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Robert Benjamin Smith, mass murdered who killed 5 random girls and women at a Mesa, AZ beauty school at age 18, died at age 76 after nearly 6 decades. Initially sentenced to death, his sentence was converted to life.
Apparently, from someone I know who worked in an AZ prison, he was a good cook and was well respected for that reason by inmates and staff, and apparently had some sort of religious "conversion" in there. But it is abysmal a man got to live 6 decades on our dime after committing such as an atrocious crime. Your opinions?
Because he knows if he acts good in the prison, he will get a chance of being converted to a life sentence.
It's like all those people who do good in prison, so they can be paroled. But as you know, most criminals will reoffend again once they are out and the same cycle repeats.
OK by me. I've seen too many stories of innocent men finally being freed after years on death row. 60 years in prison is no life, he made the best of it but it was clearly punishment, punishment he deserved.
What if in cases the evidence is fullproof, and the killer confessed as well?
What if in cases the evidence is fullproof, and the killer confessed as well?
Usually going from Death to a Life sentence is the 'reward' for pleading guilty and saving the state the costs of going to trial.
So.. Why would anyone plead guilty for nothing? Which means, everyone goes to trial. Which means.. Your case wouldn't happen.
Only fools believe in foolproof evidence. I mean.. Look at OJ.
But.. when you consider all that.. Gets twisted, don't it?
I do support the death penalty.. But.. yes, I would rather see 100 guilty people go free than one innocent person executed.
Do I think anyone since the death penalty was reintroduced was executed and was actually innocent? I don't THINK so. Which, it's a bit scary to have that doubt. There was someone in VA who had proclaimed his innocence.. Got celebrities on his side.. He was executed (It was VA after all) and they found new evidence.
Which was proof of his guilt.
Have people been sentenced to death and been innocent? Absolutely. Multiple examples of that. Pending on where you fall on the West Memphis Three case. Damien Echols would be one.
Have innocent people been executed in the past? Absolutely. Here in SC there's the case of George Stinney. I think he was a 14 year old black boy who was, quite frankly, railroaded by a racist justice system and was executed in 1944.
Anyone else.. Some people have a very loose definition of proof. There's some people who were executed where.. Questions remain and it's POSSIBLE they may have been innocent. But, nothing proven. You'll see some people jump up and rattle off a list of people executed who were 'innocent'. Half of them still have that guy from VA on their list.
And, I only look at the cases from 1976 forward. Prior to that.. Especially in the south.. Yeah.. Bad things happened.
Usually going from Death to a Life sentence is the 'reward' for pleading guilty and saving the state the costs of going to trial.
So.. Why would anyone plead guilty for nothing? Which means, everyone goes to trial. Which means.. Your case wouldn't happen.
Only fools believe in foolproof evidence. I mean.. Look at OJ.
But.. when you consider all that.. Gets twisted, don't it?
I do support the death penalty.. But.. yes, I would rather see 100 guilty people go free than one innocent person executed.
Do I think anyone since the death penalty was reintroduced was executed and was actually innocent? I don't THINK so. Which, it's a bit scary to have that doubt. There was someone in VA who had proclaimed his innocence.. Got celebrities on his side.. He was executed (It was VA after all) and they found new evidence.
Which was proof of his guilt.
Have people been sentenced to death and been innocent? Absolutely. Multiple examples of that. Pending on where you fall on the West Memphis Three case. Damien Echols would be one.
Have innocent people been executed in the past? Absolutely. Here in SC there's the case of George Stinney. I think he was a 14 year old black boy who was, quite frankly, railroaded by a racist justice system and was executed in 1944.
Anyone else.. Some people have a very loose definition of proof. There's some people who were executed where.. Questions remain and it's POSSIBLE they may have been innocent. But, nothing proven. You'll see some people jump up and rattle off a list of people executed who were 'innocent'. Half of them still have that guy from VA on their list.
And, I only look at the cases from 1976 forward. Prior to that.. Especially in the south.. Yeah.. Bad things happened.
But if you caught on video shooting someone, that's not foolproof?
To me it's never about money, Gov't spend more money on other bullsh!t, and housing an inmate for an additional 50 years isn't cheap either.
Never heard of the guy but his initial intent was infamy.......that being the case I'd delete the thread!
Only like 20 people will have heard of him (and forget about HIM, but may remember this act to a degree) because of this thread I made, from this site...
But if you caught on video shooting someone, that's not foolproof?
To me it's never about money, Gov't spend more money on other bullsh!t, and housing an inmate for an additional 50 years isn't cheap either.
