Cameron Todd Willingham
PRESSURE MOUNTS on Texas' governor regarding what appears to be the wrongful execution of a young father. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted for setting fire to his home with his three children inside. The children perished in the fire, and Willingham was charged with arson and murder. At a time when Todd's heart was breaking from the tragic loss of his children, he had to defend himself (unsuccessfully) for murder. He was on death row for over 12 years, which was certainly long enough to determine the cause of a fire. In fact, a determination was made prior to Willingham's execution. An arson report wherein fire investigators determined there was likely no arson was recently made public. Many people are calling for a moratorium on capital punishment in Texas, which holds the record for executions in America. A lawsuit has been filed against Governor Rick Perry in connection with Willingham's 2004 execution. The governor's office reportedly received a fax of the arson report stating that there was likely no arson before Willingham's execution.
Learn more about the Willingham case and access a petition to sign in support of his post mortem exoneration. The petition sponsored by the Texas Moratorium Network can be accessed at this site: http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/execution-of-cameron-todd-willingham.html - The site also has a VIDEO about another executed Texan who was also allegedly innocent. The case regards a middle-aged Latino man named Leonel Herrera.
The fire report that caused public outrage and convinced many people that Willingham was innocent, which was instrumental in getting Ernest Ray Willis exonerated and released from Texas death row, is below:
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Analysis of the Fire Investigation Methods and Procedures Used in the Criminal Arson Cases Against Ernest Ray Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham - http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/austin/investigative/upload/2009/08/execution_based_on_bad_investi/D_Beyler%20FINAL%20REPORT%20082509.pdf
Governor Perry is campaigning for re-election. He acknowledges no wrongdoing regarding Willingham's execution. Please see the newscast below.
The fire report that caused public outrage and convinced many people that Willingham was innocent, which was instrumental in getting Ernest Ray Willis exonerated and released from Texas death row, is below:
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Analysis of the Fire Investigation Methods and Procedures Used in the Criminal Arson Cases Against Ernest Ray Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham - http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/austin/investigative/upload/2009/08/execution_based_on_bad_investi/D_Beyler%20FINAL%20REPORT%20082509.pdf
Governor Perry is campaigning for re-election. He acknowledges no wrongdoing regarding Willingham's execution. Please see the newscast below.
Please be aware that other likely innocent people are on death row. Consider Thomas Arthur who awaits execution in Alabama. His DNA test results were returned in July stating that Arthur was ruled out as contributor for any of the crime scene evidence tested. A judge sealed Arthur's test results, his lawyers were forbidden to disclose his innocence, and the Alabama D.A.'s office reported to Birmingham News in August that a death warrant would be sought for Arthur.
Thomas Arthur
Mainstream media did not report Arthur's DNA results, although the media had closely followed his quest for post-conviction DNA testing for many years. All was silent when the test results came back with Arthur negative as Troy Wicker's murderer. The only exceptions to the silence that I found on the Internet was a report about Arthur's DNA test results from another blogger and myself. This writer had major problems publishing the news about Arthur's DNA test results. Care2 reported a cyberattack on September 1, which was the day I tried to send the news out via ecards. Gmail, which I use for prisoner advocacy, suddenly had an outage. I worked all night fighting cyberstalkers to get the article published about Arthur's DNA test results on August 31, and it finally made front page news at Care2 News Network. So far, Arthur still breathes. Arthur's daughter posted his DNA test results on her father's website. www.thomasarthurfightforlife.com/
See more about that drama at this link:
Should Thomas Arthur be Executed for Telling a Fibb?
http://www.votingcentral.com/VotingCentral/displayPoll.do?pollId=1236f80e-49c4-163d-b520-0cb9ffffffd4
Troy Davis
Troy Davis is another condemned man who has substantial evidence of innocence that arrived after his conviction for the murder of Officer MacPhail, a Savannah, Georgia police officer. Despite the fact that seven of nine witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony against Davis in his murder case that had no forensic evidence, the system repeatedly refused to grant Davis a new trial. Millions of people over the world cheered this summer when the Supreme Court ordered that Troy Davis' case would be reviewed again by another Georgia federal judge who will decide whether Davis will finally have his "just day in a fair court" (Davis' words). However, the High Court determined that the judge can only consider new evidence that was not available to Davis' attorney initially. Davis' attorney for his appeals case had 70 other active cases at the time, and it is unlikely that his first state-appointed attorney had the opportunity to adequately defend him on a capital murder charge. The High Court further ruled that Davis' innocence must be proved by the new evidence he presents to the federal judge, despite the fact that Davis has no DNA evidence to present. Davis must do better than prove there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt like other defendants - he has to prove actual innocence. Otherwise, Davis could be executed like Cameron Todd Willingham was.
Just as the media is silent regarding Thomas Arthur's DNA test results indicating innocence, Troy Davis is under a gag order and not allowed to speak with the press.
Alternet recently published the stories of four other men who may be wrongly convicted, including some on death row. The article is at this link:
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By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
October 26, 2009
4 Prisoners Facing Executions or Serving Extreme Jail Sentences Who Very Well May Be Innocent
http://www.alternet.org/rights/143499/4_prisoners_facing_executions_or_serving_extreme_jail_sentences_who_very_well_may_be_innocent/?page=entire
Texas is gearing up to execute another prisoner tomorrow, a man named Reginald Blanton, who has a very strong innocence claim of his own. (Blaton was executed. Read about his case at this link.) http://www.alternet.org/rights/143417/innocent_until_proven_dead:_will_texas_execute_another_innocent_man/.)
