(no subject)

[sunshine_queen]

There was a killing Gainesville back in 1990.



A killing is too weak a word, really... it was a massacre. A man named Danny Rolling- a troubled man, abused during his childhood, made to feel worthless- killed five college students. Brutally. The atrocities, which he seemed proud of, as he was when he raped and murdered a 24-year-old before killing her 8-year-old nephew and her father, were put on display for when the police came. He arranged the bodies- and their dismembered parts. And around them, he arranged mirrors to reflect the carnage.

Right now, Danny Rolling is scheduled to die by lethal injection next week. He's trying for an appeal. An appeal, if I remember correctly, because he's afraid that the lethal injection will hurt.

I don't think I made that up. I'm pretty sure I read that last week.

I've been reading about it in our school paper. I didn't know the names of the victims before, and now I do.

Christina Powell, 17. Sonja Larson, 18. Christa Hoyt, 18. Tracy Paules, 23. Manny Taboada, 23.

The first two- roommates- he stalked from a Walmart. Not even a Walmart, the Walmart I go to all the time. The Walmart on Archer. He saw them buying things for their new apartment. It was the first week of fall classes. He waited until three in the morning and then broke in.

I don't really know why I'm sharing this. I guess it's because I am just... I am so angry. For what happened to those kids. For what happened to their family. For what happened to Gainesville itself after this happened- the fear that gripped the town. Students slept in groups, bought guns, or left altogether.

And this guy has the nerve to want to overthrow his sentence.

For TV shows, you all know I'm all about violence. I'm not in real life, I swear. And normally, I am not a fan of the death penalty. I really do think that we, as human beings, shouldn't take the life of others because... well. We're not as cool as God.

But this guy? I guess I understand how the death penalty came to be, from years of retribution. This man doesn't deserve the easy death of lethal injection. He decapitated a girl. He mutilated people. He deserves to die. Not even that so much, but deserves to suffer. He brought it on himself, not like those kids, who suffered for no reason.

And I am extremely livid.

Comments

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

Uugh, that is just chillingly awful to read about. I just . . . don't know what to think. How can people even be like that? Lethal injection really doesn't seem sufficient. I can't even think of anything that does.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

That's the whole thing. This guy didn't just kill those students, he changed an entire town, he ruined the lives of their families- and he is going whine about getting a shot? I personally don't think any punishment is great enough, but man. Arg. Such hate.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Although I am in no sense defending this guy -- NO way -- I thought I should clarify: What he's probably suing about is the fact that the chemicals used for lethal injection in most states are widely reputed not to work the way they're supposed to work. It's supposed to be a shot, ten seconds, you pass out and it's over. Instead, the belief now goes, the drug paralyzes you and you suffocate to death in really agonizing pain for five to ten minutes. Given the constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment (people aren't drawn and quartered anymore, etc.), this presents a problem, which many death row inmates have seized upon. Some states have gone so far as to require the services of an anesthesiologist to make sure that the inmate is unconscious before the paralyzing drug is administered; however, as many doctors feel that this violates the Hippocratic Oath (and others who may not have such qualms simply cannot bring themselves to be part of an execution), these states have ended up essentially unable to have executions, banning the death penalty not in theory but in fact.

Anyway, this is just your Legal Controversy Moment. Go back to your regularly scheduled viewing.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

But really, how can he think he has a chance? How can he think that anyone would overturn the decision, or even delay it, given his crimes?

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

What he's probably trying to do is to remove his crimes, and himself, from it as much as possible. (Legally speaking, I mean.) If he can get the courts to rule that the Florida method of execution is inhumane, then neither he nor anyone else can be executed in the state until the state approves a different method of execution, one that would be considered humane. As soon as that was done, of course, he'd be right back where he started.

Such a change in the law could take place -- I really don't know. A special legislative session could get it done overnight. It could be held up in the courts for years. Anything in-between. If I'm correct about the legal strategy here (and I might not be, as I'm drawing conclusions based on this post alone), the idea is not about saving his life but buying himself time. So no, he can't overturn the death sentence with this, but he could feasibly get a delay. I personally suspect Florida will have none of it, but there are states where this has gone into effect.

(New York is technically a death penalty state, but executions are indefinitely suspended pending a full overhaul of the system, due to convictions of innocent people, etc., which means anybody on death row here is just about as likely to die of old age as be executed. OTOH, they're all still sentenced to death.)

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

You're probably very right. I know frightfully little about the legal process here, but from what I've read, it's not going through.