made dramatic cuts in funding for public higher education and health care. Similarly, New Jersey spent $16 million to impose the death penalty. The next year, the state laid off 500 police officers because they could not afford to pay them.

The death penalty should be abolished because it involves a heightened risk or error. The risks of inaccurate judgment have been elevated because the death penalty has become a politicized issue that is commonly used in campaigns for judges and district attorneys who are elected to their positions. Those judges and prosecutors are motivated to sentence as many defendants to death as they possibly can to maintain a record of being “tough on crime.” Also, due to the high emotions surrounding murder cases, there is great pressure on law enforcement officials to solve homicides quickly. Such pressure may lead to misconduct by the investigators and prosecutors. In addition, murders frequently lack eyewitnesses, forcing the prosecutors to use less reliable sources for evidence, such as jailhouse snitches, accomplices looking for reduced sentences and coerced confessions from defendants. Because of these high risks there have been recent cases of mistaken execution or conviction. Leo Jones was convicted of murdering a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida on March 28, 1998. Jones signed a confession after several hours of police interrogation, but he later claimed the confession was coerced. In the mid-1980s, the policeman who arrested Jones and the detective who took his confession were forced out of uniform for ethical violations. The policeman was later identified by a fellow officer as an "enforcer" who had used torture. Furthermore, Texas executed Jesse Jacobs on January 4, 1995 despite the prosecution’s admission that arguments they made at Jacobs’ trial were false. Jacobs was convicted after the state introduced evidence that he, rather than his co-defendant, pulled the trigger on the day of the murder. At the following trial of the co-defendant, the state reversed its story and said it was the co-defendant, not Jacobs, who pulled the trigger. The prosecution vouched for the credibility of Jacobs’ testimony that he did not commit the shooting and did not even know that his co-defendant had a gun. Jacobs’ co-defendant was also convicted, but not sentenced to death.

The death penalty should not be allowed in this country. We have the resources to keep society safe from criminals, so, it is unnecessary to have such an inhuman and degrading punishment. This punishment does not deter crime. Giving in to it wastes essential money that destroys our economy. And, there also might be some reasonable doubt to someone’s guilt. The death penalty should be abolished.

In brief, the reading is someone’s opinion, against capital punishment, i.e., where states can administer the death penalty to convicted felons. (ie, murderers).

It says that the state should not have the power to do, what it will punish a criminal for doing. It also says that states will pay MORE for the "justice system", i.e, court costs to convict such a felon, more than would be paid, if the court system ONLY went to give "life" imprisonment.

That is, those who get the death penalty have more "overhead costs", paper work, more investigation and documentation required, than someone that is only going to be sent to prison say for 20-40 yrs, or a simple "life imprisonment" sentence.

These facts are computed from thousands of such cases. Jury trials are expensive, and there are more hours of lawyer costs in capital punishment cases.
Do you know what lawyers charge? Know how much money "expert" witnesses charge the state?

Taxpayers foot the bill (pay) for every murder case. But with a "capital case" conviction there are many more appeals and reviews. Likewise these cases get more publicity, and that means that prosecutors have to be more careful, not to mess up too.

Shaka Zulu

Shaka became King in 1816 and died in 1828. In the twelve years that he was King the Zulu nation became the mightiest military force in Southern Africa. Shaka was killed by his half bother Dingane kaSenzangakhona who stabbed him to death. He took the body and threw it in an empty tomb.

It was a tradition in Zululand that when a King dies, before he can be put in a tomb, people are executed (these people volunteered to die for the king or were forced) and put inside before him, but this went overboard later when Nandi died over 7,000 were executed "in grief",the Zulu clan.

http://www.zulu-culture-history.com/

But in comparison with other major cities, Chicago has an elevated murder total. For instance, in 2009, Chicago recorded 458 homicides and New York City 471 – when New York’s population is nearly three times as large as Chicago’s.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0427/Homicide-rate-jumps-in-Chicago-Daley-pushes-for-more-gun-control

I will go with the Zulu tribe, they were savages, unlike the "highly educated" Obama supporters in Chicago

I think they are one and the same

The Universal Zulu Nation was a gang which I’m sure still has the remnants of a chapter in Chicago

By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 43 minutes ago

An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.

In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family’s mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: "By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead."

Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.

Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.

"I’ve had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that’s happened here since then," said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York’s financial district. "It’s that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them."

With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.

"A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They’re losing their homes, they’re going into foreclosure, they’ve lost their jobs," said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida’s Lee County.

Suicide. Family homicides. Beyond scary! ( o _ 0 )

It leads to alot of things. This is not gonna be pretty by any means.