Cruel and unusual though it might seem, for a person to be sentenced to die for a crime he or she did not commit is hardly a unique phenomenon in this country. In the past 35 years, no fewer than 138 people have been released from death row after proof of their innocence was discovered -- including eight this year alone.
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Supreme Court Rules Inmates Have No Constitutional Right to DNA Testing Although Study by Expert Criminologists Shows Capital Punishment Is No Crime Deterrent
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/supreme-court-dna-ruling-study-shows-dp-no-crime-deterrent
This is a link to Darrell Lomax's website: http://www.freedarrell.com/
Darrell wrote: My name is Darrell Lomax and I have been wrongly incarcerated on death row at San Quentin State prison for over 14 years. I was convicted even though:
I passed a gunshot residue test
I have an alibi
the eye witness said it wasn't me
the fingerprints on the gun weren't mine
and it was found in someone else's car
even though the footprint wasn't mine
My witnesses were never called
and I couldn't afford a lawyer so I had to share a public defender with the man who made a deal to testify against me.
When the situation with the public defender was discovered he was replaced by a former DA who made no effort to find the witnesses for my defense.
A second website for Darrell Lomax sponsored by the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty is at this link: www.ccadp.org/darrelllomax.htm
Although this writer is against all executions, cases involving condemned mental patients are of particular interest to me as director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. I wrote about Jeff Wood in an article that made front page at OpEdNews on the day Jeff was scheduled for execution in 2008, and the article at the link below, which was carried in my lineup of articles at http://NowPublic.com/duo - The NowPublic article received some interesting comments, including some from persons who represented themselves as being a relative of David Reneau, the shooter in the murder for which Jeff faces execution, and a member of Jeff's family. See the article and comments at this link:
Scheduled for Texas Execution: Jeff Wood, a Mentally Challenged Young Man
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/scheduled-texas-execution-jeff-wood-mentally-challenged-young-man
Petition: Save Jeff Wood from the Executioner http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-jeff-wood-from-the-executioner
Petition to Save Andre Thomas and Stop Executing Mental Patients
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/No-Executing-Mental-Patients
There are many more inmates who were excessively sentenced due to mandatory sentencing laws and three-strikes laws (that disallow judges using their own discretion). Consider the case of Jeremy Smith. He is a young man who was schizophrenic from childhood. He allegedly hit another mental patient in his mental hospital, and was induced to sign a plea bargain for EIGHT YEARS imprisonment in California, a state that its governor reports is practically breaking under the weight of its prison costs. While in prison, he allegedly made "terrorist threats" to a guard and was further charged for that, which may substantially lengthen his sentence. California is paying at least $70,000 per year to punish the sick young man in a solitary confinement prison hole 23 hours per day. Gov. Schwarzenegger's efforts to effect prison reform are reportedly hampered by members of the state legislature.
Jeremy Smith, Schizophrenic California Prisoner
California had to send its senior citizens IOU's rather than live checks this year, but no cost is spared to imprison mental patients like Jeremy who do not deserve to be punished for having a disability. No one can be punished or rehabilitated into a state of good mental health. See Jeremy's petition below:
Justice 4 Jeremy Petition - Lifelong schizophrenic in CA prison hole - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/JusticeForJeremy
Wrongful convictions will undoubtedly continue to happen, because much can go wrong with evidence and witnesses between the time a defendant is arrested and brought to trial, sometimes years later. However, wrongful convictions can be reduced by increasing the amount of money states spend for public defenders. Saving innocent people from prison or execution is not only humane and just, it also saves taxpayers a good deal of money in an economy where every dollar counts. It is more financially prudent to increase spending for indigent defense to accomplish real justice than to have to pay over $50,000 per year per innocent inmate who is sentenced to many years in prison due to inadequate representation. Wrongful convictions are substantially more expensive than the cost for upgrading public defenders' budgets.
The USDOJ has made several grants recently to curtail wrongful convictions and to stop prisons' revolving door for mentally dysfunctional people. Regarding the shocking propensity courts have to ignore evidence of innocence that arrives after conviction, Attorney General Holder made it clear that real justice must take precedence over procedure.
The Scott Sisters - Life Sentences for $11 Theft Conviction
.Excessive sentencing is also unnecessarily cruel and expensive. Yet, in Mississippi, two sisters were given life sentences for the theft of $11, and they, too, have a strong case for innocence - the Scott Sisters. Many people believe Gladys and Jamie Scott were wrongly convicted just as they assert, but even if they are guilty, life sentences for $11 with no one physically harmed seems to be excessive sentencing. They have already been imprisoned for around 15 years. Mississippi taxpayers are sentenced right along with the women, because taxpayers must foot the bill.
The petition for the Scott Sisters is at the link below:
Gladys and Jamie Scott Wrongful Conviction Case Petition
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Free-Jamie-Gladys/index.html
The website for the Scott Sisters is: Free the Scott Sisters
http://search2.comcast.com/?cat=dnsr&con=ds&url=www.freethescottsisters.com
There is also a blogspot for the Scott Sisters called FREE JAMIE AND GLADYS SCOTT.
Their contact person is Nancy Lockhart at thewrongfulconviction@gmail.com
DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY!
