Texas executes American

[SkyPiggie 0]

One of the meanest men on Texas' death row is scheduled to be walked to the execution chamber tonight.

Leon Dorsey, does not plan to die quietly.

In the more than eight years since a jury sentenced him in the execution-style murders of two White Rock-area Blockbuster Video store employees, he has earned a reputation as a violent, uncooperative, dangerous death row inmate.

Among his 95 infractions during his time on death row, Mr. Dorsey, 32, was cited for possession of weapons, assaulting and threatening to injure staff, refusing to obey orders and starting a fire outside his cell.

His history of misbehavior has kept him at the highest level of lockdown...

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/081208dnmetdorsey.43a6cf8.html

Let's see if the anti-death penalty liberals care as much about this American prisoner as they did about the executed Mexican.

Attached: Photos of the murderer, and of his two victims.

(I can't find a photo for the 51-year-old Oriental female who was his previous murder victim.)

[christelsabine 1]

There are a lot of dwellers in US clinks, will all of the death row candidates now be shown on DZ.com ??? And every victim, too?

Looking forward to funny times, yes? Jesus.

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[BillyVance 34]

Yep, a guy like that, having committed a heinous crime and shows absolutely no interest in being a model prisoner, even with a death sentence hanging over him. Send him to hell. Should have done it sooner.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Nightingale 0]

There's a difference between what kind of retribution is deserved and what kind best serves society. It's easy to look at individual cases and say "this guy deserves to fry!", but when you look at the system as a whole, it's corrupt, fallible, inconsistent, and expensive. Throw them in jail and lose the key.

[millertime24 8]

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Yep, a guy like that, having committed a heinous crime and shows absolutely no interest in being a model prisoner, even with a death sentence hanging over him. Send him to hell. Should have done it sooner.

And publicly displayed.Seemed to work pretty well back in the day.

Muff #5048

[millertime24 8]

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There's a difference between what kind of retribution is deserved and what kind best serves society. It's easy to look at individual cases and say "this guy deserves to fry!", but when you look at the system as a whole, it's corrupt, fallible, inconsistent, and expensive. Throw them in jail and lose the key.

Why? So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

Muff #5048

[billvon 2,456]

>So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

Better than spending even more on the execution process. Life in jail is just plain cheaper.

[Nightingale 0]

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Quote

There's a difference between what kind of retribution is deserved and what kind best serves society. It's easy to look at individual cases and say "this guy deserves to fry!", but when you look at the system as a whole, it's corrupt, fallible, inconsistent, and expensive. Throw them in jail and lose the key.

Why? So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

What Bill said. In the vast majority of cases, execution is far more expensive than life in prison, particularly when one takes into account the dual phase trials required in capital punishment cases.

[pop 0]

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Let's see if the anti-death penalty liberals care as much about this American prisoner as they did about the executed Mexican.

I would more satisfied having him alive in ma 4 foot by 4 foot room with no winodows and no communication with other humans., Now that's suffering. Death is the easy way out for assholes like this guy.

7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

[kelpdiver 2]

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>So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

Better than spending even more on the execution process. Life in jail is just plain cheaper.

This has always stated as a simple fact, but what is the standard deviation on it? This particular guy with the ongoing trouble he causes, could well be far more expensive to house. And is the comparison simple napkin math (cost per year X life expectancy), or does it include the medical costs of other inmates and other indirect costs that this one might harm?

[livendive 8]

I think this guy has earned his penalty almost as completely as that Mexican did. Hopefully Texas dotted the I's and crossed the T's with this one instead of denying him due process.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[millertime24 8]

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>So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

Better than spending even more on the execution process. Life in jail is just plain cheaper.

I disagree. Heres why:

1 Box .40S&W- $13.92
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ItemListing.aspx?catid=647
15' of Rope-$2.70
http://www.webriggingsupply.com/pages/catalog/rope/rope-3strand-manila.html#B

I think you get what I'm getting at here. Execution is expensive because it has been made that way, but there are FAR chaeper ways that have worked quite well in the past that cost virtually nothing.

Muff #5048

[pop 0]

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could well be far more expensive to house.

At least you dont give the government the right to murder, especially when it murders innocent people sometimes. I am telling you these people stuck in a room for life will suffer more then by dying. Why give criminals the easy way out?

