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Thread: Maine Capital Punishment News

  1. #1
    Jan
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    Maine Capital Punishment News

    Windham senator proposes restoring death penalty in Maine for some crimes

    AUGUSTA — A veteran lawmaker who has been on a years-long crusade against the sexual exploitation of children is proposing to bring the death penalty to Maine for people convicted of killing children victimized in pornographic snuff films.

    Snuff films are illegal movies that end in the subjects’ actual on-camera death.

    For Democratic Sen. Bill Diamond of Windham, there isn’t a worse crime, which is the reason for his effort to bring the death penalty to its perpetrators, he said.

    “It keeps me awake at night,” said Diamond, a longtime lawmaker and former secretary of state who returned to the Legislature this year after a two-year hiatus necessitated by Maine’s term limits law. “These people need to know that if they do this in Maine, there’s a penalty to be paid, and a very severe one. In my opinion, this is one of the few areas where the death penalty is warranted.”

    Diamond, who says he does not advocate for the death penalty in most cases, is still in the process of researching the bill, which is titled An Act to Provide the Death Penalty for a Person who Kills a Child Under 14 Years of Age Under Certain Circumstances. It represents the latest of several legislative efforts by Diamond to fight crimes that involve sexual assault, including his advocacy of a “Jessica’s Law” bill in 2007, which sought to create a minimum 25-year prison sentence for adults convicted of sexually assaulting children. An amended — and from Diamond’s perspective, weaker — version of the bill eventually was enacted and signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

    Diamond also is the author of a 2012 book called “ The Evil & the Innocent,” which advocates for tougher consequences for sexual predators, particularly when their victims are children.

    Maine put 21 people to death from 1644 until 1887, when the death penalty was abolished after a botched execution, according to Diamond.

    The fact that reinstituting the death penalty is advocated by a Democrat is noteworthy. In general, it’s seen as a Republican issue.

    “I know too much about this issue to just let it rest,” Diamond said. “At the very least, this bill is going to bring a conversation out in the state. … It’s so creepy, vulgar and bad that people don’t want to talk about it, but they need to know what’s going on.”

    As in 2007 on the Jessica’s Law bill, Diamond faces solid opposition from Democratic Sen. Stan Gerzofsky of Brunswick, who is the ranking Democrat on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee, which is likely to deliberate Diamond’s death penalty bill before it goes to the full Legislature. Gerzofsky and Diamond have a long history of working together on a range of issues, but not this one, Gerzofsky said.

    “I oppose this bill on many different levels and Bill knows it,” Gerzofsky said. “I’m going to fight him tooth and nail on it.”

    Aside from his fundamental opposition to the death penalty, Gerzofsky said restoring capital punishment to Maine would be too expensive and unnecessary because the worst crimes committed here already result in life sentences or sentences so long that they are in effect life sentences.

    “Over the years, sitting on the Criminal Justice Committee, many of us have said it would be nice to put some of these people out on an island and let them starve to death,” Gerzofsky said. “We’ve all thought those emotions through because we hate the crimes so much. Once the initial emotions start coming away and we start talking about the state putting someone to death, reality kicks in. … If the death penalty deterred anything, we wouldn’t have had any murders since Cain and Abel.”

    Diamond will have some support, including on the Criminal Justice Committee from Sen. David Burns, R-Whiting, who said he hasn’t seen the contents of the bill but supports the concept.

    “I applaud Sen. Diamond for having the courage to take on a very controversial and emotional subject. He’s always been a champion to protect children,” he said. “There are certain things that I don’t think society can tolerate.”

    Sen. Kimberley Rosen, R-Bucksport, who was elected to the Senate in November after a previous stint in the House, is taking over Senate chairmanship of the Criminal Justice Committee. She was noncommittal in a written response to questions from the BDN.

    “Whether the legislation as it is currently written is the best avenue remains to be seen, as we must still go through the legislative process,” she wrote.

    According to Ryan Jones, a researcher at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library, there have been at least six attempts since 1985 to expand the use of the death penalty in Maine. They include efforts to legalize it for people who murder family members in 2005; for child murderers in 2002; for general use in 1985, 1997 and 1999; and for killers of children and murderers with two or more victims in 1987.

    Diamond said numerous lawmakers are asking to co-sponsor the bill and that he is receiving strong support from most of the constituents he has heard from on the issue. He said his bill, which mirrors a federal law already in place, would not mandate the death penalty but instead offer it as an alternative for the courts.

