Yes, I'm against the death penalty even for this freak but

[cali]

I won't be bothered terribly when he's executed.

Man sentenced to death in Tenn. torture slaying

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD (AP) – 57 minutes ago

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the fatal carjacking of a couple on a date has been sentenced to death.

The defendant, 28-year-old Lemaricus Davidson, showed no reaction Friday as jurors announced the death sentences for the murders of 21-year-old college student Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom.

Davidson was found guilty of abducting the couple in Knoxville during a 2007 carjacking by several armed men.

Both were raped, Newsom was fatally shot and Christian suffocated after she was choked and stuffed in a garbage bag and trash can.

Davidson's brother was convicted in the same attack in August and is serving life in prison without parole. Two other defendants from Kentucky are awaiting trial.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gs6kfhF7_GrNMXT_w0APWZisn-wwD9BLKL500

The details of what was done to the victims are beyond sickening.

[Gwendolyn]

1. A woman from the DA's office fainted while the pics of injuries were shown...

during the coroner's testimony. They had shoved their penises so hard into her mouth that her lips separated from her gums. Repeatedly vaginally and anally raped, both with sexual organs and foreign objects. After the rapes she was kicked so hard, repeatedly, that it mutilated her already battered and bloody vagina. Her head was bashed in. She had household cleaner poured down her throat. She was left to asphyxiate for an hour in garbage bags. All this took over a day. I'm against the DP as well, but no tears in this case either.

[cali]

2. It's my understanding that the young man was also brutally raped, tortured

mutilated, shot and his body set afire.

The human animal at its ugliest.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Yes -- at the nearby railroad tracks

I still have nightmares about what those kids went through.

[Gwendolyn]

18. Yes, I know. His murder was so brutal and horrific as well.

For some reason, I thought Davidson hadn't been found guilty of his murder, but I was wrong.

I can't imagine they will ever find peace, but hope their parents get some solace out of the fact that their children's murderers will be punished. They were interviewed yesterday and it seems, looking in from the outside at least, that the couples are strong and supportive within their relationships. So often, tragedies like this drive families apart.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

46. Raped with a broken wooden chair leg. Sick &$#*^

The younger one requested protective custody.

[XanaDUer]

103. Oh, and then they took turns pissing on her while she was dying

.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

107. That hasn't been brought up at either trial.

[XanaDUer]

110. I googled this case and that was in some of the articles

Defense prob. thought that it was too prejudicial to the defendant - after all, compared to sticking jagged wooden pieces up some victim's ripped up rectums and vagina, then pouring chemicals on said body parts to cause futher torture, cutting off a victim's penis, and jamming penises in and out of a poor woman's mouth over and over again on top of gang-raping and sodomizing her, the pissing-on-her-dying body might have been a wee bit over the top.

They should sell tickets to this animal's execution.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

111. They didn't cut off his penis. There was false reports that they also cut off her breasts.

I haven't been able to get a straight answer on whether or not they cut one of her fingers off to remove a ring.

[XanaDUer]

115. Ah.

Okay then.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

116. They did plenty that was just as bad. I was hoping they would all get the death penalty.

Maybe some prison justice will get the others.

[XanaDUer]

117. Cobbins asked for protective custody in prison

I guess he felt in danger.

Also, sickening - a young female was involved in this crime, too. These victims were not just tortured, they were annihilated.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

124. Poor little guy is scared.

[Pavulon]

127. It would be hard for me not to seek retribution if that was my family

basically my position would be kill yourself and save me the time and money to make that happen.

[Sheltiemama]

142. A newsroom co-worker said rapists aren't exactly welcomed in prison.

Good to know.

[MoonRiver]

122. No other animal but the human behaves like this.

I have also used that term to describe scum like this, but it is inappropriate. I think we should use something like abomination to describe these freaks of nature.

[Vinca]

3. After reading this post I might volunteer to flip the switch.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JonLP24]

5. It will be several years before he is

After that he'll no longer be paying for his crimes. He'll just be dead.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. This was a HORRIFIC story of unimaginable torture

Those kids were put through unimaginable things before they finally died.

