US: The Arkansas executions, first blood

[Adolecent]

Arkansas executions: first prisoner killed after legal challenge fails

He most likely was innocent.

Arkansas has executed Ledell Lee, the first of eight condemned prisoners the Republican-controlled state had hoped to kill in the space of just 11 days. Lee was pronounced dead at 11.46pm local time, just four minutes before his death warrant had been due to run out. The department of corrections had sprung into action shortly after 11.30pm on Thursday, after the US supreme court gave its leave for the killing to go ahead.

Lee was asked twice for his final words, but said nothing. He appeared to lose consciousness quickly – within three minutes his eyes were closed and when officials carried out a consciousness check by rubbing his head and flicking his eyelids, there was no visible reaction. A stethoscope was used to test for a heartbeat a few minutes later. Then an official who is thought to have been the coroner entered the chamber to pronounce him dead.

The killing marks a victory of sorts from the perspective of the beleaguered governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, who astonished the world in February by announcing that he would set execution dates for no fewer than eight prisoners in an 11-day span before the end of this month. Such an intense burst of killing has not been attempted by any state in the US for half a century, and it invited a barrage of criticism from around the country and the globe.

The prisoner had been represented in his final days by lawyers from the Innocence Project and the ACLU. Though the second prisoner scheduled to die on Thursday, Stacey Johnson, was granted a stay so that DNA testing could be used to determine his innocence or guilt, Lee’s attempt to press the same argument in court filings failed to persuade either state or federal judges.

Nina Morrison, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, said after the execution that Arkansas’s rush to execute so many prisoners in such a short timeframe had deprived Lee of the right to DNA testing.

Lee always maintained his innocence of the Reese murder. Unknown fingerprints were found at the crime scene, none of them belonging to the prisoner.

At trial, the prosecution made much of two small drops of blood on Lee’s shoes which they told the jury were human, though they were never submitted to scientific analysis. DNA testing, his lawyers insisted, could prove whether the blood had come from the victim, and they also called for hairs found at the crime scene to be tested to see if they were Lee’s.

(source)

I don't have any words for this. I think the UN should intervene and punish every1 involved. We can't stand by and do nothing while we let this massacre go ahead.

[satimy]

The Just-Us system. DNA is becoming as reliable as eye witness testimony.

[Tyrianth]

Land of the free, and land of the largest prison population. Gotta kill em off to make room for more.

[satimy]

Do you know who currently has drops of human blood on things they own?

Me.

It's mine.

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Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable, whereas DNA evidence is rather reliable until it becomes easier to fabricate DNA.

The problem I have with DNA is that it can be misused, and if you have dishonest police and dishonest prosecutors explaining it to a jury that don't understand DNA than its bad for justice

[Independent voter]

It's Arkansas.

They had this drug cocktail they'd kill prisoners with. Anti-death penalty types launched a protest against the companies that made the drugs thinking that if they made the death penalty horrible enough it would be banned.

Supreme Court ruled that state can execute a prisoner by any method as long as they made a good faith effort to make the execution painless and humane.

So the anti-death penalty folk made execution a lot more miserable for prisoners and that's all they did.

[Sunseeker]

It's Arkansas.

They had this drug cocktail they'd kill prisoners with. Anti-death penalty types launched a protest against the companies that made the drugs thinking that if they made the death penalty horrible enough it would be banned.

Supreme Court ruled that state can execute a prisoner by any method as long as they made a good faith effort to make the execution painless and humane.

So the anti-death penalty folk made execution a lot more miserable for prisoners and that's all they did.

I was going to write something to counter what you said but, you know what, I don't care, your posts are so irrational and stupid I'm just going to add you to my block list and move on.

[GennGreymane]

The problem I have with DNA is that it can be misused, and if you have dishonest police and dishonest prosecutors explaining it to a jury that don't understand DNA than its bad for justice

Thats a problem with everything

[satimy]

OK, but the problem there isn't DNA, but the fact that you have police and prosecutors actively subverting the justice system and those people need to be brought up on charges of their own.