It depends.
Video catches a woman shooting her husband.
Video doesn't show what happened BEFORE that. She claims he was beating her.. But she has very minimal bruising.. Now what?
This guy? yes.. but.. if you just say death penalty.. He's going to trial.. Which means, you have to follow all the rules of trial and the associated costs. he's likely to have a public defender, so there's that cost, too.
This guy lived, what? 60 years? At an average of something like $40k a year. Honestly.. That's a pretty low number on a per year basis to keep someone locked up.
At some point, those costs vs the additional.. However many years he might be incarcerated.. Where's that balance?
I get what you're saying. but it's not as black and white as you want to believe.
Don't ask me the answers.. I don't have them. But I do see the problems with your idea. And even with the current setup.. Which is basically a tit-for-tat. Plead guilty or we'll kill you. That's not far removed from how SC would prosecute people. There was a high school kid who stole his teachers cell phone and forwarded the, ahem, "personal images" she had on there to everyone in the school.
They were going to charge the kid with a crime that would put him on the sex offender registry for life unless he pled guilty. This is back before SC's SOR law was ruled unconstitutional for having no way to be removed.
That's not justice. That's closer to blackmail. And.. Death penalty cases.. you know.. at the very least in the current setup, tiptoe that line.
Video doesn't show what happened BEFORE that. She claims he was beating her.. But she has very minimal bruising.. Now what?
This guy? yes.. but.. if you just say death penalty.. He's going to trial.. Which means, you have to follow all the rules of trial and the associated costs. he's likely to have a public defender, so there's that cost, too.
This guy lived, what? 60 years? At an average of something like $40k a year. Honestly.. That's a pretty low number on a per year basis to keep someone locked up.
At some point, those costs vs the additional.. However many years he might be incarcerated.. Where's that balance?
I get what you're saying. but it's not as black and white as you want to believe.
Don't ask me the answers.. I don't have them. But I do see the problems with your idea. And even with the current setup.. Which is basically a tit-for-tat. Plead guilty or we'll kill you. That's not far removed from how SC would prosecute people. There was a high school kid who stole his teachers cell phone and forwarded the, ahem, "personal images" she had on there to everyone in the school.
They were going to charge the kid with a crime that would put him on the sex offender registry for life unless he pled guilty. This is back before SC's SOR law was ruled unconstitutional for having no way to be removed.
That's not justice. That's closer to blackmail. And.. Death penalty cases.. you know.. at the very least in the current setup, tiptoe that line.
I'm talking more in the lines, someone going into the mall and shooting up the place, he is caught on video, there are witnesses, and police found him an hour later hiding in the back of the mall.
How is he going to beat this? this is not Foolproof?
There are so many more foolproof situations.
A lot of murders are young people, say someone 20. If it takes 20 years before put to death. That person can easily live to 90 nowadays, that's 50 years costs compare to putting them to death at 40.
But again, I don't care for the cost, gov't waste enough money, like criminals with a long rap sheet and keep reoffending, and everytime they commit a crime, they are going to incur legal costs and other costs. So who cares about the costs, that's not a valid excuse.
I'm talking more in the lines, someone going into the mall and shooting up the place, he is caught on video, there are witnesses, and police found him an hour later hiding in the back of the mall.
How is he going to beat this? this is not Foolproof?
There are so many more foolproof situations.
A lot of murders are young people, say someone 20. If it takes 20 years before put to death. That person can easily live to 90 nowadays, that's 50 years costs compare to putting them to death at 40.
But again, I don't care for the cost, gov't waste enough money, like criminals with a long rap sheet and keep reoffending, and everytime they commit a crime, they are going to incur legal costs and other costs. So who cares about the costs, that's not a valid excuse.
That guy probably put his gun in his mouth and took care of the problem.
Cases like this one here we've been talking about. He goes in and kills multiple people and then just sits and waits for the cops to come arrest him. Those are the exception. usually, the perps either aren't 'caught in the act' or solve the problem themselves.
The vast majority of shooters fall into this category. Your Dylann Roofs, people like this guy are the exceptions.
That guy probably put his gun in his mouth and took care of the problem.
Cases like this one here we've been talking about. He goes in and kills multiple people and then just sits and waits for the cops to come arrest him. Those are the exception. usually, the perps either aren't 'caught in the act' or solve the problem themselves.
The vast majority of shooters fall into this category. Your Dylann Roofs, people like this guy are the exceptions.
They might be capture later, but my point is cases with video and independent eye witnesses, that's foolproof.
How strange... I was just researching this man's criminal case.
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