:(

[pipi_k]

8. I'm against it too, but...

like a couple of posters here, there are some times when I just cannot work up any sympathy/empathy at all for the accused.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm against the death penalty because I have the luxury of being against it, and I shudder, because I don't ever want to find out how I'd feel if anyone I cared about were murdered at all, let alone in such a brutal way. It makes me sad to think that I might be brought to such a state that I would work with every breath I had in me to see that the perpetrators of such horrors died...and in the most painful way possible...although that's not an option. But that's not to say I wouldn't wish for it.

[noiretextatique]

9. totally against the death penalty

but i agree...i won't shed a tear over this guy.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

10. Waiting for the first post about how the victims were out "looking for drugs"

....to try and nullify the fact they were brutalized.

Don't scoff, this case has already been mentioned here.

[Sheltiemama]

36. The defense suggested that.

The jury didn't buy it.

[Ruby the Liberal]

11. Photo of the victims

:cry:

[liberaltrucker]

15. They earned a place in Heaven, since their last hours on Earth were Hell

:cry:

[Whisp]

12. I don't want the government killing these kinds of people

I'd rather do it myself, the way justice is meant to me. personal and in your face, dirty, harsh, dangerous. not from a sterile distance with a stack of paperwork, but close up and smelly.

I'd serve time gladly for the revenge for someone I loved.

yes, I'm an animal.

[liberaltrucker]

14. Hear, hear

:applause:

[Burma Jones]

22. I'm good with that..........

And you shouldn't serve time....

[Whisp]

27. I'm not one to think every life is precious.

Its not.
Someone I love is much more precious to me than a broken mind gone beserk.

that's Jesus' work, I didn't apply for that job and don't want it.

[pipi_k]

24. I don't think you're an animal for feeling that way...

Which is why I would be scared to death of something like that happening to someone I loved.

I honestly believe that my mind would snap completely. That I would spiral downward into a hell of insanity, never to return. And that I would want to kill the bastard(s) who did it with my bare hands, and in the slowest, most painful ways I could think of.

It scares me...

:(

[liquid diamond]

55. I wish I could rec your post.

[backwoodsbob]

109. I'll help

he's about two hours away from me.

I'll shoot the sumbish myself if they let me.

[liberaltrucker]

13. I'm against the DP in principal

HOWEVER, occasionally along comes a case that is so
offensive, so heinous, so violent, so reprehensible
that the "human" vermin should be eliminated.

Gacey, Manson, Bundy, and now Davidson. IIRC, TN
uses lethal injection. If I were the technician
inserting the needle, I'd have a really hard time
finding a vein, if you get my drift. If that puts
me on his level, then so be it.

:grr:

[Sheltiemama]

37. Yes, we use lethal injection here.

I just wish Channon's father could be the one who does it.

[shintao]

16. I have a solution

While we lower the bar for a civilized society, I would like to propose that these predatory type crimes be answered in kind, for deterrent possibilities.

I would like a law wherein the criminal is tortured for daily for 1 year, for each victim, and then to be followed the next day after punishment by execution. So 2 victims, 2 years torture followed by execution. I don't care what the torture is, but everything will be done to keep them alive & tormented. I want the execution televised. Perhaps put the predator in a small cell with a gun holding one round of ammo, and let him blow his own brains out. I want it to show the dead predators body being thrown in a dumpster, because these people do not deserve graves or cremation, they are garbage.

[cali]

17. ugh. thanks for illustrating why the DP should be abolished.

it's wrong to torture. period. period. period. And the DP is wrong for a myriad of reasons- one being that it's about vengeance.

[Berry Cool]

20. Yes--to torture because others torture is wrong.

However, I have to agree with those who say they can't work up even a smidgen of sympathy for the fate of this sociopath.

There are some people it is near-impossible to think of as "human." This one definitely qualifies. It takes every ounce of moral strength it owns for a society to say "We will do justice for the gravest offenses against our people, but we will not do it by delivering to the offender the exact same treatment he delivered to others."

