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  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Most voters back hangman's return

    Three-quarters of voters polled today would be willing to support the death penalty under at least some circumstances.

    The data come from today’s Global News-Ipsos Reid exit poll, conducted across Canada. Globalnews.ca will provide you with details on everything from what drove the vote to top-of-mind campaign issues, most of which we cannot publish until 10 pm EST., once all the polls have closed across Canada.

    The results come the day after U.S. commandos tracked down and killed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in a hideout in Pakistan.

    Support for the return of capital punishment is high across all parties, including the NDP.

    About 15 per cent of voters favoured executing all convicted murderers. 24 per cent favoured execution as a punishment for murder in most cases, and another 35 per cent were willing to allow it under "very rare and extreme circumstances". Twenty-three per cent said the death penalty should never be applied under any circumstances.

    While higher numbers of Conservative voters favoured the return of capital punishment, majorities of voters backing the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Green Party were willing to support executing at least some criminals. Opposition was highest among Liberals.

    The last executions in Canada took place on the gallows of Toronto's Don Jail in 1962. They ended a long period in which death sentences were increasingly commuted to life imprisonment. After decades of debate, the death penalty was taken off the books in 1976. About 700 people were executed under Canadian law, the great majority for murder.

    The same question was asked in the 2008 election, with similar results.

    http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/deci...042/story.html

  2. #2
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Canadians who have been on death row in US

    Here is a link to info. on Canadians who have wound up on DR in the US.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/6-canad...-u-s-1.1208606

  3. #3
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    How many executed?

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    I only browsed through it...I saw one executed in the 1950's. The most talked about guy is Smith on Montana's death row, he as asked for clemency from the Governor, but I haven't heard the decision on this.

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    March 16, 2009

    Capital punishment in Canada

    CBC News

    It was not until 1976 that Canada abolished civilian capital punishment — after a total of 710 people had been sent to the gallows.

    Two minutes after midnight on Dec. 11, 1962, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin became the last people to be executed in Canada.

    As they awaited their fate, the two could hear protesters gathered about 180 metres from their cell, speaking out against the practice the demonstrators called "public murder."

    Turpin, 29, had been convicted of killing an officer after he was pulled over for a broken tail light while fleeing a robbery; Lucas, 54, killed an undercover narcotics agent from Detroit in Toronto.

    The two ate the same last meal, were hanged back-to-back at Toronto's Don Jail and then were buried side by side, with no markers on their graves.

    Before the hanging, Turpin and Lucas were told they'd likely be the last people hanged in Canada, to which Turpin responded, "Some consolation."

    Capital punishment, however, would remain on the books for more than a decade.

    Over the years, Canada whittled down the number of offenses punishable by hanging. At first, all murder convictions resulted in execution, but in 1961, the charge was divided into non-capital and capital offenses, which included planned or violent killings and the murder of police officers and prison guards.

    In 1967, a moratorium was placed on the death penalty.

    But it was not until 1976 that Canada formally abolished the death penalty from the Criminal Code, when the House of Commons narrowly passed Bill C-84.

    By then, Canada had hanged 710 people since capital punishment was enacted in 1859.

    It would take until 1998 before Canada wiped out all references to capital punishment, with its elimination from the National Defence Act for such military offenses as treason and mutiny.

    Through the decades, the issue has been a source of fierce debate, ignited by serial killers such as Clifford Olson and wrongful convictions, like that of Steven Truscott.

    In 1987, the House of Commons examined the issue again but ended up voting 148 to 127 in favour of not reinstating the death penalty.

    Change in policy

    Canada has actively opposed the death penalty in recent decades, refusing extradition requests to the U.S. unless there are assurances the U.S. prosecutors won't seek the death penalty.

    The federal government has also, until recently, established a tradition of requesting clemency for Canadians sentenced to death abroad.

    In late 2007, however, Stephen Harper's Conservative government indicated a change in procedure.

    Then public safety minister Stockwell Day stated Canada would "not actively pursue" the return of Canadians facing the death sentence "who have been tried in a democratic country that supports rule of law."

    The statement in the House of Commons was in response to questions about the case of Ronald Allen Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the U.S.

    Smith faces death by lethal injection in Montana for killing two aboriginal men who offered him a ride while hitchhiking in 1982.

    The Tories' decision drew harsh words from Amnesty International, which accused Canada of softening its opposition to capital punishment. It also became the subject of a court ruling.

    On March 4, 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the federal government must take all reasonable steps to persuade the Montana government to commute the sentence.

    Justice Robert Barnes wrote that the government's decision "to withdraw support for Mr. Smith was made in breach of the duty of fairness."

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/capita...anada-1.795391

  6. #6
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    February 8, 2012

    Majority of Canadians support return of death penalty, poll finds

    Sixty-one per cent of respondents said capital punishment, which was abolished in Canada in 1976, is warranted for murder.

    By Richard J. Brennan
    The Star

    A half-century has passed since the last person in Canada was executed, but a recent public opinion poll suggests Canadians are warming to the idea of a return to capital punishment.

    The survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion in partnership with the Toronto Star found that 63 per cent of the 1,002 Canadians surveyed across the country believe the death penalty is sometimes appropriate. Sixty-one per cent said capital punishment, which was abolished in Canada in 1976, is warranted for murder.

    “I think people might be warming to the idea of having it as an option on the table, if anything just as a deterrent,” said Jaideep Mukerji of Angus Reid.

    But Mukerji said the poll also reveals that it is “not a black and white” issue for many Canadians. Given the choice of supporting the death penalty or life imprisonment, 50 per cent chose the latter, the survey found.

    “We ask the question in two ways — do you support or oppose the death penalty — and in that context people really do support it,” he said. But when the option of life imprisonment is introduced as an option for those convicted of murder, “50 per cent actually say they would prefer life in prison.”

    The debate over restoring the death penalty took on new life last week when Conservative Senator Pierre Hugues-Boisvenu suggested serial murderers should be given a rope to hang themselves in prison. In June 2002, the senator’s daughter Julie was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Boisvenu later withdraw his remark.

    The Angus Reid online survey found that Canadians’ views on the death penalty differ greatly according to political allegiance and region. The poll was conducted Feb. 2 and 3 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

    In British Columbia and Alberta, about seven in 10 support the return of the death penalty; six in 10 Ontarians, or 62 per cent, agree.

    The most opposition was in Quebec, with about 45 per cent against the return of capital punishment. Some 32 per cent in Ontario and 24 per cent in British Columbia were also opposed.

    “These respondents (about 75 per cent) are primarily concerned over the possibility of wrongful convictions leading to executions, but most (54 per cent) also feel that even if a convicted murderer has taken a life it is wrong to take the murderer’s own life as punishment,” the survey results stated.

    The poll found that respondents who voted Conservative in the 2011 federal election were more likely to regard the death penalty as “always” or “sometimes” appropriate while the majority of those who vote Liberal, Bloc Québécois or Green were opposed to the return of the death penalty. NDP supporters were divided on the question.
    Last year, Angus Reid Public Opinion asked similar questions in the United States and Britain and found that the majority of respondents in both countries supported the continuation or the return of the death penalty.

    http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...oll_finds.html

  7. #7
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    June 5, 2012

    Joe O’Connor: Luka Magnotta deserves death penalty (if only Canada had it)


    Ronald Turpin was a bad man. A thief, a crook, a liar and, for his final criminal act, a cop killer who shot and killed Frederick Nash, a Toronto police officer, during a routine traffic stop in Feb., 1962.

    Arthur Lucas was a bad man, too, a murderer with the blood of an FBI witness and his girlfriend on his hands. The two men met in Toronto’s Don Jail where they were knotted together by history and the hangman’s noose as the last two people executed in Canada. Their sentences were carried out simultaneously on Dec. 11, 1962.

    And that was it for capital punishment in this country; a messy, morally muddled business that, some would argue, debases a nation by turning the state into a killer and making all of us law-abiding folk complicit to murder. There were other more practical concerns in the case against capital punishment. A mistake could be made and an innocent person executed; the efficacy of execution as a deterrent to crime is dubious; the Bible says thou shalt not kill. But it sometimes seems that Canadians have simply decided the issue is too complex to debate.

    Then along comes Luka Rocco Magnotta, alleged murderer, producer, director and star of a gruesome and, Montreal police say, very real snuff film. In it, Lin Jun, a university student with a part-time job at a corner store and a family back in China who loves him, was tied to a bed, brutalized, cannibalized, carved into bits and mailed here and there.

    Magnotta reportedly will not fight his extradition back to Canada to answer for his crimes after his arrest in Berlin. So, at some point, there is going to be a trial and the alleged murderer will put on a suit and be the star of the show. Again. The memory of his alleged victim will gather dust, mourned by family members but forgotten by most others, serving as yet another reminder of the depravity humankind is capable of.

    So, here’s a question: How many reminders do we need before we have a conversation about capital punishment in Canada? How many Magnottas’, in whatever form they take, will rape, defile and kill before we acknowledge that there is such a thing as pure evil.

    Locking it away in a prison cell doesn’t make it go away. It simply removes the evil from view, feeding it, clothing it, providing it with access to magazines and newspapers and high school equivalency courses. Offering it a life, a chance to grow old, a chance murder victims don’t get.

    Clifford Olson. Paul Bernardo. Russell Williams. Willie Pickton. Now, potentially, Luka Magnotta. Their individual stories may be different but the hurt they cause plays out on a constant loop. There is always another killer to replace the Psycho of the Day.

    Olson, now dead, died in prison. Not before the notorious serial killer got his post-incarceration kicks by tormenting his victims’ families with letters; being paid $100,000 to show police where the bodies were buried; collecting a pension; appearing at parole board hearings every few years.

    Breathing.

    “He’s never going to pop up in our lives again,” Raymond King, whose 15-year-old son was killed by Olson, said at the time of the killer’s death from cancer. “He’s never going to open those wounds again. It’s done. It’s over.”

    It took 30 years for it to end. How long will Jun Lin’s family wait for justice?

    How many years does Luka Rocco Magnotta have left?

    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...canada-had-it/

  8. #8
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    Luka Magnotta guilty of 1st-degree murder in Jun Lin's slaying

    Jurors in 10-week trial in Montreal found 32-year-old guilty of killing university student, other charges

    Luka Magnotta closed his eyes and showed no emotion after the jury foreman read the highly anticipated verdict in a Montreal courtroom, announcing that the eight women and four men deciding his fate had found him guilty on all charges.

    On their eighth day of deliberations on Tuesday, the 12-person jury found Magnotta guilty of first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a body in the killing and dismemberment of Chinese engineering student Jun Lin in 2012.

    A first-degree murder verdict carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

    This marks the end of a lengthy and unusual trial that focused primarily on Magnotta’s psychiatric state at the time of the killing.

    Magnotta, 32, a former Ontario resident, pleaded not guilty to the five charges, arguing he suffers from a mental illness, but he admitted to the physical acts of killing and dismembering Lin, and sending his body parts with menacing notes to political parties and schools.

    The jury sat through 10 weeks of, at times graphic, testimony.Lin, 33, a Chinese national, was studying at Montreal’s Concordia University when he met Magnotta. According to what the accused told psychiatrists hired by the defence to assess him, Lin responded to an ad Magnotta posted on Craigslist, looking for kinky sex.

    Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer thanked jurors for their patience and hard work.

    "Sir Winston Churchill would be proud," Cournoyer told them before they were dismissed.

    Aside from the possibility of finding Magnotta not criminally responsible, the jury had been given several choices for a verdict:

    — First-degree murder, if they found the act was planned and deliberate.
    — Second-degree murder, if they believed intent was there without planning.
    — Manslaughter.

    Lin's father, Diran Lin, was in the courtroom as the verdict was read. The family's lawyer, Daniel Urbas, placed a reassuring hand on his leg as the jury prepared to announce its decision.

    Lin's mother, who came to Montreal for a portion of the preliminary hearing, remained in China for the trial.

    Through a translator, Lin's father delivered a heartbreaking victim impact statement, telling the court that it hurts him still to know that his last words to Jun Lin were “be careful son."

    "I feel bad that I was not there to warn him that night," the statement read.

    "I will never see his smiling face on video chat or hear about his new accomplishments or hear his laugh. Lin Jun's birthday is on Dec. 30 and he will never be there for his birthday or ours."

    Crown says NCR was difficult defence to mount

    Crown prosecutor Louis Bouthillier was happy with the verdict.

    “We had faith that the proof presented during the trial would be successful in convincing the jury,” he said outside the courtroom.

    Bouthillier said he was expecting a lengthy deliberation, adding that the jury members had a lot of evidence and testimony to consider.

    He said the jury did an outstanding job.

    "Individually, the 12 jurors, they were really magnificent," he said.

    Bouthillier said Magnotta's defence was a difficult argument to mount, particularly because Magnotta didn't testify and his lawyer bore the burden of proving his client was not criminally responsible through the testimony of experts.

    Graphic video part of evidence

    Lin’s body parts were found in a suitcase outside Magnotta’s apartment, in packages sent to the headquarters of political parties and two Vancouver schools, and in a Montreal park.

    After an international manhunt, Magnotta was arrested in June 2012 at an internet café in Berlin. A German police officer testified Magnotta was looking at an Interpol photo of himself before his arrest.

    By the time his trial started more than two years later, Magnotta was barely recognizable. The once well-groomed, thin young man who flaunted his looks for modelling photos and a reality show audition had gained a significant amount of weight in custody.

    On the day the trial opened, it took an unusual turn. Magnotta admitted to the acts detailed in the five charges, but pleaded not guilty.

    During the 10 weeks of testimony, the jury saw a graphic video depicting parts of the crime, which was posted online shortly after Lin died, as well as additional footage found on Magnotta’s computer.

    The jury also saw surveillance video of Lin walking into Magnotta’s apartment building the night he was killed and, in the hours that followed, plenty of images of Magnotta cleaning up and running errands, occasionally while wearing his victim’s clothes.

    His lawyer spent the duration of the trial trying to convince the jury that his client was in a psychotic state when he killed Lin, unable to tell right from wrong, and therefore not criminally responsible.

    Magnotta presented as needy

    The defence called Magnotta's father, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, as its first witness. It also relied heavily on psychiatric reports and medical records to convince the jury Magnotta has suffered from schizophrenia since his late teens.

    The Crown focused its case on surveillance footage and witness testimony that Bouthillier said proved Magnotta had planned the killing, and his well-organized escape from law enforcement, months in advance.

    Bouthillier presented the jury with an email Magnotta sent to a British journalist in which Magnotta described the pleasures of killing and the need to continue – with a plan to produce a video depicting the death of a person. Six months later, Lin was dead and the graphic video was posted online.

    The prosecution also painted Magnotta as an attention-obsessed, needy man, who drew on elements from the 1990s erotic thriller Basic Instinct in committing the crime.

    Source
    Last edited by mostlyclassics; 12-23-2014 at 03:37 PM.

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Another chance at parole for convicted cop killer

    Elery Long serving life sentence for first-degree murder

    By Jessica Kerr
    The Delta Optimist

    The man convicted of the 1974 murder of a Delta police officer is being given another chance at parole.

    Elery Long, who is now 69, is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in the killing of S/Sgt. Ron McKay.

    In November 1974, McKay, 47, was one of several officers responding to a public complaint against the local biker, who was well known to police. The officers went to Long's Tsawwassen home and as McKay approached the house Long opened his front door and shoved a sawed-off shotgun into the officer's stomach. A number of young police officers looked on in disbelief as the senior officer, who was standing with his hands in his pockets, was shot.

    Long has said he was intoxicated at the time and the gun went off accidentally.

    He was convicted of first-degree murder in May 1975 and sentenced to death. The death penalty in Canada was abolished in 1976 and Long's sentence was commuted to life in prison. Long was previously granted full parole in 2002, but had his release revoked in 2006 due to breaches of his conditions. He was denied full parole in January 2012, but has been on day parole and living at a community residential facility with few issues for the last four years.

    According to the parole board decision from his hearing earlier this month, Long has been assessed at a low to moderate risk to re-offend.

    The board also notes in its decision that Long has had a sustained period of sobriety and lack of violence, successfully completed several years of day parole, has an adequate pension income and his case management team supports his release.

    "... the Board concludes you do not currently present an undue risk to society by reoffending and full parole will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration as a law-abiding citizen."

    Long's release comes with a number of conditions, including that he: not consume, purchase or possess alcohol or drugs other than prescribed and overthe-counter medications taken as recommended; not to associate with any person he knows, or as reason to believe, is involved in criminal activity; immediately report all relationships and friendships with females to his parole supervisor; and, no direct or indirect contact with any member of the victim's family.

    http://www.delta-optimist.com/news/a...ller-1.1806236

  10. #10
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Victims Tammy Homolka [12/23/1990], Leslie Mahaffy [6/16/1991], Kristen French [4/19/1992]





    Paul Bernardo wants day parole in Toronto area


    Convicted killer who also pleaded guilty in serial rapes got life sentence in 1995

    Convicted killer Paul Bernardo, who also pleaded guilty to numerous rapes, has applied for day parole in Toronto.

    The lawyer for the families of Bernardo's murder victims — 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy and 15-year-old Kristen French — says Correctional Service Canada sent out a form letter to the families last week advising them of his application.


    Tim Danson says it is Bernardo's right to apply for parole three years before he is eligible, but this has left families of both girls devastated, even though they knew this day was coming.

    "It is 22 years after the fact for my clients," Danson said. "It was — I don't even know what words to use — but really upsetting for them. It just brings everything back and they have to re-live things.

    "Danson says he has told the families that there is no chance Bernardo will ever see the outside world again, that this is simply part of the process.

    Bernardo, now 50, was sentenced to life with no chance for parole for 25 years for raping and murdering Mahaffy and French, crimes he carried out with his then wife, Karla Homolka. He was sentenced in September 1995, following a trial that summer and a string of crimes dating back to 1987.

    Can be imprisoned indefinitely

    He was also given dangerous offender status, the most severe designation in Canadian law, for admitting to raping 14 other women and other charges related to Mahaffy and French.

    Dangerous offenders can be imprisoned indefinitely.

    Danson said he received the letter on June 25 and has been corresponding with the authorities since then.It's rare for people convicted of first-degree murder to also be designated dangerous offenders, since first-degree murder already carries a life sentence.


    Danson believes the dangerous offender designation must be dealt with first, rather than the murder charges.

    "There is a process that's set up for dangerous offenders to persuade the parole board that you're no longer a dangerous offender, which is different criteria than normal parole board criteria," he said."That must be dealt with first.

    "He said the authorities are working with him to figure out the proper process.

    Stigma of dangerous offenders

    Michael Mandelcorn, president of the Canadian Prison Law Association, which advocates for prisoners' rights, said the stigma of a dangerous offender designation inhibits any chance of parole.

    "There's a huge amount of time that goes by before somebody normally gains a release on a dangerous offender designation," said the Kingston, Ont.-based lawyer. "And those people are few and far between.

    "While Mandelcorn has never worked with Bernardo, he said it's unlikely he will be able to convince a parole board that he's not at risk to re-offend.

    "He's now in a maximum security institution. The normal chain of events is that you have to cascade downwards," he said."He needs correctional services' support, he needs halfway house support.

    At this stage I would very much doubt that he has either.

    "Julian Fantino, the associate national defence minister, issued a statement saying Bernardo committed "evil and horrific crimes" and should stay behind bars.

    "For over forty years in law enforcement I have seen first hand the victimization of innocent lives at the hands of cold-blooded murderers," he said, referring to his former roles as Toronto police chief and Ontario Provincial Police commissioner.

    Infamous inmate

    Bernardo was one of the most infamous inmates at the Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario before it closed in 2013. He was moved to another maximum-security prison, reportedly the Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont.

    His ex-wife Homolka was released from prison after serving a 12-year sentence. In 2012, she was reportedly living in the Caribbean under a different name, with her three children. Late last year, Homolka's sister said she was living in Quebec with her husband.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...area-1.3136868
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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