Objections to the death penalty include:
~ It targets the poor
~ It is racist
~ It kills the innocent
~ It is barbaric
~ It does not deter crime
~ It is expensive (Taxpayers pay $90,000 per year per condemned inmate over and above incarceration costs for inmates in maximum security prisons, according to the Death Penalty Information Center)
Thou shalt not kill. ~ Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
~Exodus 20:16
Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
Donations are appreciated to continue to fight the good fight of faith for justice and human rights for prisoners in obedience to Hebrews 13:3 and Matthew 25 at http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com
Thank you for your interest in justice and human rights for prisoners.
.
28 comments:
Hey, Dudley. Innocent people have undoubtedly been convicted and imprisoned. Some were executed, and it will happen repeatedly unless DP ends. Please consider the cruelty of killing people in cold blood - even those who are guilty.
PRISON TORTURE WITHIN THE USA
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/prison-torture-within-usa-by-mary-neal.html
I find it disturbing that most executions happen in the Bible Belt states, although Jesus' message is forgiveness and reconciliation. I am on God's side in the argument regarding capital punishment. The Bible says at Psalm 102:19-20:
For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.
Thanks for your comments, and many blessings!
Mary
Mary:
Everyone knows that innocents are found guilty and imprisoned. I have always conceded that innocent have been executed.
But innocents are much more at risk without the death penalty.
The reason for my post was your one sided claims of innocence.
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
Updates for Willingham:
"Cameron Todd Willingham: Another Media Meltdown", A Collection of Articles
http://homicidesurvivors.com/categories/Cameron%20Todd%20Willingham.aspx
Regarding Jesus, please note:
God: 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother must certainly be put to death.' Matthew 15:4
Jesus: "So Pilate said to (Jesus), "Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?" Jesus answered (him), "You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above." John 19:10-11
Jesus: Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." (Jesus) replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Luke 23: 39-43
Jesus: "You have heard the ancients were told, ˜YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER" and "Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court". But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, "Raca", shall be guilty before the supreme court and whoever shall say, "You fool", shall be guilty enough to go into fiery hell." Matthew 5:17-22.
The Holy Spirit: God, through the power and justice of the Holy Spirit, executed both Ananias and his wife, Saphira. Their crime? Lying to the Holy Spirit - to God - through Peter. Acts 5:1-11.
The Word of God: Numbers 35:16-21. Note the words "shall" and "surely". What do you think they mean?
‘But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ‘If he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he will die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ‘Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he might die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ‘The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him. ‘If he pushed him of hatred, or threw something at him lying in wait and as a result he died, or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
Here is the full context http://nasb.scripturetext.com/numbers/35.htm
Jeffrey Wood cont
"Wood's lawyers don't dispute he deserves punishment but argue he doesn't deserve to die for a murder that occurred while he was waiting in a car outside the store." (2)
He deserved punishment? Why? Because Wood planned and helped to carry out the robbery/murder, making him culpable for the robbery/murder and, thus, justly sentenced to death.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 to not recommend Gov. Rick Perry commute Wood's death sentence. (2) For good reasons.
For those that wrongly complain about the law of parties:
"What do you think is going to happen when a guy goes into a convenience store to rob it and he’s armed with a gun, and your job is to help him commit that crime?” said Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime. “It’s a very high-risk activity.”(3)
Put another way, don't commit an armed robbery when you know your going to have to murder the victim because he knows the two parties robbing him.
Better yet, don't commit armed robbery, at all. You might end up on death row.
Texas Law of Parties: A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by
the conduct of another if acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense or if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit
one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy. (4)
Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
(1) "Texas Panel Won't Halt Execution of Accomplice", by Scott Michels, ABC News, Aug. 20, 2008
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5617113&page=1
(2) "Death date nears for accomplice in Hill Country murder", by Michael Graczyk, By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, Aug. 19, 2008, 4:41PMhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5953000.html
(3) Should murder accomplices face execution? By John Gramlich, Stateline.org, August 13, 2008
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=333117
(4) PENAL CODE, CHAPTER 7. CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONDUCT OF ANOTHER, SUBCHAPTER A. COMPLICITY
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/PE/content/htm/pe.002.00.000007.00.htm
Another example.
Jeff Wood: Robbery/murder and the law of parties
Dudley Sharp
"After initially denying involvement in the robbery, (Jeff) Wood admitted in a statement to police that he knew Reneau was going to rob the gas station, that Reneau planned to bring a gun and might use it if (Kriss) Keeran didn't cooperate, according to court opinions." (1)
"Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran (a "friend" of Wood and Reneau) and another employee to stage a phony robbery." (2)
In other words, both Wood and Reneau had planned to murder Keeran, long before the robbery. Keeran knew both Wood and Reneau. Their failure to recruit Keeran into the robbery meant that they would have to murder Keeran if they decided to go through with it. They did.
What does armed robbery mean? Normally, it means :"I've got a gun. If you don't do what I say, I'll kill you." In this case, it meant that Keeran would be murdered. Period.
"Lucy Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney, who prosecuted Wood, described Wood after his 1998 trial as "not a dummy" and called the slaying "cold-blooded, premeditated."(2) "(She) called Wood "the mastermind of this senseless murder," noting that Wood told his brother, who was not implicated, to destroy the surveillance tape after watching it together, according to the San Antonio Express." (1)
Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and fatally shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours. (2)
"According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying. "(2)
contd
The most common prayer The Lord's Prayer. Millions and millions of Christians repeatedly asked God throughout many centuries that He forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Please be aware that He will do that. Where will that leave you?