May those two poor souls who were killed in such an unspeakably wretched way rest in peace.

[bvar22]

34. That makes you their moral equivalent .

Nice.

[cali]

huh? Someone says something with which you disagree

and that makes that person the moral equivalent of someone who brutally raped, tortured and murdered two people? Uh, bzzzzzt. that's crazy hyperbole.

[bvar22]

108. Poor Cali.

Did you read the post I responded to?

"I would like a law wherein the criminal is tortured for daily for 1 year, for each victim, and then to be followed the next day after punishment by execution. So 2 victims, 2 years torture followed by execution. I don't care what the torture is, but everything will be done to keep them alive & tormented."

If anything, this is calling for MORE than "an eye for an eye".
I see no "crazy hyperbole",
but I don't live in CaliWorld.
Please enlighten me.....

[cali]

128. Yes. I read it, poor little bvar. That poster's expressions

are hideous. What they don't do, dear- and this should be painfully obvious- is make him/her the moral equivalent of someone who FUCKING RAPED TORTURED AND MURDERED TWO PEOPLE.

Pathetic that you can't grasp something so fucking obvious, honey.

[shintao]

130. The concept of Justice

I guess we could explain to the predator he committed a bad act, and send him on his way with "Please do not do that again." He probably did not mean to do it. It was probably a mistake.

[superduperfarleft]

19. This was the case that the stormfront brigade is going apeshit over.

Something about how because the perpetrators were black and the victims were white, and how because it wasn't ZOMG NATIONAL FUCKING NEWS it was evident of librul bias in teh media.

Regardless, I am 100% opposed to the death penalty, and would prefer to bury him in the deepest darkest hole you could find for the rest of his life, but I won't lose any sleep over this animal being euthanized.

[liberaltrucker]

25. That's one difference between SF and DU

We don't give a rat's ass about the race of the perps
and victims. Inhumanity is just that-regardless of
skin color.

[Ruby the Liberal]

38. How was this not national news?

Do those neo-nazis just have their panties in a wad because no one declared a race war over it?

Freaks.

[R. P. McMurphy]

47. There was little or no national coverage.

I received a chain email shortly after the murders that expressed outrage that there was no national coverage (see Snopes for a copy of the email http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp ) and attributed ot to the fact that the victims were white and the assailants were black.

I am against the death penalty if there us any question about someone's guilt. When there is no question of guilt (and especially in cases like this where there is depraved indifference) I, like many others here, will be unable to feel sorrow if he is executed.

BTW, since there was very little national coverage of the murder I find it ironic that a prominent liberal message board is where I've seen the first national attention. I also think that the expressions of sorrow for the victims and the predominate attitude that capital punishment in general is wrong is very telling of the heart of this community. I'll bet there is an entirely different reaction at other sites.

[snagglepuss]

49. I'm surprised by lack of coverage. I'm in Canada and never heard of the

murders. Could it be that it is so depraved and there is a racial angle?

[R. P. McMurphy]

50. Snopes addressed the lack of coverage.

Basically they said that, even though the crime was particularly brutal, brutal crimes occur everywhere and because local stations are in such tight competition with each other they are going to focus on their own market.

I have no knowledge as to why the networks didn't cover the story.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

53. I think the details may have been too gruesome.

[snagglepuss]

54. In many ways I would rather have not heard of this despicable crime.

However a story like this makes me appreciate any degree of goodness, kindness, gentleness and empathy in fellow humans.

[superduperfarleft]

62. The snopes link:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

And I heard it from several sources, so I'm not sure what the handwringers' excuses were (other than the usual libural media BS).

It was a decidedly local story, with tons of local coverage, and the only reason for national news or non-local local affiliates to report on this would've been a sick exaggeration of "if it bleeds it leads." I honestly don't blame many other outfits for not touching this story.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

138. If the races had been reversed it would have had national coverage.

[slackmaster]

141. And there would have been widespread outrage on DU for not calling it a hate crime

I have no doubt about that.

[Sheltiemama]

144. I don't remember Nancy Grace covering it.

Maybe she did early on and I've forgotten, but I'm surprised she didn't give this a lot of air time. Yes, I watch her show. It's a guilty pleasure.

