Triple murderer spared from execution by (Gov.)Kaine (Va.)

[underpants]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

On the eve of the execution, Kaine commutes sentence, saying Walton is mentally ill


Gov. Timothy M. Kaine commuted Percy Levar Walton's death sentences to life without parole yesterday, sparing the triple murderer execution by injection tonight.

Though courts have held that Walton could be executed, Kaine said he granted clemency because Walton was not mentally competent. In 2006, Kaine twice delayed Walton's execution over concerns he was mentally ill.

"Given the extended period of time over which Walton has exhibited this lack of mental competence, I must conclude that a commutation of his sentence . . . is now the only constitutionally appropriate course of action," Kaine said in a prepared statement.

Kaine said that while Walton may have been sane when he committed the murders, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution "forbids the execution of those who are unaware of the punishment they are about to suffer and why they are to suffer it."



Read more: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-10-0127.html

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Kaine let one pass last week-Kevin Green

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2731966220080528

This was a HUGE point in Kaine election-would he allow the death penalty to be imposed. His competitor (Jerry Kilgore) had a really powerful ad on this but it didn't work in terms of the election.

Kaine is considered one of the front runners to take Mark Warner's Senate seat.

Kaine as VP is probably now out the window. :shrug:

[Carnea]

1. Since when is executing the mentally ill a prerequisite for national office.

I mean I know both Clinton and Bush executed them to help the White House but that doesn't mean we should. I think the Death Penalty feelings in this country are more nuanced.

And Clinton rushing to execute that young mentally ill man was not his proudest moment

[Fluffdaddy]

2. And Clinton got elected.

The American people like the Death Penalty and elected officials that fear not to use it..................Deal with it

[okieinpain]

6. It's not a mandate for my vote. but I belive some folks deserve it.

[sui generis]

3. I would step even further back and question mental illness

altogether. A sane human, no matter how "aware" or intelligent, does not murder other humans. Ergo, if you murder someone, you are by definition not sane.

For some archaic reason that has nothing to do with reality we view "sanity" as able to tell "right" from "wrong" or to be able to determine consequence.

Extending what you said, I think our desire to commit murder ourselves under the guise of state-sponsored "punishment" is indeed nuanced nuttiness.

I've had the 900 post fight to end all fights here on this very topic, and it made me even more certain that I'm against the death penalty in a civilized society.

We can lock up somebody who's psychotic and not have to question the morality of murdering a person who couldn't help themselves. The way we think about it today is so twisted and backwards and upside down, it bears analyzing it for a sanity check too.

Punishing someone you kill is no punishment at all. When you're dead you're dead, finito. Nothing to compare to. Now, honoring their humanity and saying they have forfeited human freedoms - THAT'S punishment. Isolation. No TV, no books, no outside communication, hell no fucking toilet paper. No rights other than daily food, extraordinary healthcare to keep them from dying, and a hole to shit in.

If someone murders a child of mine, I want to see them very alive, very punished and talking to themselves and playing with their poop a year from now. I do NOT want them to get out of a lifetime of punishment by dying early.

[winter999]

7. I've heard your argument that no "sane" person would commit murder...

But that's just plain wrong. Police, hit men, soldiers all kill and they're all sane by any measure. I actually heard this argument on NPR by a defense lawyer and was sold.

That said, I totally agree with your conclusion that death is an easy-out. Let the criminals live long and suffer. Cover their cell with pictures of their victims to remind them of what they did every single day.

[sui generis]

8. Well, hit men aren't heroes, and killing in self defense is different

But killing someone because you're pissed off or because the state said you can or because you are supposed to kill your cousin on the other side of the border for wearing his turban on the left side instead of the right is crazy. Killing someone in a meaningless war is batshit fucking crazy, and murder to boot.

Which of your grandparents is favorite? Great greats? Three or four times great? Go back 22 generations with an unbiased exponent and you are one generation short of 60 million grandparent ancestors, the entire population of Europe, England and Scandinavia combined in 1250. every man, woman, king, peasant, sinner and saint alive. 500 years later the population of Europe collapsed to a little over half that number. So to does the idea that our familial "relatedness" condense even further.

Not only can Prince Charles trace his line back to Charlemagne 2000 different routes in 23 generations, but actually, so can you. We really are all related within less than 1000 years of history if that doesn't make the delicate flowers here too squeamish.

Killing members of the human family is crazy. Asking a soldier to do it for a government for oil or some other stupid "pre-emptive" reason; crazy. But we do it and they come home changed, not "grown up", but changed. That's crazy.

There are people who are born with fucked up palates, or flippers instead of arms or mixed genitalia or an extra finger. Those are things you can see. There are people born with SCID and genetic vulnerability to sunlight, peanuts, dust; things you cannot see but that become apparent when they connect with a normal living environment, topology and ecology.

And there are people born with deformities in their brains, the things that you can only see the effect of after they interact with another human. There are certainly monsters and saints walking among us, and not a whole lot of way to tell the difference just by looking.

How we judge what went wrong is by how those people fail to interact with other humans; deadly anger, hair trigger violence, poor or no understanding of consequence, whether they voted for Bush. We can only judge someone's failed brain in our moral system by how little or much they empathize with the living, by how much they cherish and nurture life, or conversely by how ready they are to destroy it, often, even in the name of "doing good", or "justice".

No, sanity is recognizing and respecting everyone's right and desire to live. Sanity is defending your own life when called to do so, against something that looks and walks and talks like a human but has no aptitude for remorse.

Insanity is feeling good when a stranger is dead, feeling superior, or relieved or any other borrowed justification for the craziness that says extinguishing a life is acceptable and civil if it's done in the name of the law.

The conclusion is the deduction here: sane people don't commit murder, never step over that hard and fast delineation of violence and bloodlust that results in one less consciousness in the world, one less mind, one less soul.

[SquireJons]

4. Huh?

"Kaine is considered one of the front runners to take Mark Warner's Senate seat.

Kaine as VP is probably now out the window."

That's news to me and I live in Richmond. I didn't even know that Mark Warner was our Senator...

Okay, enough jokes. Former governor Mark Warner(D) will supplant John Warner(R) as Senator from Virginia next fall. Kaine still has a year to go as the current governor. Jim Webb (D) is our other Senator as of 2006 when he beat Sen. Macaca (R - Allen), so we have a chance at having both Senators from Virginia being Democrats for the first time in a long time.

But now Webb is being considered for the VP spot. I think he would be a great choice, but where does that leave Virginia? I think Kaine will be able to choose his replacement, but there aren't any strong candidates to take his place. Webb came out of nowhere to win but the Democrats don't have a long list of viable candidates to hold onto Webb's senate seat if he becomes VP.

It's a tricky situation. Virginia is on the verge of going blue state, and that would be a huge blow to the republicans southern strategy. So getting and keeping Virginia may be almost as important in the long run as winning the White House this fall.

[underpants]

5. Okay my mistake

I meant (that was a reallly DUMB post by me :silly: ) that if Webb was in the VP slot THEN Kaine would be a frontrunner...but that is two steps two GIANT steps ahead of where we are now..


BTW -did you hear that the SCV wants yet another Jeff Davis statue?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3418741&mesg_id=3418741