Celebrities call for release of 'West Memphis Three'

thats why dp is best no release

And it's cases like this that further fuel this in me when I see or hear of things like this..

Another example was the murder of that little boy in the UK by two older "children" and this is where I take issue with the courts...

I don't know what the legal situation is in the USA or the UK but over here in Australia one is considered a child up until they turn 18 and they have a totally seperate court for those under 18.

The thing that get me though is that you can even rape or murder someone and providing in the law that you are under 18 you will most likely get away with it and I've seen such cases where the offender gets nothing more then a good behaviour bond...

So where's the justice when one of these "children" murders a loved one? And if you ask a lawyer or Judge why they didn't peanlise the little ****** they say that because they're underage they don't know right from wrong.... Phuleeze......

...the same principle applies. Those under 18 are prosecuted as juveniles and are spared serious (i.e., adult) punishment.

On occasion, a prosecutor will seek that a juvenile be tried as an adult. Generally, this occurs when a juvenile stands accused of a really horrific crime and/or if the prosecutor believes that the accused definitely understood the consequences of his or her actions and is therefore not entitled to the special protections accorded most juvenile offenders. However, cases in which prosecutors seek the death penalty against juveniles are rare in those states that permit capital punishment (remember, in our system each state determines what punishment shall be imposed for violations of state law).

While in favour of capital punishment as a rule I'd
very much like it of it was proven beyond a doubt
that the person charged had acted in a premeditated
manner. Of course that might be harder then it sounds
in practice but its a starting point.. At least then
no-one can say that the prosecution railroaded or
coerced a confession out of the suspect.

And I'd probably prefer that the range of offences
be widened. For example here we had a case a few years
back where 3 juveniles 15, 16, and 17 killed a woman
in her 30s, but not before humiliating her by making
her perform oral sex acts and being annally raped by
each offender. She then was killed. Now what kind
of punishment did you think they got?

They got a "very stern lecture" from the Judge and
a $3000 good behaviour bond each.....

And this is the kind of thing that piss me right off.

Just too many do-gooders in society and too many
people with a "victim" complex including the
offenders..

The draw back to capital punishment is the potential for someone innocent to be executed.Since this is irrevocable it is by far the worse act that society can allow.


Don't misconstrue,i'm not saying that we should not have the death penalty,I don't want to see someone innocent executed.

i mean real life there released on parole and kill again

that bull where someone waits on death row for 20 years or as you said,parole and kill again.Thats cause the system is full of it.Its not about justice for the victims.I'm just saying that i hate to see someone innocent get excecuted.

What can be noted is that there has not been anymore killings of children in or around Memphis, something like the Atlanta killings of 21 children stopped after Wayne Williams was caught.

don't you know we live in a country in which it is standard policy round up anyone and put them in jail for no reason and no trial and no appeals?

I did a quick Google News search and found nothing about the evidence against these guys. It's all basically the same story, which echoes the defense claims almost verbatim .

I am sure there must have been coverage of the trial at some point. I'd like to know what REALLY happened, not just the claims of teh defense.

Hey, maybe they WERE railroaded, Let's see the evidence so we can judge. Writing such a one-sided story is intolerable.

At least a while back when someone was boo hooing about a "child" on death row, the other side could be readily found to dispell the propaganda. As you say, it IS possible they were railroaded.

Evie

1 hour 50 min. documentary film that I believe was made for TV:
"Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/

which won several awards:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/awards

I'm not sure if I saw that particular one.

Also a sequal #2.
Perhaps they can be rented.

A movie with actors can leave a lot to be desired, re the movie of the two brothers killing their wealthy parents in California.

... I think I may have actually seen whatever documentary you saw on "one of those channels" a while back. It's jogging memories but can't put my finger on it.

Sheez ... save yourself the embarrassment the next time and use Google!!!

The West Memphis Three

him try to get out of this one !!!!!!

...bomb throwing, cut and run, bash the USA WIMP.

but thats dk our spiecial mod

... there was a picture of one of them.

This isn't the first time for DK dining on ped cuisine

Evie

one should spend more time reading links in posts rather than selectivly editing others for ones own taste.

And I did blow it (the usual problem -- dashing off a quick reply w/o adequate time). OTOH, while the bias was in this case not racially based, it was based on poverty, attire, and apparently excessively long interogation of a mentally challenged kid:
Free the West Memphis Three.

So while I got a crucial detail wrong, my question as to whether one should simply assume that the verdicts were correct certainly stands. Under the new rules for who's considered "disadvantaged" in terms of admission to college/grad school and eligible for special scholarship/tutorial programs, etc, these kids would qualify as "underprivilged" w/o any question. And while race is the most obvious cause of bias in our society, it's far from the only one!

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

saying you were right vbeg

... is that you continue to ''lecture'' about bias while demonstrating an incredible amount of it yourself.

You assumed they were black. Assumed they therefore must have been railroaded by a presumably racist Southern jury. That the justice system was biased, etc.

It may well be that these three were scapegoated. It is unfortunate that even the Court TV website on this reads more like a summary of the ''free the Three'' website than a presentation of both sides. For example, where is a transcript of the confession evidence presented at trial. Is there anything in the court papers at the time about the mental capacity of the confessee? These are important questions.

In the past, the vast majority of the ''save this guy'', ''free that guy'' movements are displaced sympathy for ruthless killers. I remember a long discussion we had here about the death penalty for a ''child'' who brutally killed a couple must months shy of his eighteenth birthday. It didn't take long to find that this was no child.

Lastly, I would say that if you are going to be in the business lately of calling out certain Subject lines, you might wish to refrain yourself from such sarcastic lines as ''And of course, innocent Blacks in the wrong place at the right time are never ever railroaded in America, right Mark?