Mary
Dudley, do me a favor, please. Next time you hear of a court sentencing a man or woman to die in this sociopathic justice system, ask them for me, "WHAT HAPPENED TO LARRY NEAL?" Justice should be a goose and gander thing.
Regarding Jeff Wood, the day they plan to kill that poor, sick young man who Texas admits never killed a soul himself, I believe my righteous God will finally rain down retribution on that murderous state.
NEWSFLASH: Heaven is going to be full of lovers. There won't be a single hater in the house - not one. Lots of people are going to be surprised at their final destination, too, because they did much evil and justified it by choosing certain Bible passages while ignoring the theme of the Book, which is LOVE.
Perhaps you have a spouse, children, and friends you love. Would you drag people you love down a corridor to a death chamber and strap them onto a lethal injection table and shoot poison into their throbbing veins? Would you blindfold your loved ones and stand them against a wall and shoot him? I doubt if you would do that even if they committed murder. The trouble with hypocrisy is that some people quote the "eye for an eye" scriptures when they are judging others, but rely on the "mercy and grace" scriptures when they need forgiveness for themselves or people they care about.
Can you honestly say that you LOVE Jeff Wood? Say it aloud. Say, "I love Jeff Wood." I bet you cannot make yourself do it. There is an old spiritual that goes, "You've got to love everybody to see my Lord."
The Bible says Jesus is coming back to judge the quick and the dead. Ultimately, no one is going to get away with murder. Until Jesus returns, Christians are to help spread the Gospel, feed the hungry, visit prisoners and the sick, and represent Christ in the earth. With your knowledge of the Word, can you honestly say that you can picture Jesus grabbing Jeff Wood or any other man out of a cruel solitary confinement cell on death row and dragging him down the hall to kill him? Try to picture Jesus Christ, our merciful Savior, doing such a thing. You cannot. Therefore, execution is not something that anyone called by His name should do or condone.
We are to be transformed into His likeness. Therefore, when people look at Dudley Sharp, they should see a man who LOVES sinners. You promised to trade places with Jesus on earth. Are you really doing that? Are you keeping your oath?
In the Methodist church I attended as a child, we would sing a prelude before singing the Lord's prayer. We sang, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight." It is not righteous for people who accepted the gift of Jesus' blood to cover their own sins to want to see other sinners killed and go to hell without that covering. And if prisoners are not sinners, then they are saved like you, and their sins are already forgiven, no matter how scarlet their sins were before accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. You would be killing a born-again brother or sister of yours, Dudley - not the same person who murdered, but a new creature in Christ. There are only two types of people in the world, Dudley - saved and unsaved, and Jesus loves them both.
There were plenty of executions happening in the Old Testament, just as you pointed out. In fact, the woman caught in adultry was due for execution according to the Law of Moses. But Christ said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." By Christ's standard, none of us is equal to deciding who deserves breath, Dudley.
Life without parole would keep society safe from dangerous persons, and do it much cheaper than capital punishment. Dudley, to be like Jesus, please say, "I LOVE everyone on death rows across America and throughout the world." Sane people don't kill people they love.
Blessings.
Mary:
As you may know, there is no conflict between offerring forgiveness and supporting just sanctions for eathly crimes.
In fact, the biblical prescription for civil governments imposition of earthly sanctions is well known and has no conflict with personal forgiveness.
If you wish to contradict what God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit said, within the passages I cited, I would like to see your answers.
Truth is important, and that is why I posted on both the Willingham and Wood cases.
You make some more erros, as well.
Please review:
"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/the-death-penalty-neither-hatred-nor-revenge.aspx
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
Mary:
Truth matters.
Your errors with John 8:
John 8 and the death penalty: The Woman Caught in Adultery
Compiled by Dudley Sharp
1) Anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean, often inaccurate, get this right: “It is abundantly clear that the Bible depicts murder as a capital crime for which death is considered the appropriate punishment, and one is hard pressed to find a biblical proof text in either the Hebrew Testament or the New Testament which unequivocally refutes this. Even Jesus’ admonition “Let him without sin cast the first stone”, when He was asked the appropriate punishment for an adulteress (John 8:7) – the Mosaic Law prescribed death – should be read in its proper context. This passage is an entrapment story, which sought to how Jesus’ wisdom in besting His adversaries. It is not an ethical pronouncement about capital punishment . Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking.
2) What about the woman caught in adultery? From “Why I Support Capital Punishment”, by Andrew Tallman, sections 7-11 biblical review, sections 1-6 secular review
See Part 11
"the Pharisees wanted to make Jesus a heretic for opposing capital punishment, but He evaded their trap. The tremendous irony is that now, two thousand years later, people who claim to love Jesus teach that He was precisely the heretic His enemies wanted to paint Him as."
3) Sanctity of Life & the Death Penalty: Flip sides of the same “Divine” coin
Author: Richard Eric Gunby, Quodlibet Journal: Volume 5 Number 2-3, July 2003
ISSN: 1526-6575
John 8:2-11 (NRSV)
"Therefore their motives were nothing but evil. They were not seeking to follow God’s Law-Word in godly fashion; rather, they were attempting to employ surreptitiously what Moses said, towards their own evil ends of trying to trip Jesus up. What a foul thing."