    “Child pornography is a billion-dollar industry around the world,” he said. “We need to make a statement.”

    http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine...-maine/1643948

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jan View Post
    A veteran lawmaker who has been on a years-long crusade against the sexual exploitation of children is proposing to bring the death penalty to Maine for people convicted of killing children victimized in pornographic snuff films.
    I would absolutely support that bill. I think that all states should have that law, personally.

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    I agree, but would this law ever be used? I can't believe real snuff films are very common (but I admit, I don't want to try finding out). I think in death penalty states this would be covered under factors such as especially cruel or depraved, or under as part of sexual assault or kidnapping.

    Maybe this is a clever way to start a legislative discussion on reintroducing the death penalty during which the proposal would be expanded to include other forms of murder, such as torture murder or child murder.

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    Senior Member Member DStafford's Avatar
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    I think the death penalty should apply to people convicted of child rape. They've basically killed that child - he or she will never be the same again.

    -Dawn

  5. #5
    ProDP
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    This would be interesting if Maine reinstated their DP-I agree with the lawmaker as far as the types of cases. Only thing...what would be Maine's method?

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster stixfix69's Avatar
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    Personally i feel if all states has the death penalty, it would make it easier to come up with a criteria across the board as to what type of crime a person can be a death penalty case....Just way to many grey areas......And i feel more states should refuse plea deals, and give the jaggoff's LWOP if they plead guilty....If that states has slam dunk cases, then deny plea deals.....Just tired of seeing cases where the guilty have multiple murders, and commit heinous crimes plead out....

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    But then you'd have a reverse of the situation as in Europe. I may not agree with them, but if the people of say, Vermont or Michigan don't want capital punishment on their statute books then I don't think they should have it because Oklahoma and Texas want their appeals processes to be easier. The same way that the people of Russia or Turkey shouldn't be denied capital punishment on their statute books because countries like Portugal or Sweden are willing to jeapodise other bilateral agreements to stop other countries having it.

    There's some things that could be sorted out at federal level, like clear guidelines on what crimes may carry the death penalty, how trials should proceed (which have already been resolved in various court cases), competency standards for attorneys and legal execution protocols (including sources of drugs). But I think the idea of uniform capital punishment statutes infringe upon a state's legal sovereignty. I'm not American, but I gather that would go somewhat against your nation's ideals?

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster schmutz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ProDP View Post
    This would be interesting if Maine reinstated their DP-I agree with the lawmaker as far as the types of cases. Only thing...what would be Maine's method?
    Such a narrow set of case types could run afoul of the "unusual" portion of the 8th amendment. The only exception I could see made (on basis of compelling interest) would be to execute those who kill while already serving LWOP.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Frequent Poster stixfix69's Avatar
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    That's why a lot of states don't have the DP, because it is their states right to vote on these type of laws, but i just feel if the DP was in place for all states, murdering thugs wouldn't escape the justice that fits the crime, because they committed them in a non DP state.....And criminals who are serving LWOP, tend to commit more crimes, and break more rules in prison, because they have nothing to lose....

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Maine Gov. Paul LePage: Bring back the guillotine for drug traffickers

    Washington (CNN) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage says his state is too easy on drug crimes, suggesting it should bring back the guillotine for serious offenders.

    The Republican governor, known for his controversial statements, was speaking on local radio Tuesday about combating the drug epidemic in his state.

    "What I think we ought to do is bring the guillotine back," he told WMOV. "We could have public executions and have, you know, we could even have (guessing) which hole it falls in."

    He said that he was "all in" on fighting drug criminals and said a recent proposal to establish a minimum sentence of four years for drug traffickers was too lenient.

    "I think the death penalty should be appropriate for people that kill Mainers," LePage said.

    "We've got to go 20 years, we've got to keep them here until they die," he added. "If you want my honest opinion, we should give them an injection of the stuff they sell."

    LePage decried his critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, and stood firm.

    Even as the hosts of the show tried to wrap the interview, LePage interrupted to show his resolve, suggesting the guillotine be used for public executions, joking that the idea was part of his French ancestry.

    "I like French history," he said.

    It's only the latest controversial comments from LePage. Earlier this month, he made waves talking about drug dealers in his state.

    "These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty," he said. "They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave."

    He later apologized for saying white instead of Maine, which is what he said he meant.

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/26/politi...ine/index.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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