[Sheltiemama]

143. Coverage here in Knoxville, of course, has been extensive.

I'm not exactly sure why this wasn't more widely reported, either. I do know that it's huge in the white supremacist community. They visit our Web site and post things that we have to delete.

[GoCubsGo]

41. "Euthanized"

That's just it. When we euthanize animals, we do it out of compassion. It puts them out of their suffering. The same goes for the death penalty. That's one of the issues I have with it. As far as I'm concerned it lets them off too easy. They're dead, they're gone. It's over for them. No more life in a small concrete cell with nothing but a toilet and a concrete bed. No more crappy dinners served through a slit in the door. Do a search on "life in death row." Not pleasant, to say the least. I'd rather they spent a long life in that sort of misery than be "euthanized" like a sick pet. This fuck and his pals sure deserve it.

[slackmaster]

60. I believe it was a hate crime

:nuke:

[superduperfarleft]

61. How exactly do you think this constitutes a hate crime?

Do white people everywhere now live in fear of black people committing the same acts on them (other than the loony stormfront crowd)?

[slackmaster]

63. Because I believe the victims were targeted because of their race

Do white people everywhere now live in fear of black people committing the same acts on them (other than the loony stormfront crowd)?

Let me put it this way: This horrible crime did nothing to alleviate that fear that exists in some people, not all of whom are white. It was a terrorist act.

[superduperfarleft]

66. If black people were raping and murdering white people all over the place

You might have something to that. But white people everywhere are not cowering in fear waiting to be next. It isn't a regular enough occurence for black people to target white people for racially motivated rapes and murders like this, for this to terrorize the "white community." Hell, I'd be more likely to fear retaliation against someone who is black by someone on the stormfront side as opposed to worrying myself about when the next white victim will turn up.

Hate crimes are not as much about the act or the intent but the result of the crime. But of course those with an ax to grind against ALL hate crime laws will certainly misinterpret the intent of the law in an attempt to make them all look ridiculous.

[slackmaster]

68. Are Jews cowering in fear everywhere because Buford Furrow shot up a daycare?

I don't believe they are.

It was still a hate crime.

[superduperfarleft]

72. No, but it's just one more example that Jews use to fear violence against them

because of their religion. And not just some loony fringe of Jews, but most Jews. And they have good reason to since violence against Jews specifically because of their religion has tons of historical precedent.

[slackmaster]

76. The children were targeted BECAUSE THEY WERE JEWS

That makes it a hate crime.

[superduperfarleft]

82. Wait, I'm confused, I thought it was because they were white?

Are we talking about this case (not a hate crime) or the Holocaust Museum shooter (definitely a hate crime)?

[slackmaster]

119. How on Earth could this not be hate crime?

I can't see it as anything else.

[Dreamer Tatum]

85. Show me where in the law there is such a qualification for a hate crime.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. The bastard is being put to death, anyway. If it makes you feel any better, he will find Jesus in a year or so, and in a few more years people will be here claiming his innocence, claiming a racist jury, and all sorts of Tookie-ness. Just be patient.

[superduperfarleft]

88. Show me in the law where this would constitute a hate crime?

I agree with the prosecutor that it was not a hate crime. Feel free to point out where he was wrong. Seems to me that the only people who brought up the "hate crime" bit in the first place are the usual crowd opposed to ALL hate crime laws who disingenuously try to stretch the intent of the laws to absurd lengths in an effort to discredit their very existence, so I'd say the burden of proof is on them (and you).

[Dreamer Tatum]

92. What hinges on this being a hate crime? Is there an extra-special death penalty I don't know about?

Jesus. Does this not being a hate crime make you feel better somehow? Is that some sort of vindication for you?

[superduperfarleft]

99. Wow. Um, okay.

I guess you just want to argue. Good luck with that.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

136. So you think something has to be prosecuted as a hate crime to be a hate crime? Strange.

[Gwendolyn]

74. Carjacking was Davidson's profession. He was desperate for money that night.

The reason he and the other animals were at that apartment complex was because a woman he owed money to, had just moved there. She had pressured him for money that afternoon.