But that's the thing, they think they are heroes and so does some of the public

[Blueobelisk]

Yeah I agree with Hubcap, it's one of those states. The death sentence was uncalled for but I'm sure they were happy to kill a prisoner for the lols. I don't think the UN could do anything. Maybe the Supreme Court.

[Adolecent]

So the anti-death penalty folk made execution a lot more miserable for prisoners and that's all they did.

No. They tried to save the lives of innocent and/or mentally disabled prisoners getting slaughtered.

[Underverse]

This is pretty fucked up. I think the death penalty has its place in law, but it certainly isn't here.

[Damajin]

Arkansas executions: first prisoner killed after legal challenge fails

He most likely was innocent.



I don't have any words for this. I think the UN should intervene and punish every1 involved. We can't stand by and do nothing while we let this massacre go ahead.

The UN has no jurisdiction over anything.

[Ghostpanther]

Arkansas executions: first prisoner killed after legal challenge fails

He most likely was innocent.



I don't have any words for this. I think the UN should intervene and punish every1 involved. We can't stand by and do nothing while we let this massacre go ahead.

That is not what the UN does. They could try, but would be laughed at. Capital Punishment in the US was ruled Constitutional by our Supreme Court and that trumps whatever any country's opinion is on the subject. The odds are extremely low a innocent person is going to be executed. I mean one who has actually been found innocent later after a execution. Not estimates by the anti- capital punishment crowd.

[Blueobelisk]

The more I sit here thinking about it the more disgusted I get. It's really a sick circumstance.

[Independent voter]

In February 1993, 27-year-old Lee robbed and strangled 26-year-old Debra Reese in her Jacksonville home. He then beat her 36 times with the same tire thumper her husband gave her for protection.

Her son was only six years old.

Lee was sentenced to death two years after Reese's murder.

Prosecutors referred to him as a psychosexual serial rapist.

According to court documents, Reese wasn't Lee's only victim. He committed violent crimes against five women, all in the Sunnyside area of Jacksonville. Some involved rape and some ended with murder.

The ages of Lee's victims ranged from 17 to 70.

http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/...-row/694648898

[Underverse]

In February 1993, 27-year-old Lee robbed and strangled 26-year-old Debra Reese in her Jacksonville home. He then beat her 36 times with the same tire thumper her husband gave her for protection.

Her son was only six years old.

Lee was sentenced to death two years after Reese's murder.

Prosecutors referred to him as a psychosexual serial rapist.

According to court documents, Reese wasn't Lee's only victim. He committed violent crimes against five women, all in the Sunnyside area of Jacksonville. Some involved rape and some ended with murder.

The ages of Lee's victims ranged from 17 to 70.

http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/...-row/694648898

Aaaand there's the other side of the story.

[Blueobelisk]

[B]In February 1993, 27-year-old Lee robbed and strangled 26-year-old Debra Reese in her Jacksonville home. He then beat her 36 times with the same tire thumper her husband gave her for protection.

So how did he end up in Arkansas if all his crimes were in Florida?

[Ghostpanther]

In February 1993, 27-year-old Lee robbed and strangled 26-year-old Debra Reese in her Jacksonville home. He then beat her 36 times with the same tire thumper her husband gave her for protection.

Her son was only six years old.

Lee was sentenced to death two years after Reese's murder.

Prosecutors referred to him as a psychosexual serial rapist.

According to court documents, Reese wasn't Lee's only victim. He committed violent crimes against five women, all in the Sunnyside area of Jacksonville. Some involved rape and some ended with murder.

The ages of Lee's victims ranged from 17 to 70.

http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/...-row/694648898

Yeah. Sounds like a innocent man. :P He sounds like a scum who got what he deserved.

[satimy]

I'm pretty sure that's when the federal government steps in.

Wake me up when that happens

[Tyrianth]

Yeah. Sounds like a innocent man. :P He sounds like a scum who got what he deserved.

If they were so sure then they should've examined the evidence instead of just assuming that it implicated him in the crime.