Death Records Now

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.

Obama passed legislation with Republican Senator Jim Talent to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend.

-After a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

-His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent.

-Obama created the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families in 2000 and successfully sponsored a measure to make the credit permanent in 2003. The law offered about $105 million in tax relief over three years.

-Obama joined forces with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) to pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned gifts from lobbyists. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.

-As a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan.

-He traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world.

-Obama has been a leading advocate for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against discriminatory barriers to voting.

– In the U.S. Senate, Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase penalties for mortgage fraud and provide more protections for low-income homebuyers, well before the current subprime crisis began.

-Obama sponsored legislation to combat predatory payday loans, and he also was credited with lobbied the state to more closely regulate some of the most egregious predatory lending practices.

-Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

-Obama worked to pass a number of laws in Illinois and Washington to improve the health of women. His accomplishments include creating a task force on cervical cancer, providing greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, and helping improve prenatal and premature birth services.

-Obama has introduced and helped pass bipartisan legislation to limit the abuse of no-bid federal contracts.

-Obama and Senator Feingold (D-WI) took on both parties and proposed ethics legislation that was described as the "gold standard" for reform. It was because of their leadership that ending subsidized corporate jet travel, mandating disclosure of lobbyists’ bundling of contributions, and enacting strong new restrictions of lobbyist-sponsored trips became part of the final ethics bill that was signed into law.

I really could list many, many more but I fear it would be too much to take in at one time. I hope this helps some of you know him a little better. Everyone seems to be jumping on his "Change" bandwagon. However, he does have the record to back it up.
haha..i know jonathan..just spreading the message..u know

you stole that from me

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080214215000AAb6v16&r=w&pa=FZptHWf.BGRX3OFPgTdVVRzCzSaBOgBagZ7cbuY8uWXkaxE3LrNz6pZU8YaxadxwjAyecEX1Don.kXuczg–&paid=answered#R8J_WTS5VWLCuRxGR3g5DEG836rd6i.WcI8smFSkv9_no5FUlyrg

but thats cool as long as its for a good cause

what has Obama done?

I love this question…. here’s a start:

Education:

* 1983 Foreign Policy Degree from Columbia,
* 1991 Law Degree from Harvard, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and he served as the President of the Harvard Law Review, one of the most prestigious student positions in the world.

Community Organizer, 1985

He sought to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment

* Moved the Chicago Housing Authority to remove asbestos in housing
* Established a job-training center
* Worked in the streets on voter registration to help elect President Clinton
* Registered 150,000 people to vote

Civil Rights Lawyer

Miner, Barnhill & Galland: litigated employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and voting rights cases.

* Protecting voters: seccessfully sued state of Illinois for failing to implement a federal voter-registration law.

* Successfully defended a whistleblower who lost her job, for a $5 million settlement

Constitutional Law professor/lecturer at the University of Chicago

Illinois State Senate 1996 – 2004

* Welfare legislation

* Created the Earned Income Tax Credit program that gave over $100 million in tax cuts for families throughout Illinois over 3 years.

* Expanded early childhood education

* Enlisted the support of law enforcement officials to draft legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

* He passed a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped. The law was at first very controversial, but due to Obama’s skills as a negotiator and bipartisanships, he won the support of the police. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.

* Pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned most gifts from lobbyists. Worked with U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL), 1988. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.

* Created a working, affordable health care plan in Illinois, that covers 70,000 kids and 84,000 adults, where all kids qualify for $40 per child. Obama sponsored and passed this legislation, working with Rod R. Blagojevich(IL Gov.) See All Kids http://www.allkids.com/ . It is a model for a workable, affordable national health care.

Honors:

* Outstanding Legislator Award
* Campaign for Better Health Care and Illinois Primary Health Care Association, 1998
* Best Freshman Legislator Award
* Independent Voters of Illinois, 1997
* Monarch Award for Outstanding Public Service, 1994
* “40 Under 40” Award, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1993.
* Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio version of his book, Dreams from My Father.

US Senate, 2004 – present

He is a member of several Senate Committees:

* Committee on Foreign Relations, that plays a vital role in shaping US policy around the world.
* Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that addresses, among other things, issues of immigration and our borders.
* Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: oversees our nation’s health care, schools, employment, and retirement programs
* Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: focused on providing our brave veterans with the care and services they deserve.
* 2005-2006: Environment and Public Works Committee, which safeguards our environment and provides funding for our highways

The Numbers

Obama sponsored 152 bills and resolutions brought before the 109th Congress in 2005 and 2006, and cosponsored another 427.

Legislation Passed in US Senate

* Lugar-Obama Act to decrease nuclear and conventional weapons proliferation around the world.

* Coburn-Obama Transparency Act transparency in federal spending, found at httP://www.usaspending.gov

* Cosponsored the Healthy Kids Act of 2007 and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2007 to ensure that more American children have affordable health care coverage.

* Obama worked to pass a number of laws in Illinois and Washington to improve the health of women. His accomplishments include creating a task force on cervical cancer, providing greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, and helping improve prenatal and premature birth services.