Mo. town outraged over killings, illegal immigrant
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/03/20/ap/us/d971tl300.txt
By JIM SALTER
HANNIBAL, Mo. – A Hannibal police officer was finishing up mundane paperwork on a quiet Saturday morning when Manuel Cazares walked into the station, blood splattered on his hands and shoes.

Cazares put his hands out, crossed them, and told the officer to arrest him.

"I killed two people," he allegedly said.

Details surrounding the allegations are far too common: an abusive relationship, a jilted lover, a sudden attack.

But some in this Mississippi River community of 17,000 best known as Mark Twain’s hometown aren’t just outraged by the violence. They also question why Cazares was in Hannibal at all.

Cazares admitted after his arrest that he is an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Michoacan. The 32-year-old had several run-ins with law enforcement before the homicides, but officials had never questioned his legal status.

Now he is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Feb. 28 deaths of his ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Amanda Thomas, and 25-year-old Carl Patrick Epley.

"I don’t know how this happens," said Tina White-Masengill, Thomas’ sister. "My stepdad told police many times, ‘I don’t even think the guy’s a legal citizen.’"

During his three years in Hannibal, Cazares managed to avoid detection, despite a few traffic violations and a property damage conviction after an arrest for allegedly beating up Thomas and tearing up her home. Thomas had a restraining order against Cazares, who got probation in the property-damage case.

Police say his name wasn’t in a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police and Cazares’ boss also say he had authentic-looking identification, including a Social Security card. And police noted that Cazares speaks fluent English.

Cazares’ attorney did not return phone messages seeking comment. Cazares is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.

Hannibal police declined several interview requests from The Associated Press, but said soon after the killing that they had received several angry calls, some with racial overtones.

Days after the killings, rocks were thrown through plate-glass windows at the Mexican restaurant where Cazares worked. The FBI decided against opening a hate-crime investigation after concluding that it was vandalism, not retaliation.

Hundreds of messages related to the case were posted on the Hannibal Courier-Post Web site, with several questioning why authorities hadn’t been able to determine Cazares’ legal status before. One suggested police should conduct raids to seek out other illegal immigrants.

"Of course we have folks who say that’s unconstitutional and racial profiling so we have to ignore the problem until this sort of terrible tragedy takes place," the posting read. The newspaper eventually took down the postings.

At a news conference, police Capt. James Hark told reporters that tracking illegal immigrants is a federal responsibility. He said the department is sympathetic to the victims’ families, "but, in retrospect, there’s nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening."

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency seeks to work closely with local police to uncover illegal immigrants.

"When local law enforcement suspect that they have arrested an illegal alien on criminal charges, we encourage them to forward those suspicions to ICE, where we will make the appropriate determination whether that person is in the country legally or illegally, and whether he is deportable," Rusnok said.

The relationship between Cazares and Thomas had long been rocky, with Thomas seeking restraining orders in 2007 and again early last year. Marion County prosecutor Tom Redington said the first order was dismissed when Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing; the second was dismissed at her request.

Thomas made a third attempt around Thanksgiving and obtained a restraining order that was supposed to keep Cazares away from the small brick duplex where she lived with their 20-month-old son and a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Yet neighbors said they often saw Cazares in the area.

"We pulled up one night and he drives up the street with his car lights off and just sits there watching her house," said neighbor Charles Thomas, who is not related to the victim.

In early February, Thomas told police she thought Cazares was stalking her. White-Masengill said her sister played cell phone messages for police, including one in which he said, "No one can love you like I do."

Redington said he didn’t have Cazares arrested immediately because of the "on-again, off-again nature of their relationship." He asked Thomas to obtain records that would show that Cazares had been calling her, but she never got the records.

According to court records, Cazares offered the following a

This kind of thing happens fairly often in California. In fact, I live in the Napa Valley where we have a very large population of illegals picking the grapes. My town alone has a population of 40% Mexican and many of them are here illegally. One winery out of over 300 here will hire only legal Mexicans. The rest hire whoever they can get. So, trust me, I know and see exactly what your talking about. BTW, your question is a little long and the last sentence should be removed since it is incomplete.

Mo. town outraged over killings, illegal immigrant
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/03/20/ap/us/d971tl300.txt
By JIM SALTER
HANNIBAL, Mo. – A Hannibal police officer was finishing up mundane paperwork on a quiet Saturday morning when Manuel Cazares walked into the station, blood splattered on his hands and shoes.

Cazares put his hands out, crossed them, and told the officer to arrest him.

"I killed two people," he allegedly said.

Details surrounding the allegations are far too common: an abusive relationship, a jilted lover, a sudden attack.

But some in this Mississippi River community of 17,000 best known as Mark Twain’s hometown aren’t just outraged by the violence. They also question why Cazares was in Hannibal at all.

Cazares admitted after his arrest that he is an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Michoacan. The 32-year-old had several run-ins with law enforcement before the homicides, but officials had never questioned his legal status.

Now he is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Feb. 28 deaths of his ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Amanda Thomas, and 25-year-old Carl Patrick Epley.

"I don’t know how this happens," said Tina White-Masengill, Thomas’ sister. "My stepdad told police many times, ‘I don’t even think the guy’s a legal citizen.’"

During his three years in Hannibal, Cazares managed to avoid detection, despite a few traffic violations and a property damage conviction after an arrest for allegedly beating up Thomas and tearing up her home. Thomas had a restraining order against Cazares, who got probation in the property-damage case.

Police say his name wasn’t in a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police and Cazares’ boss also say he had authentic-looking identification, including a Social Security card. And police noted that Cazares speaks fluent English.

Cazares’ attorney did not return phone messages seeking comment. Cazares is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.

Hannibal police declined several interview requests from The Associated Press, but said soon after the killing that they had received several angry calls, some with racial overtones.

Days after the killings, rocks were thrown through plate-glass windows at the Mexican restaurant where Cazares worked. The FBI decided against opening a hate-crime investigation after concluding that it was vandalism, not retaliation.

Hundreds of messages related to the case were posted on the Hannibal Courier-Post Web site, with several questioning why authorities hadn’t been able to determine Cazares’ legal status before. One suggested police should conduct raids to seek out other illegal immigrants.

"Of course we have folks who say that’s unconstitutional and racial profiling so we have to ignore the problem until this sort of terrible tragedy takes place," the posting read. The newspaper eventually took down the postings.

At a news conference, police Capt. James Hark told reporters that tracking illegal immigrants is a federal responsibility. He said the department is sympathetic to the victims’ families, "but, in retrospect, there’s nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening."

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency seeks to work closely with local police to uncover illegal immigrants.

"When local law enforcement suspect that they have arrested an illegal alien on criminal charges, we encourage them to forward those suspicions to ICE, where we will make the appropriate determination whether that person is in the country legally or illegally, and whether he is deportable," Rusnok said.

The relationship between Cazares and Thomas had long been rocky, with Thomas seeking restraining orders in 2007 and again early last year. Marion County prosecutor Tom Redington said the first order was dismissed when Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing; the second was dismissed at her request.

Thomas made a third attempt around Thanksgiving and obtained a restraining order that was supposed to keep Cazares away from the small brick duplex where she lived with their 20-month-old son and a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Yet neighbors said they often saw Cazares in the area.

"We pulled up one night and he drives up the street with his car lights off and just sits there watching her house," said neighbor Charles Thomas, who is not related to the victim.

In early February, Thomas told police she thought Cazares was stalking her. White-Masengill said her sister played cell phone messages for police, including one in which he said, "No one can love you like I do."

Redington said he didn’t have Cazares arrested immediately because of the "on-again, off-again nature of their relationship." He asked Thomas to obtain records that would show that Cazares had been calling her, but she never got the records.

According to court records, Cazares offered the following a

Personally, I think the police should have the right to shoot the illegal where he stands. Send his dead rear end back to Mexico and let them bury him.

Personally I think we should have US troops stationed on the border and anyone who wants to come here illegally should be shot on sight.

If I want to visit another country I get a passport and do it legally. I expect no less from others.

Im a little worried about my son. We live in Compton California which is notorious for gang activites and homicides, and I have been suspecting that he is affiliated with a Blood gang. He is friends with a kid whose father worked with Suge Knight (Im assuming you know who that is) back in the 90’s when Death Row Records was big. So this alone has alarmed me. I know my son isnt a bad person and I doubt he would do anything as far as taking someone’s life, but I have noticed something else that alarmed me.

He has always been good in school, particulary on assignments about history. He really enjoys reading and researching about people like Al Capone and people like that. So I know he is into reading history of this sort of thing.

But for the last couple of weeks I have been seeing that he is reading a lot about murderers. Jack the Ripper is someone he reads a lot about. And more recently he has really been reading a lot about the Columbine Massacre.

If my son was going to be involved in any type of criminal activity, Im positive in would be gang activity (not saying I condone it) and I am 100% sure he would never think of doing anything like what he is reading about.

But I am just wondering if living in a city where there is so many murders, multiple murders just about ever week, is that something that is increasing his interest on this type of thing? And could there be any type of connection at all as to why is he reading so much about these things?