"This cannot be read as an example of Jesus doing away with the law. Far from it! This is an example of Jesus, again, going by the clear unen-cumbered dictates of the law and not allowing it to be used towards evil ends in His presence. It is Jesus together with the Law triumphant over His enemies and their tradition. This is clearly an upholding of the law."
http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/gunby-sanctity.shtml as of 4/24/10
4) John 8: The Woman Caught in Adultery – Dealing with Capital Offenses Lawfully
http://reocities.com/CapitolHill/lobby/3562/adultry.html
5) Also see – Misuse and misunderstanding of John 8:7 is quite common. See Forgery in the Gospel of John www.religioustolerance.org/john_8.htm
6) Do a GOOGLE search for — entrapment “John 8:7" — and read the results
It appears that you are a Christian.
You write:
"I LOVE everyone on death rows across America and throughout the world." Sane people don't kill people they love."
Thereofore, let's look at what Christians believe.
Does God love humans? Yes.
Must humans die early and earthly deaths because of their sins.
Yes.
Does that mean that God does not love them?
No.
God said:
Genesis 9:5-6
"For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning.... Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image."
This is not a prediction, but a command. As the Noahic covenant is for all persons and all time, what do you think this means?
What did the death of St. Dismas mean?
It meant that it was not the manner of our earthly death that mattered, but our state of eternal redmeption through God's grace.
Dudley, I offer Psalm 102:19-20 (King James Version)
For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.
That is as plain as He could put it, Dudley. The Bible also says:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
No one can follow Jesus as he drags a man or woman onto a lethal injection table, because that is not something Christ would do.
Execution is not necessary to keep people from hurting others. Maximum security prisons do that. Execution is not cheaper than imprisonment. Therefore, it can only be done for revenge. God said, "Revenge is mine. I will repay."
I agree that Judgment Day is coming and that God will not spare people who rejected the blood of Jesus on that day. Until then, we are in the day of reconciliation. We are to lift up Christ, who forgave our sins. He teaches love and forgiveness. And if He be lifted up, He will draw all men unto Himself. My father does not intend for people to repent in prison like many inmates do, and then be executed by men who are too far from God to understand that the highest duty Christians have is to love those who do not deserve our love - for that is how Christ loves us.
Mary
Mary:
As I asked you before, if you would like to contradict what God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have stated in support of the death penalty (quotes above), please do so.
None of your texts, just above, negate any of the texts that call for execution of wrongdoers by the civil government.
Here are about 60 or so quotes from some of the most honored religious scholars in history, who are supportive of the death penalty , based upon biblical teachings. Withins those, there are hundred's of additional citations and references supporting their positions. There are many, many more.
"Death Penalty Support: Religious and Secular Scholars"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html
I am no more impressed by so-called "honored religious scholars" whose doctrine conflicts with Jesus' New Testament law of love than He is. Repeatedly Christ warned: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" According to Matthew 7:22-24, plenty of people are going to be SURPRISED when Jesus tells them to go to hell, because they subscribed to false teachings and felt righteous in their own minds when their hearts were really far from God. I wrote about that tragic loss in my poem "Golgotha" at this link:
www.nowpublic.com/world/come-me-golgotha-mary-neal
Love God above all else, and love thy neighbor as thyself. That's the commandment people must use to weigh whether capital punishment is just. If you believe it is loving to kill people, I fear for your family, friends, co-workers, and fellow church members, Dudley.
Blessings!
Mary
Mary:
Regarding Psalm 102, please read both of these.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm102.htm
And, in full context, review John 10:27
http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john10.htm
Mercy & the Death Penalty
1) Saint Augustine: " . . . inflicting capital punishment . . . protects those who are undergoing capital punishment from the harm they may suffer . . . through increased sinning which might continue if their life went on." (On the Lord's Sermon, 1.20.63-64.)
2) Saint Thomas Aquinas: . . . the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin anymore." (Summa Theologica, II-II, 25, 6, 2
3) “. . . a secondary measure of the love of God may be said to appear. For capital punishment provides the murderer with incentive to repentance which the ordinary man does not have, that is a definite date on which he is to meet his God. It is as if God thus providentially granted him a special inducement to repentance out of consideration of the enormity of his crime . . . the law grants to the condemned an opportunity which he did not grant to his victim, the opportunity to prepare to meet his God. Even divine justice here may be said to be tempered with mercy.” Quaker, biblical scholar Dr. Gervas A. Carey (1) (p. 116).
4) Romano Amerio, a faithful Catholic Vatican insider, scholar, professor at the Academy of Lugano, consultant to the Preparatory Commission of Vatican II, and a peritus (expert theologian) at the Council.
“The most irreligious aspect of this argument against capital punishment is that it denies its expiatory value which, from a religious point of view, is of the highest importance because it can include a final consent to give up the greatest of all worldly goods."