7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

[JohnRich 4]

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I think this guy has earned his penalty almost as completely as that Mexican did. Hopefully Texas dotted the I's and crossed the T's with this one instead of denying him due process.

I don't agree that failing to tell him he has a right to talk to a Mexican consuler constitutes denying him due process.

If that were the case, then every American on trial fails to get due process, because they don't talk to Mexican consulars.

It might have been a technicality that was overlooked, but it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the case, and due process was still done.

But you bring up a good point in this case. Was this black murderer advised that he could speak with someone from the NAACP? Hmmm?

[billvon 2,456]

>1 Box .40S&W- $13.92
>15' of Rope-$2.70

1 cell - $850.00

[millertime24 8]

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>1 Box .40S&W- $13.92
>15' of Rope-$2.70

1 cell - $850.00

So I guess building more prisons is the key as its far cheaper.

Muff #5048

[billvon 2,456]

>So I guess building more prisons is the key as its far cheaper.

You can reuse prisons.

[millertime24 8]

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>So I guess building more prisons is the key as its far cheaper.

You can reuse prisons.

You can reuse rope.

Muff #5048

[kelpdiver 2]

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could well be far more expensive to house.

At least you dont give the government the right to murder, especially when it murders innocent people sometimes. I am telling you these people stuck in a room for life will suffer more then by dying. Why give criminals the easy way out?

your 4 x 4' room proposal would violate the 8th Amendment.

[Nightingale 0]

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>So the tax payer can support this piece of shit the rest of his natural life?

Better than spending even more on the execution process. Life in jail is just plain cheaper.

This has always stated as a simple fact, but what is the standard deviation on it? This particular guy with the ongoing trouble he causes, could well be far more expensive to house. And is the comparison simple napkin math (cost per year X life expectancy), or does it include the medical costs of other inmates and other indirect costs that this one might harm?

Since the death penalty is enforced so sporadically and inconsistently, it's difficult to make an argument that prisoners on death row are far different from prisoners convicted of first degree murder who are not on death row.

Here's a bit of the breakdown in cost for the death penalty:

Indiana’s Criminal Law Commission concluded that the cost of the death penalty is 38% greater than the total cost of life without parole. Similar studies in North Carolina and California found the cost of administering a sentence of death is $1 to $2 million more than a sentence of life in prison.

The cost of the death penalty can be separated into four categories: startup cost, pretrial cost, trial cost, and post-conviction cost.

Training judges and attorneys to handle death penalty cases is very expensive to taxpayers. New York reinstated the death penalty and allocated over $5.5 million to training programs in 1995. Legal costs are high, and counsel on both sides of a capital case require more time to prepare their arguments because the law pertaining to capital cases is typically more complex and the trial procedures more intricate. Moreover, because establishing mitigating and aggravating circumstances requires evidence, capital trials demand more attention from law enforcement, attorneys, and judges examining the facts of the case. The fees for the defense are generally picked up by the taxpayers, as most people facing a murder charge cannot afford an attorney.

Then, you have to consider length of the trial and the jury selection. Jury selection in death penalty cases is, among other things, more complicated, time consuming, and costly than for non-capital trials. Capital trials on average last 5.3 times longer than non-capital trials and are more costly throughout the entire process, so finding jurors that are both able to serve for that length and able to make an impartial decision about life or death is difficult, time consuming, and costly.

A death penalty trial has two phases, the trial phase and sentencing phase. In North Carolina, the average cost of a bifurcated trial is $84,000 compared to the $17,000 cost of a non-capital first degree murder trial. And then there's the cost of appeals...

What is often not mentioned is that states can pay out millions of dollars in wrongful conviction suits if the defendant is eventually exonerated. One of the less mentioned costs of the death penalty is the high amounts awarded to plaintiffs in wrongful conviction settlements. In 2003, lawyers representing the city of Chicago said a $2.2 million dollar settlement in a wrongful conviction settlement was a “good deal for the city.” Wrongful convictions in capital trials result in higher settlements than wrongful convictions in non-capital cases.

Most states hold death row prisoners in separate facility for various reasons such as control and ease of observation. It also saves states the cost of purchasing execution equipment for all state prisons. However, building such facilities is expensive. The last one proposed in California would have cost taxpayers $220 million dollars. Also, death row inmates are generally housed in separate rooms and are more heavily guarded, since such prisoners have nothing to lose by inciting violence or attempting escape.

