Convicted killer of 8 year old boy gets death penalty
Horrendous
Inhumane
Nothing short of evil
Worst abuse I've seen in 20 years on the bench
Those are among the things that Superior Court judge George Lomeli said during the sentencing of Isauro Aguirre and Pearl Fernandez in the case of the murder of 8-year old Gabriel Fernandez. Aguirre received the death penalty. Fernandez received a sentence of life without parole in prison (side note: hard to believe it was almost 13 years ago that I used the acronym LWOP in a blog).
I'm not going to rehash the horrific details of what these two so-called humans did to a helpless little boy. They don't actually turn my stomach. I've seen a lot. Between my experiences as a reporter and as an Air Force law enforcement specialist, it takes a lot to turn my stomach. Suffice it to say that a sentence of LWOP for the mother whose son suffered so much is quite appropriate.
There is an op-ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times making the case that Mr. Aguirre should not have been sentenced to death. It cites the following reasons in making that case:
No one should be sentenced to death.
There is always room for doubt.
It serves no penological purpose (an alliterative way of saying death sentences are not a deterrent).
Then it goes on to say that "...the death penalty stains us. The U.S. is one of the few countries left in the world to embrace such a barbaric form of punishment, putting us in league with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other such bastions of human rights."
There are over 50 countries on this planet that still impose the death penalty. That's not a small number. As noted here in this space, I oppose the death penalty at this point in time. I don't agree that it doesn't serve as a deterrent, if it didn't take decades to be imposed. I do agree that there is always room for doubt. We can argue about the actual origin of the aphorism that says the following:
It is better that 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent person suffer.
That doesn't change its validity. That is one reason I oppose the death penalty. The other is more prudent. It has to do with the cost of the process to impose it.
One study demonstrated that between 1978 and 2011, the state of California spent $4 billion on death penalty cases. Trials where the prosecution is seeking a death sentence are much more expensive than trials where that ultimate penalty is not being sought. The cost of keeping a prisoner on death row is much higher than that of keeping a prisoner in the general population. When our governments at every level need to trim spending, where there are so many other pressing issues and when tax revenues are in peril; we shouldn't waste vast sums on imposing the death penalty.
Another reason I oppose the death penalty is that I think if it were imposed in a more rapid manner; it would let the murderer off too easy. Isauro Aguirre is 37 years old. A sentence of LWOP would mean that unless he suffers an untimely death at someone else's hands, he would spend decades in a cell. Decades without the greatest of our freedoms, the freedom of liberty.
As of June 5, 2018, data indicated that there were 2,717 inmates on death row. Within the United States, 23 condemned prisoners were executed. Of those 23, only two had been on death row for less than ten years between the judge/jury imposing a death sentence and that sentence being carried out. Meanwhile, 39 more people were sentenced to death in the U.S. The backlog is growing. The bill for all of this is rising.
More than three decades have passed since Ronald Gray was convicted by a court-martial on two counts of pre-meditated murder. He had already pleaded guilty to those charges in a civilian court. His case has been bouncing between the civilian and military court systems ever since. The U.S. Supreme Court will take up his latest (and possibly last) appeal later this month.
We will never get a streamlined system of imposing death sentences that would ensure that there is isn't a single scintilla of doubt prior to taking a prisoner's life. Why waste any more money on this exercise in futility. Give them all LWOP and let them vanish from the spotlight.
Inhumane
Nothing short of evil
Worst abuse I've seen in 20 years on the bench
Those are among the things that Superior Court judge George Lomeli said during the sentencing of Isauro Aguirre and Pearl Fernandez in the case of the murder of 8-year old Gabriel Fernandez. Aguirre received the death penalty. Fernandez received a sentence of life without parole in prison (side note: hard to believe it was almost 13 years ago that I used the acronym LWOP in a blog).
I'm not going to rehash the horrific details of what these two so-called humans did to a helpless little boy. They don't actually turn my stomach. I've seen a lot. Between my experiences as a reporter and as an Air Force law enforcement specialist, it takes a lot to turn my stomach. Suffice it to say that a sentence of LWOP for the mother whose son suffered so much is quite appropriate.
There is an op-ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times making the case that Mr. Aguirre should not have been sentenced to death. It cites the following reasons in making that case:
No one should be sentenced to death.
There is always room for doubt.
It serves no penological purpose (an alliterative way of saying death sentences are not a deterrent).
Then it goes on to say that "...the death penalty stains us. The U.S. is one of the few countries left in the world to embrace such a barbaric form of punishment, putting us in league with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other such bastions of human rights."
There are over 50 countries on this planet that still impose the death penalty. That's not a small number. As noted here in this space, I oppose the death penalty at this point in time. I don't agree that it doesn't serve as a deterrent, if it didn't take decades to be imposed. I do agree that there is always room for doubt. We can argue about the actual origin of the aphorism that says the following:
It is better that 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent person suffer.
That doesn't change its validity. That is one reason I oppose the death penalty. The other is more prudent. It has to do with the cost of the process to impose it.
One study demonstrated that between 1978 and 2011, the state of California spent $4 billion on death penalty cases. Trials where the prosecution is seeking a death sentence are much more expensive than trials where that ultimate penalty is not being sought. The cost of keeping a prisoner on death row is much higher than that of keeping a prisoner in the general population. When our governments at every level need to trim spending, where there are so many other pressing issues and when tax revenues are in peril; we shouldn't waste vast sums on imposing the death penalty.
Another reason I oppose the death penalty is that I think if it were imposed in a more rapid manner; it would let the murderer off too easy. Isauro Aguirre is 37 years old. A sentence of LWOP would mean that unless he suffers an untimely death at someone else's hands, he would spend decades in a cell. Decades without the greatest of our freedoms, the freedom of liberty.
As of June 5, 2018, data indicated that there were 2,717 inmates on death row. Within the United States, 23 condemned prisoners were executed. Of those 23, only two had been on death row for less than ten years between the judge/jury imposing a death sentence and that sentence being carried out. Meanwhile, 39 more people were sentenced to death in the U.S. The backlog is growing. The bill for all of this is rising.
More than three decades have passed since Ronald Gray was convicted by a court-martial on two counts of pre-meditated murder. He had already pleaded guilty to those charges in a civilian court. His case has been bouncing between the civilian and military court systems ever since. The U.S. Supreme Court will take up his latest (and possibly last) appeal later this month.
We will never get a streamlined system of imposing death sentences that would ensure that there is isn't a single scintilla of doubt prior to taking a prisoner's life. Why waste any more money on this exercise in futility. Give them all LWOP and let them vanish from the spotlight.
posted by me at 6:43 PM
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