"This fits exactly with St. Thomas’s opinion that as well as canceling out any debt that the criminal owes to civil society, capital punishment can cancel all punishment due in the life to come. His thought is . . . Summa, ‘Even death inflicted as a punishment for crimes takes away the whole punishment due for those crimes in the next life, or a least part of that punishment, according to the quantities of guilt, resignation and contrition; but a natural death does not.’ "
"The moral importance of wanting to make expiation also explains the indefatigable efforts of the Confraternity of St. John the Baptist Beheaded, the members of which used to accompany men to their deaths, all the while suggesting, begging and providing help to get them to repent and accept their deaths, so ensuring that they would die in the grace of God, as the saying went.” (2)
Some opposing capital punishment ". . . go on to assert that a life should not be ended because that would remove the possibility of making expiation, is to ignore the great truth that capital punishment is itself expiatory. In a humanistic religion expiation would of course be primarily the converting of a man to other men. On that view, time is needed to effect a reformation, and the time available should not be shortened. In God’s religion, on the other hand, expiation is primarily a recognition of the divine majesty and lordship, which can be and should be recognized at every moment, in accordance with the principle of the concentration of one’s moral life.” (2)
Some death penalty opponents “deny the expiatory value of death; death which has the highest expiatory value possible among natural things, precisely because life is the highest good among the relative goods of this world; and it is by consenting to sacrifice that life, that the fullest expiation can be made. And again, the expiation that the innocent Christ made for the sins of mankind was itself effected through his being condemned to death.” (2)
contd
contd
"But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image."
"This is why I think it essential to oppose the Humanitarian theory of punishment, root and branch, wherever we encounter it. It carries on its front a semblance of mercy which is wholly false. "
" . . . the Humanitarian theory wants simply to abolish Justice and substitute Mercy for it. Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful. " The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment C.S. Lewis
8) C. S. Lewis: "Some enlightened people would like to banish all conceptions of retribution or desert from their theory of punishment and place its value wholly in the deterrence of others or the reform of the criminal himself. They do not see that by so doing they render all punishment unjust. What can be more immoral than to inflict suffering on me for the sake of deterring others if I do not deserve it? And if I do deserve it, you are admitting the claims of retribution. " "The Complete C.S. Lewis", Signature Classics, The Problem of Pain, P407, Harper Collins, 2002
9) Why do parents punish their children for transgressions? I think it easy to understand sanction of a child, by a parent, is a reflection in love.
They want the child to understand the level of transgression, which is reflected in the degree of sanction (retribution), that the expected and hoped for result of that sanction is teaching, to encourage sorrow and apology that will be reflected in improved behavior, that such rehabilitation will result in a better person that will improve the total moral good (rehabilitation and redemption).
Few are so naive as to believe that any or all of these can or will take place in many or most circumstances with criminals within a criminal justice system. It does, however, recognizes that sanction/retribution is an essential requirement, which has a hoped for restorative and rehabilitative effect.
10) "Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices...A murderer sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole can still laugh, learn and love, listen to music and read, form friendships, and do the thousand-and-one things (mundane and sublime) forever foreclosed to his victims." Don Feder, Boston Herald Columnist. "McVeigh Makes the Case for Capital Punishment". 21 May 2001
11) Never Forget Mercy for the Innocent
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
---------------------------------
1) synopsis of “A Bible Study”, from Essays on the Death Penalty, T. Robert Ingram, ed., St. Thomas Press, Houston, 1963, 1992. Dr. Carey was a Professor of Bible and past President of George Fox College.
2) “Amerio on capital punishment “, Chapter XXVI, 187. The death penalty, from the book Iota Unum, May 25, 2007 ,
www.domid.blogspot.com/2007/05/amerio-on-capital-punishment.html
contd
"But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image."
"This is why I think it essential to oppose the Humanitarian theory of punishment, root and branch, wherever we encounter it. It carries on its front a semblance of mercy which is wholly false. "
" . . . the Humanitarian theory wants simply to abolish Justice and substitute Mercy for it. Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful. " The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment C.S. Lewis
8) C. S. Lewis: "Some enlightened people would like to banish all conceptions of retribution or desert from their theory of punishment and place its value wholly in the deterrence of others or the reform of the criminal himself. They do not see that by so doing they render all punishment unjust. What can be more immoral than to inflict suffering on me for the sake of deterring others if I do not deserve it? And if I do deserve it, you are admitting the claims of retribution. " "The Complete C.S. Lewis", Signature Classics, The Problem of Pain, P407, Harper Collins, 2002
9) Why do parents punish their children for transgressions? I think it easy to understand sanction of a child, by a parent, is a reflection in love.
They want the child to understand the level of transgression, which is reflected in the degree of sanction (retribution), that the expected and hoped for result of that sanction is teaching, to encourage sorrow and apology that will be reflected in improved behavior, that such rehabilitation will result in a better person that will improve the total moral good (rehabilitation and redemption).
Few are so naive as to believe that any or all of these can or will take place in many or most circumstances with criminals within a criminal justice system. It does, however, recognizes that sanction/retribution is an essential requirement, which has a hoped for restorative and rehabilitative effect.
10) "Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices...A murderer sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole can still laugh, learn and love, listen to music and read, form friendships, and do the thousand-and-one things (mundane and sublime) forever foreclosed to his victims." Don Feder, Boston Herald Columnist. "McVeigh Makes the Case for Capital Punishment". 21 May 2001
11) Never Forget Mercy for the Innocent
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
---------------------------------
1) synopsis of “A Bible Study”, from Essays on the Death Penalty, T. Robert Ingram, ed., St. Thomas Press, Houston, 1963, 1992. Dr. Carey was a Professor of Bible and past President of George Fox College.
2) “Amerio on capital punishment “, Chapter XXVI, 187. The death penalty, from the book Iota Unum, May 25, 2007 ,
www.domid.blogspot.com/2007/05/amerio-on-capital-punishment.html
contd
"But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image."