Other drug dealers were pissed with Davidson as well and he needed a car to hawk to pay them off as well.

His girlfriend had moved out the day before as he had been beating and abusing her. Chances are he was filled with rage against women in general.

He had just gotten out of prison on parole months before. While the carjacking was happening, another car drove by, so they forced the kids into the truck and drove off. Following that, there was no turning back. Davidson was not going back to jail.

Rage, sociopathy, desperation for money and an escalating drug addiction are what fueled his motivation for the vicious attack. Not race.

[slackmaster]

77. Nice rationalization

:eyes:

[Gwendolyn]

81. Well, you tell me then.

Why do you believe it was a hate crime?

[Dreamer Tatum]

86. It's moot. Dude got the DP. nt

[Gwendolyn]

87. Wasn't asking you, thanks. n/t

[Dreamer Tatum]

90. Oh, forgot this was your private board nt

[Gwendolyn]

91. No it isn't.

But I'm specifically interested in Slackmaster's opinion, since s/he thought I was rationalizing. You can't help with that, but again, thanks anyway.

[slackmaster]

118. How could it possibly NOT be a hate crime?

:crazy:

[Gwendolyn]

120. Excellent answer. It's clear you don't understand what constitutes "hate crime." n/t

[Dreamer Tatum]

79. You have no idea whether race was involved. Stop pretending. nt

[Gwendolyn]

84. There's no evidence that they were driving around looking for white people to kill.

There's loads of info to support the notion that they were looking for cash and a car.

[Dreamer Tatum]

89. Well, there you have it: if that's all they wanted, why'd they kill, and

why'd they do it so gruesomely? You have to have HATE in your heart to do what they didm how they did it.

You are on shaky ground here. Go back and look at what was done to that woman AND that man, and tell me that wasn't HATE motivated.

[Gwendolyn]

93. I gave those answers in my post #99.

Davidson's girlfriend was white and she did leave him the day before because she couldn't take the beatings.

Maybe he was particularly angry with white women. But crimes against women happen every day. They don't get special designation as "hate" crimes.

[Dreamer Tatum]

94. Wait. You're willing to entertain that he did it specifically to a WHITE WOMAN, but

that doesn't constitute a hate crime?

So white women are not covered in hate crime legislation? Or just pretty white women?

I think you're sort of arguing against yourself.

[Gwendolyn]

97. No,"women" as a persecuted group are not covered under hate crime legislation..

Neither are men for that matter. I'm not arguing against myself at all.

I'm willing to see your side of the argument that Davidson had an especially pronounced hatred for white women. I don't believe it myself, as it seems he tried to get back with his white girlfriend while all this was going on, and it came out at trial that the animals had white friends and business partners as well. Another of the accused also had a white girlfriend who stayed at the house but went back to Kentucky before the horrible night. I attribute the vicious gruesomeness more to sociopathy and drug use.

[Dreamer Tatum]

98. Whew! Good to know that pouring bleach down her throat wasn't hate-motivated!

Thanks for clearing that one up for us.

(of course, the rational world knows this was a hate crime without question, but why not humor you)

[Gwendolyn]

100. Lol, you just can't win for trying.

Oddly enough, on another thread where I objected to two posters smearing the victims' reputations, I was labeled as having a white supremacist agenda. Now I'm being criticized as irrational because I know why this isn't labeled a hate crime. Maybe you should read up on the statute a little before you post. Serial killers and serial rapists are never charged with hate crimes. Not even when they have specific preferences, like redheads, or short women, or women with big boobs. It's clear they hate women however.

The gruesomeness of a crime isn't automatically enough to label a crime hate crime. And in this case, they poured bleach down her throat to erase DNA evidence. That shows depraved indifference but not necessarily blind hatred.

[Dreamer Tatum]

101. It really just means that for you, hate crimes are more heinous than capital murder

which is a sad way for someone to feel, but different strokes for different folks.

