161–170 of 514 posts
> Marcellus Williams, whose murder conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay.
> The 55-year-old was put to death around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/24/us/marcellus-williams-schedul...
Still not sure with so many of the (esp right leaning) in the US claiming to be christian, can also accept this as a punishment. But I get nonsense begets more nonsense.
[flagged]
I'm sure believers have jumped through the hoops required to justify it but from the outside, one would expect a country that is majority christian to oppose executions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's plenty of evidence. He confessed to his girlfriend, and a cellmate. He pawned the victim's possessions. He was seen disposing of bloody clothes. He already had 15 felony convictions in addition to offenses related to Ms. Gayle's murder: robbery (2), armed criminal action (2), assault (2), burglary (4), stealing (3), stealing a motor vehicle, and unlawful use of a weapon. Now, as to whether this evidence is so…
> There's plenty of evidence. He confessed to his girlfriend, and a cellmate. Be careful, this is hearsay and not evidence. Those people claim that he confessed to them, but there is a lot more context. Here is what the linked story says about the "he confessed" part: > The investigation had gone cold until a jail inmate named Henry Cole, a man with a lengthy record, claimed that Mr. Williams confessed to him that he…
I think you are out of your element. To my understanding hearsay refers to a claim made by someone not in court. In this case the girlfriend and jailmate were called as witnesses and gave testimony in court.
Witnesses are evidence and they are one of the oldest forms of evidence, your view that evidence is only material is a gross misunderstanding of trial procedures.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being Christian is about forgiving and loving your neighbours, isn’t it?
I dont think so really. The Crusades would have never happened if that were true.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe there are heinous crimes that do. Both fitting the crime and as a deterrent.
The US has more violent crime than other Western countries, so as a deterrent, it does not work. Perhaps instead of wasting money on death penalty appeals and killing innocent people, we should think about how we as a country can overhaul the prison system and our societal structures.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not hearsay to go to the witness stand and say the defendant told you something. That defendant is there in court and is able to defend themselves.
That's literally the definition of hearsay. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearsay
> if Susan is unavailable for cross-examination, the answer is hearsay
So it seems that the original case rested on the following: - Williams GF witness testimony, that Williams confessed to her. - Jailhouse witness testimony, that Williams had confessed to them. - That Williams had items (purse, laptop, etc.) in his car, on the day or day after the murder. But no DNA evidence? A death penalty seems pretty egregious, when you have that kind of evidence. Seems like there's plenty of reas…
That seems like pretty strong evidence to me!
Executing him requires there's absolutely no room for a reversal, and from that point of view the evidence isn't that strong.
Marcellus Williams was executed yesterday, Tuesday. https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-will...
don't you mean murdered?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Suppose we lived in a world where it was possible to know someone's guilt or innocence with strictly 100% confidence. Curious to know if your views would change? Note the cost of incarceration is around ~$70k/year; enough to save lives, house people, heal people, feed people etc if put to other uses.
If murder is illegal, then it makes no difference if the state does it as punishment for committing murder. You’ve still sanctioned a murder, admittedly of a murderer. A civilised country accepts this simple logic and doesn’t sanction murder under any circumstances.
There was another execution in South Carolina on Friday despite new evidence of innocence https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/20/south-caroli...
> Prosecutors had no forensic evidence connecting Allah to the shooting. Surveillance footage at the store showed two masked men with guns, but they were not identifiable. The state’s case rested on testimony from Allah’s friend and co-defendant, Steven Golden, who was also charged in the robbery and murder. As their joint trial was beginning, Golden pleaded guilty to murder, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy and agreed to testify against Allah. Golden, who was 18 at the time of the robbery, said Allah shot Graves.