"This is why I think it essential to oppose the Humanitarian theory of punishment, root and branch, wherever we encounter it. It carries on its front a semblance of mercy which is wholly false. "
" . . . the Humanitarian theory wants simply to abolish Justice and substitute Mercy for it. Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful. " The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment C.S. Lewis
8) C. S. Lewis: "Some enlightened people would like to banish all conceptions of retribution or desert from their theory of punishment and place its value wholly in the deterrence of others or the reform of the criminal himself. They do not see that by so doing they render all punishment unjust. What can be more immoral than to inflict suffering on me for the sake of deterring others if I do not deserve it? And if I do deserve it, you are admitting the claims of retribution. " "The Complete C.S. Lewis", Signature Classics, The Problem of Pain, P407, Harper Collins, 2002
9) Why do parents punish their children for transgressions? I think it easy to understand sanction of a child, by a parent, is a reflection in love.
They want the child to understand the level of transgression, which is reflected in the degree of sanction (retribution), that the expected and hoped for result of that sanction is teaching, to encourage sorrow and apology that will be reflected in improved behavior, that such rehabilitation will result in a better person that will improve the total moral good (rehabilitation and redemption).
Few are so naive as to believe that any or all of these can or will take place in many or most circumstances with criminals within a criminal justice system. It does, however, recognizes that sanction/retribution is an essential requirement, which has a hoped for restorative and rehabilitative effect.
10) "Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices...A murderer sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole can still laugh, learn and love, listen to music and read, form friendships, and do the thousand-and-one things (mundane and sublime) forever foreclosed to his victims." Don Feder, Boston Herald Columnist. "McVeigh Makes the Case for Capital Punishment". 21 May 2001
11) Never Forget Mercy for the Innocent
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
---------------------------------
1) synopsis of “A Bible Study”, from Essays on the Death Penalty, T. Robert Ingram, ed., St. Thomas Press, Houston, 1963, 1992. Dr. Carey was a Professor of Bible and past President of George Fox College.
2) “Amerio on capital punishment “, Chapter XXVI, 187. The death penalty, from the book Iota Unum, May 25, 2007 ,
www.domid.blogspot.com/2007/05/amerio-on-capital-punishment.html
sorry, the postings were not going through, properly.
The other writing on Psalm 102
Dudley, God's Word says "The wages of sin is death." That means everyone has the death penalty, but we praise God that His mercy is new every morning. Mercy makes all the difference. If we seek to be like God, we must also be merciful. It is right to remove violent people from society to prevent further harm and for punishment, but it is wrong to kill them. Consider these two verses, and know that we are unworthy of deciding who can draw breath.
"Lord, thank you that I am much better than a murderer. Such persons deserve the death penalty. I do not." Luke 18:10-14
WHO has Jesus given the right to be an executioner? None who have ever sinned. Read:
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. - John 8:7
Blessings!
Mary
Mary, thank I believe you have wrongly interpreted the John 8 passage.
John 8 and the death penalty: The Woman Caught in Adultery
Compiled by Dudley Sharp
1) Anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean, often inaccurate, get this right: “It is abundantly clear that the Bible depicts murder as a capital crime for which death is considered the appropriate punishment, and one is hard pressed to find a biblical proof text in either the Hebrew Testament or the New Testament which unequivocally refutes this. Even Jesus’ admonition “Let him without sin cast the first stone”, when He was asked the appropriate punishment for an adulteress (John 8:7) – the Mosaic Law prescribed death – should be read in its proper context. This passage is an entrapment story, which sought to how Jesus’ wisdom in besting His adversaries. It is not an ethical pronouncement about capital punishment . Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking.
2) What about the woman caught in adultery? From “Why I Support Capital Punishment”, by Andrew Tallman, sections 7-11 biblical review, sections 1-6 secular review See Part 11
http://andrewtallmanshowarticles.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-i-support-capital-punishment-part_07.html
"the Pharisees wanted to make Jesus a heretic for opposing capital punishment, but He evaded their trap. The tremendous irony is that now, two thousand years later, people who claim to love Jesus teach that He was precisely the heretic His enemies wanted to paint Him as."
contd
contd
3) Sanctity of Life & the Death Penalty: Flip sides of the same “Divine” coin
Author: Richard Eric Gunby, Quodlibet Journal: Volume 5 Number 2-3, July 2003
ISSN: 1526-6575 John 8:2-11 (NRSV)
"Therefore their motives (to entrap Jesus) were nothing but evil. They were not seeking to follow God’s Law-Word in godly fashion; rather, they were attempting to employ surreptitiously what Moses said, towards their own evil ends of trying to trip Jesus up. What a foul thing."
"This cannot be read as an example of Jesus doing away with the law. Far from it! This is an example of Jesus, again, going by the clear unencumbered dictates of the law and not allowing it to be used towards evil ends in His presence. It is Jesus together with the Law triumphant over His enemies and their tradition. This is clearly an upholding of the law."
http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/gunby-sanctity.shtml
as of 4/24/10
4) John 8: The Woman Caught in Adultery – Dealing with Capital Offenses Lawfully
http://reocities.com/CapitolHill/lobby/3562/adultry.html
5) Excellent review of the challenges to the authenticity of John 8
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/religion/spurious.htm
as of 8/6/10
Start here: • John 7:53 - 8.11: The "woman taken in adultery" story: Metzger's statement. Just before page 105 and through page 201
more
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11457c.htm
There will be a hearing on Todd Willingham's innocence on Thur., Oct.14, 2010. Sadly, the young father was executed while questions remained about whether his children actually died as a result of arson. If there was no arson, there was no murder, and Todd was another victim of wrongful execution, as many people already believe and the fire investigator's report indicates.