* As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Obama passed legislation to improve care and slash red tape for our wounded warriors recovering at places like Walter Reed. He passed laws to help homeless veterans and offered an innovative solution to prevent at-risk veterans from falling into home
I think that the people that have no substance, to my question and statement, are clearly racist.
http://factcheck.org/elections-2008/mccain-palin_distorts_our_finding.html

this one is about your barefooted moose sipping princess, that obviously don’t know JACK about foreign affairs, or the bush doctrine. Keep sipping moose kool aid

OK you convinced me, I’ll vote for Obama.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801060602

Michigan sees fewer gun deaths — with more permits
January 6, 2008

By DAWSON BELL

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.

But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.

The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.

More than 155,000 Michiganders — about one in every 65 — are now authorized to carry loaded guns as they go about their everyday affairs, according to Michigan State Police records.
About 25,000 people had CCW permits in Michigan before the law changed in 2001.

"I think the general consensus out there from law enforcement is that things were not as bad as we expected," said Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin, cochair of the legislative committee for the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. "There are problems with gun violence. But … I think we can breathe a sigh of relief that what we anticipated didn’t happen."

John Lott, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland who has done extensive research on the role of firearms in American society, said the results in Michigan since the law changed don’t surprise him.

Academic studies of concealed weapons laws that generally allow citizens to obtain permits have shown different results, Lott said. About two-thirds of the studies suggest the laws reduce crime; the rest show no net effect, he said.
But no peer-reviewed study has ever shown that crime increases when jurisdictions enact changes like those put in place by the Legislature and then-Gov. John Engler in 2000, Lott said.

In Michigan and elsewhere (liberal permitting is the rule in about 40 states), those who seek CCW permits, get training and pay licensing fees tend to be "the kind of people who don’t break laws," Lott said.

Nationally, the rate of CCW permits being revoked is very low, he said. State Police reports in Michigan indicate that 2,178 permits have been revoked or suspended since 2001, slightly more than 1% of those issued.
Another State Police report found that 175 Michigan permit holders were convicted of a crime, most of them nonviolent, requiring revocation or suspension of their permits between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

But even if more armed citizens have not wreaked havoc, some critics of Michigan’s law chafe at how it was passed: against stiff opposition in a lame duck legislative session and attached to an appropriation that nullified efforts at repeal by referendum.

Kenneth Levin, a West Bloomfield physician, was one of those critics. In a letter to the Free Press in July 2001, he referred to the "inevitable first victim of road or workplace rage as a result of this law."

Last month, Levin said he suspected "it probably hasn’t turned out as bad as I thought. I don’t think I was wrong, but my worst fears weren’t realized."

But the manner in which the law was enacted was nevertheless "sneaky" and "undemocratic," Levin said.
Other opponents remain convinced that it has contributed to an ongoing epidemic of firearms-related death and destruction.

Shikha Hamilton of Grosse Pointe, president of the Michigan chapter of the anti-gun group Million Moms March, said she believes overall gun violence (including suicide and accidental shootings) is up in Michigan since 2001. Many incidents involving CCW permit holders have not been widely reported, she said.

The most publicized recent case came early in 2007, when a 40-year-old Macomb County woman fired from her vehicle toward the driver of a truck she claimed had cut her off on I-94. Bernadette Headd was convicted of assault and sentenced to two years in prison.

Hamilton said that even if gun violence has ebbed, it remains pervasive, tragic and unnecessary. At the least, a more liberal concealed weapons law means there are more guns in homes and cars and on the street, she said, and more potential for disaster"
Advocates for the law argue that there is nothing equivocal about the experience of the CCW permit holders who have warded off threats and, in a few instances, saved themselves from harm.

In September, a 36-year-old Troy man killed an armed 18-year-old assailant who, with three other suspects, attempted to steal his car outside Detroit Police headquarters.

Michelle Reurink, 40, a consultant in Lansing, got her CCW permit last year, not so much because she felt an imminent threat to her well-being, she said, but because she’s a strong believer in the Constitution’s Second Amendment — the right to bear arms.

"The primary reason I got it is because I feel like I have the right to have it," she said.

Still, she doesn’t often carry her gun during her daily routine, though she takes it when she and her husband go on their boat, she said.
Having the license and a handgun makes her feel more secure in her home (where no one needs a CCW license to have a gun), she said. She also feels more secure because of the required training, including self-defense lessons, she took as part of the license application.

Mark Cortis of Royal Oak, who conducts concealed weapons license training and sits on the Oakland County gun board, said he believes the benefits of an armed citizenry are evident in small ways almost every day, as permit holders deter trouble and live more confidently.

"The police just can’t protect you," Cortis said. "If you have to call 911, it’s probably already too late."
Guna* is a typo, I meant to use "Gun"

It makes complete sense to me.

As the old cliche says, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

Imagine there had been an armed teacher at Columbine, or a legally armed student at Virginia Tech. Much loss of life might have been avoided.

And as the article stated, the revocation of permits to carry handguns is very rare. Sure, require a background check, maybe even a psychological examination. But allow the honest citizens to carry guns, and I can pretty much guarantee you that overall violent crime will be reduced.