Boston Marathon Bombings

[Fat Charlie]

I am worried about his rights. If our system works well, we can execute him without violating his rights. Then he didn't stand up for or against anything, there was no grand statement. He'll be just another criminal being processed through the system.

That system forgets that it works for us and not against us. If the system gets handed someone so blatantly guilty and can't process him without breaking its own rules, we need a new system. Read him his rights. Throw a public defender at him. Cross all the Ts, dot all the Is, then throw the switch. Otherwise we lose.

[user removed]

Something like the way Virginia handled the DC Sniper situation would be just about perfect.

regards
Mech

[Xist]

Can someone define trial by one's peers? If my jury was single nerds in their mid-thirties, they would never convict me for... jaywalkng...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

I am worried about his rights.

A coffin and a black candle. What more would he need or deserve?

Maybe a rope around his neck like Saddam Hussein

[Arragonis]

I would suggest the best punishment would be to keep him alive and in solitary and repeated awakings - like Manning. Eventually he will want to talk and you will find out either how he came to think this was a good idea and whether anyone as yet unknown provided any help. It makes sense to get as much information as possible.

[NeilBlanchard]

A jury of one's peers is your fellow citizens. It is not limited by demographics - in fact it should be as diverse as possible.

Remember too folks, that no matter what we think we know, a person has to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. John Adams would be spinning in his grave if he could hear what some people (Senators McCain and Graham in particular) are saying. John Adams was the defense lawyer for the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre - and he is the principle author of the US Constitution.

Ironically, John Adams is the author of the Massachusetts Constitution, which is older than the US Constitution, and the MA document is the model for the US. And this crime occurred here in Massachusetts...

[Fat Charlie]

Well, they finally read him his rights.

Then they charged him with using a weapon of mass destruction. You know, a pot with some black powder, BBs and nails: WMD.

I guess Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld understated Iraq's arsenal, if we go by the Justice Department's definition.

[niky]

It was a bomb. They can't classify it as a firearm or a gun attack, what else could they do?

While the "mass" definition is up for debate (under the law, grenades, bombs and RPGs are considered WMDs), "terror" weapons don't depend on fancy construction. They just have to kill people.

Remember, the most successful domestic attack before 9/11 was a truck full of fertilizer.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by niky

Remember, the most successful domestic attack before 9/11 was a truck full of fertilizer.

Speaking of which, is there any news of the plant in Texas?

Should that be a different thread?

[War_Wagon]

The more serious and the more horrific the crime, the more attention needs to be paid to all the laws and details when prosecuting it. There was a serial killer here that they figured killed around 50 sex trade workers. They only tried him for 6, and the families of the others were outraged. But the 6 were the ones that they could prove beyond a doubt that he was guilty of. Like Fat Charlie said, if the system can't deal with him without messing up, then we need a new system.

As for street justice, I have always had one major issue with it. Say the guy up here that killed 50 people got out on a technicality. There is no doubt he is guilty (he had a human head in a bucket in his living room), but his life expectancy is about 12 seconds once he hits the streets. I don't think anyone would lose any sleep over it either. But it turns one more person into a criminal. Because as much as the person that shoots him would be considered a hero, he is now a murderer, and subject to all the same treatment as any other criminal. That's why the system has to make sure that it does it's job, and make sure all the details get handled correctly.