Mary
Dudley, thanks for sharing your opinions about capital punishment. Before another execution in the USA, please tell me:
1) WHO MURDERED MY HANDICAPPED BROTHER, LARRY NEAL, AFTER 18 DAYS OF SECRET ARREST?
2) WHY DID THE U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE HELP SHELBY COUNTY, TN JAIL HIDE LARRY'S MURDER BY ACCEPTING FRAUDULENT REPORTS IN FEDERAL HEARINGS THAT DELIBERATELY OMITTED HIS ARREST AND DEATH?
3) WHY DOES THE USDOJ STILL HIDE LARRY'S MURDER AND REFUSE TO ANSWER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION AND RECORDS ABOUT HOW/WHY POLICE SECRETLY ARRESTED AND MURDERED THE HARMLESS, LIFELONG MENTAL PATIENT?
3) WHY DID THE GOVERNMENT USE THE (JOHNNIE) COCHRAN FIRM TO DEFRAUD MY FAMILY AFTER LARRY'S MURDER TO PREVENT DUE PROCESS OF LAW? (The Cochran Firm contracted to be Larry's wrongful death attorneys, but actually worked for the DOJ and Shelby County Jail behind our backs to see that Larry's wrongful death case stayed out of the media and out of court).
4) WHY DOES THE GOVERNMENT ALLOW ME TO BE CENSORED ONLINE AND STALKED IN PERSON FOR EXERCISING MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO ASK "WHAT HAPPENED TO LARRY NEAL" AND ADVOCATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS?
5) WHY DOES THE GOVERNMENT HATE MINORITY PEOPLE SO MUCH THAT THE COCHRAN FIRM IS USED TO DEFRAUD US AFTER POLICE MURDERS AND ABUSES BY PRETENDING LAWSUITS WERE FILED THAT WERE NEVER FILED? I have proof that this happens repeatedly. Two examples: The firm tricked my family and the family of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old Atlanta woman who police killed during a no-knock warrant in 2006. (See online - "THE COCHRAN FIRM DEFRAUDS KATHRYN JOHNSTON'S SURVIVORS."
Years ago, Johnnie Cochran successfully defended O.J. Simpson during his murder trial. Many people disagreed with the not-guilty verdict and felt that Cochran used the court system to get a murderer off. Some racist elitists in the justice system evidently believe it is fitting to take vengence on all black and brown people by curtailing our access to justice in courts across America by misusing the law firm that wears Johnnie Cochran's name. Most people do not know The Cochran Firm was sold to some good ole boys in Alabama shortly before Johnnie Cochran died (hopefully of natural causes).
Such a wicked, vengeful, racist justice system should not have the right to execute people, Dudley. Since I know Jesus is Love, nothing can convince me that He agrees with evil, elitist, sociopathic, criminal hypocrites in government making life and death decisions. God knows that men are unworthy of the responsibility.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen.6:5
The Department of Justice decided that whereas Michael Vick's dogs' deaths deserve investigation, Larry Neal's secret arrest and murder in government custody does not. Dog abuse is deemed more relevant than a black man's murder in this country. American courts and the DOJ have neither the objectivity nor sufficient appreciation for civil and human rights to trust with decisions about executions. If you wish to examine proof of that, please visit more articles in my FreeSpeakBlog, including the article "Human Rights for Prisoners March."
Blessings, and again, thanks for commenting.
Mary:
Most importantly, I am terrible sorry about the murder of your brother.
Secondly, if yu can prove those allegations, you will have no problem hiring an attorney, who would take the case on a contingency basis and help you to get those answers.
I wish you the best.
Thanks, Dudley. Please feel free to speak about these injustices to any qualified attorneys you know. Everything I write is proved and documented in public records. I have published most of them in this blog as well as my Care2 Sharebook and our website for Larry at http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com
Regarding The Cochran Firm's latest fraud against a grieving black family after the murder of a loved one - The Kathryn Johnston Case - please see DOZIER vs. CITY OF ATLANTA using this link -
https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx
Dozier et al. v. City of Atlanta, et al.
United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia
Civil Action No. 1:08-CV-0007-MHS
I know it surprises people to learn how dishonest and devious and hateful our justice system really is, and that is why they fight against exposure. See a few of my videos capturing censorship at my YouTube channel - jkempp703. It is awful to be stalked in person and online to hide one's brother's murder, Dudley. Please pray for my family and me, and also pray that God gives American officials a passion to ensure justice for all. I am against execution in any case, but especially knowing what a horribly unfair injustice system America has.
While "common" men are executed for murders, Dudley, my 87-year-old mother has continuous nightmares about how her handicapped son was murdered by police during weeks of secret arrest in 2003, but the USDOJ refuses to even answer how he was murdered, much less investigate and prosecute anyone about his death.
Mary
updates for Willingham, here:
Rebuttal: Trial By Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/10/cameron-todd-willingham-media-meltdown.html
updates for Willingham, here:
Rebuttal: Trial By Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/10/cameron-todd-willingham-media-meltdown.html
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