I will read up on hate crimes legislation, as clearly a conviction involves a punishment worse than death. I mean, if you're willing to dicker over whether an already-condemned man did it out of hate, then something terrible must be at stake. I just wonder what could be worse than death. Hm.

[Gwendolyn]

102. That's not what I"m saying at all. It appears you're just looking for reasons to argue.

I think this is one of the list-toppers for most vile, senseless and horrible crimes I've heard of in many years. You'll notice I was the first one to reply to this thread.

It's actually you who's dickering. I'm just answering you. But yes, go look up hate crimes legislation.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

113. Actually one of the witnesses testified that Boyd hated white people.

I don't believe the carjacking targeted white people. I believe the torture they endured had much to do with the victims being white.

[Gwendolyn]

121. It's possible of course Dave. I lean more toward generalized hatred of women.

(Armchair analysis of course.)

Not sure if you agree, but think it would have been almost impossible to try the rapes/murders as hate crimes considering Davidson had a white girlfriend, white houseguests, and, probably the only stable, positive time of his life was spent in the group home run by white people. It just probably wouldn't fly.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

123. I don't think it could be prosecuted as a hate crime.

I do believe hate is what drove Eric Boyd. He taunted the father of the female victim at his carjacking trial.

[slackmaster]

132. I think FMD pegged it

The prosecution has to meet a higher standard than anyone else in determining that a crime is a hate crime. The prosecution has to have evidence that can be presented in court.

I need not meet such a standard in order to hold an opinion that this was a hate crime.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

135. It would be impossible to do what was done to these kids without a degree of hate.

[Gwendolyn]

137. I guess it didn't really occur to me to view the crime that way.

But you're right about Eric Boyd apparently. I read the ex girlfriend's testimony that she stayed away from him, as Davidson had warned her Boyd hated white people.

There was also testimony that Davidson started calling the ex relentlessly starting at 2:30 in the morning in between torturing Channon Christian and killing Christopher Newsom. Between that, giving the ex Channon's clothes and her own testimony that he was enraged by their break-up, I figured that was the motivation. And get this vibe from his pics and the testimony that had he possessed a few more brain cells and not spent 5 years in prison, he'd be a serial killer by now.

But it's true that there were others there as well with their own motivation.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

139. I hope they manage to convict Boyd of more than the carjacking.

He truly seems like the mastermind in this band of idiots.

[LanternWaste]

147. What leads you to conclude the victims were targeted due to race?

What leads you to conclude the victims were targeted due to race?

[cali]

65. Although I don't believe there was any evidence

that this was a hate crime, if the races of the vics and perps were reversed, most of DU would have been screaming racism even and shrieking that the prosecution was composed of racists.

[superduperfarleft]

67. You're right, cali, most DUers are complete and utter morons.

:eyes:

[cali]

69. care to address my point? no, I though not, honey.

[superduperfarleft]

73. What point, that DUers are morons and we should all be eternally grateful

that you regularly demean yourself to grace us with your insight? I thought I did address that.

[cali]

78. Of course I said nothing of the sort, dear, but do continue making shit

up.

[superduperfarleft]

80. What making shit up like "most DUers would" like you're some kind of fortune-teller?

So what was your point, if not that most DUers are idiots?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

114. Actually some testimony in the last trial pointed to it.

[Hosnon]

96. Do you have anything to back up your claim that that is an element of hate crimes? nt.

[cali]

64. The prosecution disagreed.

[slackmaster]

70. Because they are chickenshit assholes

:nuke:

[cali]

71. maybe. and maybe it was simply a hideous opportunistic crime

[slackmaster]

75. Maybe they tortured, mutilated, raped, and murdered those people out of intellectual curiousity

:eyes:

[bertman]

125. I agree with you, slackmaster. If these horrendously evil crimes had been committed upon

two young African-Americans by five white people, this would have been on network news NONSTOP. And not just network news, but all over the world. Al Sharpton would have a stroke trying to get camera time declaring it just another example of how black Americans are being brutalized by white America. Here's the headline: GANG OF WHITE RACISTS, KIDNAP, RAPE, TORTURE AND MURDER BLACK COLLEGE COUPLE.

Until today I had not heard one word about this case.

Every single one of those fuckers should be garroted slowly until dead. And I'm a death penalty opponent--in most instances.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

140. I suspect you are right about that. The murder of James Byrd Jr. received national attention.

I'm glad it did even though the details were sickening. I truly don't know what to make of the lack of attention in this case.

[Burma Jones]

21. I'd be OK with life in solitary without parole for Davidson

In solitary......

[cecilfirefox]

23. I firmly believe in the death sentence, I just have reservations with it. Goodbye and good riddance.

When people like him in this world are gone the universe sits and basks in justice.

[lunatica]

26. I'm against the death penalty but sympathy has absolutely nothing to do with it

I have never had sympathy for murderers and even less for torturers. They deserve to be punished to the full extend of the law. They deserve to lose their freedom for the rest of their lives. The reason I'm against the death penalty is because it's state sanctioned murder. It is doing the same thing that the murderer did. And it's uncivilized for enlightened societies to act in such a brutish way.

But sympathy? None.

[burning rain]

29. There are cases to be made against the death penalty...

but it isn't sound to call it murder in a democratic polity. Murder is a heinous or unlawful killing, but most Americans do not regard the death penalty as heinous, and it is lawful under the federal government and that of many states. We allow government to do many things that would be crimes if private citizens did them--e.g. taxation, trying and sentencing criminals, imprisonment. We rightly reject libertarian arguments that taxation is theft; it's likewise unsound to call the death penalty murder, whether or not you support it.

[Liberation Angel]

33. Isn't it heinous to kill someone who is defenseless? Premeditated?

It is like killing prisoners of war or torturing them to death (as the US has done).

Don't we support prosecuting Bush and Cheney for that?

Do those who support the death penalty support it for those who tortured and murdered in our name with our tax dollars?

[thesquanderer]

43. I agree

My problem with the death penalty isn't "state sanctioned murder" -- it's that justice is imperfect, and death is irreversible. We know that innocent people have ended up on death row. Until we can be sure that no innocent is accidentally put to death--a certainty we will probably never be able to achieve--we should noy be putting people to death.

This is indeed the kind of case that tests my commitment to that. But the greater good of society is that we merely use life in prison to keep society safe, rather than have a system that keeps us no safer but may, at some point, accidentally put an innocent person to death.

[Confusious]

28. I'm only for the death penalty in cases of

Mass-murderers. This type.

These animals are just to dangerous.

[proteus_lives]

30. This is why I'm pro-DP.

This vermin doesn't deserve to be drawing air.

Execute him, bury him in an unmarked grave and forget he ever existed.

[liquid diamond]

56. It's great to see some liberals support the death penalty.

[Festivito]

31. Not death where incarceration and questioning are possible.

The psychiatrists should have full access to these people as long as they do live.

There should be a higher standard for life-in-forfeit, then if the jail cannot hold them, death.

Death penalty merely hurts us as a nation. It cheapens who we are.

[Liberation Angel]

32. Our tax dollars pay for assassination via drones every day

isn't this just as evil when we kill innocents? Children, babies, old people, pregnant women?

I always oppose murder - especially when it is state sanctioned.

Murder is always wrong.

Civilized states do not do it.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

52. Not wrong in this case.

[Sheltiemama]

35. I live in Knoxville.

I work at Knoxville's paper. I've been following this case since the day it happened. I've read the stories and written the headlines. I've lived here all my 42 years, and this is the worst crime I've heard of happening here. I've watched the Christian and Newsom families suffer unimaginably. I don't see how they've been able to attend court day after day. I don't see how they could stand it when the prosecution produced the trash can Channon had been stuffed into, still alive. We're all afraid her father will have a heart attack or a stroke before all the trials -- there are at least two more -- are over. They weren't just killed. They were tortured.

I'm glad Davidson is being put to death. That's the only punishment that fits this crime.

[Ruby the Liberal]

39. I am sorry you had to see all of this first hand.

My heart has been breaking for those families from afar for the last 2+ years. I don't think I could handle witnessing these trials up close and personal.