Then, there's things like dealing with crowd control during an execution. Marin County, California budgeted $130,000 for crowd control in the 1990 execution of Robert Alton Harris.



Sources (compiled in a paper by Mark Leeman, 2004):

Smith, Mike. Associated Press. Commission Approves Death Penalty Statute. Nov. 13 2001.

Kozinski, Alex and Gallagher, Sean. Case Western Law Review. Canary Lecture: Death: The Ultimate Run-On Sentence. 46 Case W. Res. 1. Fall 95.


The Indianapolis Star Online. Indystar.com Capital Punishment in Indiana. http://www.indystar.com/library/factfiles/crime/capital_punishment/deathrow.html.

Indiana Public Defenders Council Online. Indiana Death Penalty Facts http://www.in.gov/pdc/general/dpfacts.pdf.

Indiana Supreme Court; Division of State Court Administration. Annual Report of the Indiana Public Defenders Commission. 2002-2003.

Whitaker, Barbara. The New York Times. National Briefing West: California Governor Wants New Death Row.

Brooks, Justin and Erickson, Jeanne Huey. Thomas M. Cooley Law Review. Death penalty Symposium: The Dire Wolf Collects His Due While the Boys Sit by the Fire.

Galbraith, Matthew S. South Bend Tribune. Indiana’s Other Lottery. October 23, 2001

Capital Punishment, 2002. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Bulletin. US Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Nov 2003

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center. Before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Criminal Justice. Mar 27, 2003

Heline, Marti Goodland. South Bend Tribune. Delay Hikes Cost for Stroud Trial.

Heline, Marti Goodand. “$725,000 tag on high-profile murder trial.” South Bend Tribune. Dec. 23 2002.

New York State Defender’s Ass’n, INC. Capital Losses: The Price of the Death Penalty for New York State,

Liebman, James S. The Overproduction of Death. The Columbia Law Review. Dec. 2000.

Spielman, Fran. Former Death Row Inmate to Get $2.2 Million. Chicago Tribune. Dec. 16, 2003.

Walsh, Thomas J. Cleveland State Law Review. Cleveland State University. On the Abolition of Man: A Discussion of the Moral and Legal Issues Surrounding the Death Penalty.

[kelpdiver 2]

Kris, this didn't really answer my question - what is the range?

Some capital cases are cheaper than others - most notably those where the defendant doesn't try to appeal. Some non capital cases are very expensive - no one with options wants to go to prison for life. And there is huge variation in the costs of jailing either prisoner for the 10-15 years before an exucution might be done. The lifer will have medical expenses in old age that will vary considerably.

So the question really is, is the costs of each a bell distribution, or does using a mean hide detail? How big is the overlap for the states 38% difference?

The presentation you print here is an argumentative piece and I believe overstates the case for life.

[Nightingale 0]

37 out of the 38 states that have capital punishment also have mandatory appeals, whether the defendant wants to or not.

Regarding the range, I don't know off the top of my head and will have to do some research for you.

[kelpdiver 2]

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37 out of the 38 states that have capital punishment also have mandatory appeals, whether the defendant wants to or not.

McVeigh was executed 4 years after his trial, as he declined most appeal options available to him. It was just over 6 years after the 1995 bombing. Quite a few of the death row prisoners committed their crimes 10 years before, and they're still alive.

Even if McVeigh's case was done in an environment without the death penalty the costs of the trial would have been extremely high.

[rehmwa 2]

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these people stuck in a room for life will suffer more then by dying

What is this obsession with you people wanting to make someone suffer?

I simply want them removed from society so they can't possibly do the crime again. CP is one way to accomplish that.

Making a criminal "pay for it" or "suffer" has zero to do with justice.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[BillyVance 34]

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37 out of the 38 states that have capital punishment also have mandatory appeals, whether the defendant wants to or not.

McVeigh was executed 4 years after his trial, as he declined most appeal options available to him. It was just over 6 years after the 1995 bombing. Quite a few of the death row prisoners committed their crimes 10 years before, and they're still alive.

Even if McVeigh's case was done in an environment without the death penalty the costs of the trial would have been extremely high.

Well McVeigh was a federal criminal tried in Federal court. Executions tend to move faster at that level than it does in the state courts, it just seems like. I could be wrong.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban