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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Washington state: 1st execution since 2001 |
| 2010-09-11 |
| [Straits Times] WASHINGTON state executed its first prisoner in nine years early on Friday, killing by lethal injection a 16-year death row inmate who raped, tortured and murdered a woman in the Seattle area. Cal Coburn Brown, 52, died at 12:56 am (1956 GMT, 3:59 am S'pore time), after a four-member team injected a lethal one-drug cocktail in the execution chamber of the Washington State Penitentiary as the father, brother and two sisters of his victim watched. Brown carjacked Holly Washa, 21, in 1991 near Seattle's Sea-Tac airport, robbing, raping and torturing her over a 36-hour period, and then strangling and stabbing her. Brown protested sentencing disparities, saying that criminals who had killed many more people were serving life sentences while he received a death sentence. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 "WASHINGTON state executed its first prisoner in nine years" Well, what took y'all so long? You've got a boatload of catching up to do. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-09-11 22:02 |
| #6 WASHINGTON state executed its first prisoner in nine ears early on Fridayy Well hurry up slackers! |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2010-09-11 18:08 |
| #5 The philosophy of the Social Contract is the justification for the death penalty. You don't kill societies members and society agrees to not take your life. You violate this contract and societies obligation to you is null and void. Good riddance Mr. Brown. |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2010-09-11 13:20 |
| #4 I think it is important to distinguish in capital murder trials between true aggravating circumstances, and just "gross". Only the former warrant distinction in sentencing, whether it deserves life or death. The latter just confuses things, and appeals to emotion. For example, a killer sneaks up on his victim, and knocks them out with a brick. Then they tie them up, and when they wake up, they torture them. Finally they kill them. Then they have sex with the body, dismember it, and eat some chunks. All that should be considered for the death penalty is the bashing them on the head, and the aggravating circumstance of torture and murder. After the victim is dead, what the murderer does, does not aggravate the murder, relative to the victim. That is, after death, the victim cannot suffer further, so the offense is just desecration of a corpse. Yes, gross and extreme, but not expressly related to the crime of murder, in so far as determining the death penalty. Likewise, other common lesser, after the fact crimes should not matter to deciding death or life. Such as stealing the victim's wallet and using their credit cards after they are dead. They are still crimes, but they are different from the murder itself. In perspective, I was appalled when after the trial of a child killer in California, followed by his conviction, a juror stated that he was willing to give the murderer the benefit of the doubt, until the murderer "flipped the jury off". From that point, said the juror, "I knew he was guilty." Ironically, this statement was not enough to warrant a retrial. So the end result was "horrific injustice, that worked out anyway." This is not a good way to run a legal system. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-09-11 13:12 |
| #3 Huh, what? You say some thing Mr. Brown? I was counting the cars in the street. |
| Posted by: miscellaneous 2010-09-11 09:30 |
| #2 Brown protested sentencing disparities, saying that criminals who had killed many more people were serving life sentences while he received a death sentence. I'm sure the jury was sympathetic to that defense. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-09-11 08:55 |
| #1 Number of Washington State citizens (and visitors) executed in their homes, business, streets, etc since 2001 without any due process or appeal? Guess who's winning the body count. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-09-11 08:54 |