[Sheltiemama]

40. I'm glad I didn't have to sit in the courtroom.

One of our photographers kept having nightmares. Our main reporter on the case said some members of the public showed up just to see the pictures. That's pretty sick. All I had to do was read about it, and sometimes that was hard enough.

[Ruby the Liberal]

42. Still, this has to be dominating local news.

I can't imagine. :(

[Sheltiemama]

48. Oh, absolutely.

And there are still at least two trials to go. And get this: Davidson was found in a house across the street from where my paper is. I came to work one afternoon and saw lots of police cars blocking off the side street. I also saw one of our cars parked on the grass. I got to the newsroom and found out another suspect had been arrested. That was in January 2008.

[snagglepuss]

51. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims families.

And to you as well. It must feel nightmarish at times. Peace and Love.
:grouphug:

[eridani]

57. Those members of the public are the ones most likely to be imitators n/t

[Danger Mouse]

44. God...knowing that people are capable of shit like this upsets me so much.

I have mixed feelings about the death penalty...really, I think that's going too easy on the sick pig. This filthy monster should spend the remainder of his loathsome existence reminded constantly of what he's done.
So while part of me wouldn't mind hearing that his last hours were slow, painful, and full of the same fear and agony he inflicted on innocent people, the liberal in me think he's better off rotting away where he can never again hurt innocents.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

45. Glad to see a just sentence in this case.

[Warren DeMontague]

58. And there is today's "I don't know what the fuck is wrong with people" thread.

I agree. If there's ever a cause for the DP, this sort of thing is it.

My opposition has more to do with the fact that human justice is imperfect, and as such we're wont to sometimes get the wrong guy. Wrong guys can be let out of prison if exonerated, but not let out of a coffin.

Add to that the fact that life in prison isn't any sort of a treat; in some ways, a lethal injection might be the easy way out.

But it doesn't sound like they got the wrong guy, here. Seriously fucked up story.

[quaker bill]

59. I am against the DP as well

but this guy and folks like him make the strongest argument for the DP. I would not protest his execution.

[texasleo]

83. I would be happy to shoot Davidson in the face repeatedly.

[Dreamer Tatum]

95. I would be happy to hold your drink while you did it. nt

[KingBob]

104. But, ...

In this case, Davidson should not be executed. I think he has a very special skill set that could be used by the DoJ since the former VP has such a memory problem (Would Dick Cheney's memory of Val Plame comeback if waterboarded? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6893847). I believe Mr. Cheney's memory would return about two seconds after these thugs entered the room.

[JonQ]

105. Cases like this make me wish I am wrong about the existence of god

and most specifically, the existence of a hell.

A quick, clean death is too kind for these monsters. Eternal damnation seems about right though.

[JonQ]

106. I'm also a bit surpised that this was never posited as a hate crime

with all the perps being black and all the victims being white.

I'm sure if that had been reversed, well obviously we know how that would have been presented.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

112. Perfectly Fine To Execute This Piece Of Shit. It's Just A Shame The Methods Are So Humane.

[francolettieri]

126. instead of the death penalty

The death penalty is too expensive. I think they should convince convicted murderers to commit suicide in such a way that their organs arn't damaged so they can be donated to people on transplant lists.

[XanaDUer]

129. Usually, sociopaths are not that altruistic

but that is an interesting take.

[Little Star]

131. Kick

[XanaDUer]

133. Kick

...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

134. The problem is that he's a precedent.

I think there are probably some people who have done things so wicked that it is not innappropriate for the state to deliberately kill them. This guy may well be one of them (I don't know the details; I very much doubt anyone on DU does).

But I do not trust the government to kill such people without also killing other people, who are either innocent or guilty of crimes of insufficient magnitude.

And I would rather that 99 monsters and 1 innocent man all spend life in prison than that they are all killed.

[Sheltiemama]

145. I actually do know the details.

I work at Knoxville's newspaper, and I know details I wish I didn't. And I think death is the only punishment in this case.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

146. You are correct.