Your son is heading for trouble if he is with any gang. I did a google search on average age of gange members. Only approx 13% of gang members are 24 or over. The rest are essentially children. Be aware that this doens’t mean they all grow up and get out of it. The majority of them just don’t live beyond 24.

The best thing you can do is take your son and move far away from the gang he is active in. You will probably need to get some professionals to talk to him so he doesn’t seek out more of the same kind of people to hang with.

One word of caution, he can’t just disengage himself and stay in the same community. It doesn’t work like that. I lived in a small town, My 15 year old son was telling me they were forming a neighborhood gang… As we discussed it further he told me they named themselves WSC. Well I knew that was a major gang and told my son about it. He decided he didn’t want to participate afterall. 3 days later I was having to make funeral arrangements for my son.

Please act as quickly and as safely for your son as possible. This isn’t something to play with.

Mo. town outraged over killings, illegal immigrant
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/03/20/ap/us/d971tl300.txt
By JIM SALTER
HANNIBAL, Mo. – A Hannibal police officer was finishing up mundane paperwork on a quiet Saturday morning when Manuel Cazares walked into the station, blood splattered on his hands and shoes.

Cazares put his hands out, crossed them, and told the officer to arrest him.

"I killed two people," he allegedly said.

Details surrounding the allegations are far too common: an abusive relationship, a jilted lover, a sudden attack.

But some in this Mississippi River community of 17,000 best known as Mark Twain’s hometown aren’t just outraged by the violence. They also question why Cazares was in Hannibal at all.

Cazares admitted after his arrest that he is an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Michoacan. The 32-year-old had several run-ins with law enforcement before the homicides, but officials had never questioned his legal status.

Now he is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Feb. 28 deaths of his ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Amanda Thomas, and 25-year-old Carl Patrick Epley.

"I don’t know how this happens," said Tina White-Masengill, Thomas’ sister. "My stepdad told police many times, ‘I don’t even think the guy’s a legal citizen.’"

During his three years in Hannibal, Cazares managed to avoid detection, despite a few traffic violations and a property damage conviction after an arrest for allegedly beating up Thomas and tearing up her home. Thomas had a restraining order against Cazares, who got probation in the property-damage case.

Police say his name wasn’t in a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police and Cazares’ boss also say he had authentic-looking identification, including a Social Security card. And police noted that Cazares speaks fluent English.

Cazares’ attorney did not return phone messages seeking comment. Cazares is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.

Hannibal police declined several interview requests from The Associated Press, but said soon after the killing that they had received several angry calls, some with racial overtones.

Days after the killings, rocks were thrown through plate-glass windows at the Mexican restaurant where Cazares worked. The FBI decided against opening a hate-crime investigation after concluding that it was vandalism, not retaliation.

Hundreds of messages related to the case were posted on the Hannibal Courier-Post Web site, with several questioning why authorities hadn’t been able to determine Cazares’ legal status before. One suggested police should conduct raids to seek out other illegal immigrants.

"Of course we have folks who say that’s unconstitutional and racial profiling so we have to ignore the problem until this sort of terrible tragedy takes place," the posting read. The newspaper eventually took down the postings.

At a news conference, police Capt. James Hark told reporters that tracking illegal immigrants is a federal responsibility. He said the department is sympathetic to the victims’ families, "but, in retrospect, there’s nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening."

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency seeks to work closely with local police to uncover illegal immigrants.

"When local law enforcement suspect that they have arrested an illegal alien on criminal charges, we encourage them to forward those suspicions to ICE, where we will make the appropriate determination whether that person is in the country legally or illegally, and whether he is deportable," Rusnok said.

The relationship between Cazares and Thomas had long been rocky, with Thomas seeking restraining orders in 2007 and again early last year. Marion County prosecutor Tom Redington said the first order was dismissed when Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing; the second was dismissed at her request.

Thomas made a third attempt around Thanksgiving and obtained a restraining order that was supposed to keep Cazares away from the small brick duplex where she lived with their 20-month-old son and a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Yet neighbors said they often saw Cazares in the area.

"We pulled up one night and he drives up the street with his car lights off and just sits there watching her house," said neighbor Charles Thomas, who is not related to the victim.

In early February, Thomas told police she thought Cazares was stalking her. White-Masengill said her sister played cell phone messages for police, including one in which he said, "No one can love you like I do."

Redington said he didn’t have Cazares arrested immediately because of the "on-again, off-again nature of their relationship." He asked Thomas to obtain records that would show that Cazares had been calling her, but she never got the records.

According to court records, Cazares offered the following a

And yet another soild reason to DEPORT ILLEGALS.

Had the government done thier job this ILELGAL INVADER would not have killed these pepoe.

If I was the victims family I would file suit against the US Government for failing to uphold the immigration laws.