It was bank robbery, now Capital Murder!

[Beiruty]

Death Penalty, or 30yrs in the slammer?

A security guard was shot and killed this morning during a robbery at a bank in east Oak Cliff, authorities said.
The holdup happened shortly after 10 a.m. at the Bank of America in the 3500 block of South Lancaster Road.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/he ... -cliff.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Alternative sentencing: Tie him to a car and drag him until dead.

SIA

[seamusTX]

Capital murder, no death penalty, life in prison without parole.

Killing a security guard during a robbery was bad enough, but the the subsequent armed robbery at a church is going to have the prosecutors salivating like starving pit bulls.

Death penalty prosecution is too expensive and iffy with jury trials.

- Jim

[fishman]

If it's my family that a punk preys on, you can bet I will work every single day to see that they never kill again. Why not bring back the tools for parents to raise their children with respect (something some kids have no idea what that is). Paddles, belts, ect for parents and schools. How bad does it have to get before society wakes up and sees where this country is headed. I don't give a bunny on a barbecue pit about being pollitcally correct. We need to use the death penalty as one more way to make thugs realize there are consequences for their actions. For those that don't get the death penalty, make them work OUTSIDE, the kind of work they hate to do. No tv's, computers, phones, cigarettes, or any other comforts. I'll do my best to send a message with my vote. Until you have to bury a family member because of one of these thugs you may not understand just how mad it can make a person.

[jocat54]

Capital murder, no death penalty, life in prison without parole.

Killing a security guard during a robbery was bad enough, but the the subsequent armed robbery at a church is going to have the prosecutors salivating like starving pit bulls.

Death penalty prosecution is too expensive and iffy with jury trials.- Jim

Sorry, could you explain?
More expensive than supporting the piece of trash for the next 30 years?

[MoJo]

Alternative sentencing: Tie him to a car and drag him until dead.

SIA

That would be cruel and unusual punishment. Not to mention there are two men on death row for murdering a man in the same way.

[seamusTX]

Death-penalty trials are more expensive than non-death capital murder trials for several reasons:

• If the defendant is indigent, which they nearly always are, the county has to pay for public defenders that are qualified to defend death-penalty cases.
• Death penalty cases are more complicated and take longer.
• Often they require expert witnesses.
• They are automatically appealed, which the county has to pay for.
• They can be appealed time and again by pro-bono groups like The Innocence Project or a prisoner who becomes an amateur lawyer in prison, with the state paying for its side of appeals (I think it goes on the state's budget at that point).

Counties have limited budgets (though Dallas no doubt has a huge one). If they pull out all the stops for a few capital murder cases, they end up giving easy plea bargains or even losing other prosecutions because they can't take them all to trial.

I don't make the rules, so I'm asking in advance please don't get mad at me.

- Jim

[XnTx]

The security guard would have been justified using deadly force to prevent a robbery. Correct?

[jocat54]

Death-penalty trials are more expensive than non-death capital murder trials for several reasons:

• If the defendant is indigent, which they nearly always are, the county has to pay for public defenders that are qualified to defend death-penalty cases.
• Death penalty cases are more complicated and take longer.
• Often they require expert witnesses.
• They are automatically appealed, which the county has to pay for.
• They can be appealed time and again by pro-bono groups like The Innocence Project or a prisoner who becomes an amateur lawyer in prison, with the state paying for its side of appeals (I think it goes on the state's budget at that point).

Counties have limited budgets (though Dallas no doubt has a huge one). If they pull out all the stops for a few capital murder cases, they end up giving easy plea bargains or even losing other prosecutions because they can't take them all to trial.

I don't make the rules, so I'm asking in advance please don't get mad at me.

- Jim

So does all this add up to more than "housing" him for 30 years?

[fickman]

There are possibly a lot of tactical lessons to learn here, but I'll refrain for now.

Prayers for the family and friends of the victim.

Who knows - getting the assailant to focus on him might have saved another life in that bank. The murderer was obviously unpredictable.

[seamusTX]

So does all this add up to more than "housing" him for 30 years?

Maybe or maybe not. The guy could get shanked and die his first week in prison, or he could live to 100 with expensive health problems.

It's human nature and especially the tendency of bureaucracies—which county governments are—to solve a problem quickly and cheaply now, even if it will cost more in the long run.

Plea bargains are cheap. Felony jury trials cost more. Death-penalty trials cost the county a lot more.

Once the prisoner is convicted, whether by plea bargain or a guilty verdict, he goes to TDCJ and becomes the state's problem (unless he later gets a mistrial or something).

- Jim

[jocat54]

Either way, we, the taxpayers are footing the bill.
Just hang him.

[Heartland Patriot]

So does all this add up to more than "housing" him for 30 years?

Maybe or maybe not. The guy could get shanked and die his first week in prison, or he could live to 100 with expensive health problems.

It's human nature and especially the tendency of bureaucracies—which county governments are—to solve a problem quickly and cheaply now, even if it will cost more in the long run.

Plea bargains are cheap. Felony jury trials cost more. Death-penalty trials cost the county a lot more.

Once the prisoner is convicted, whether by plea bargain or a guilty verdict, he goes to TDCJ and becomes the state's problem (unless he later gets a mistrial or something).

- Jim

Well, it seems to me that the system is being used to blackmail the citizens into allowing folks to quite literally get away with murder. I find that reprehensible. As a Texan born and bred, I truly believe that there are some folks that deserve whatever terrible fate befalls them. They live their life in a manner to get to that point, and then want to dodge the consequences of their actions. There are a large number of individuals that I don't care for in the least, and indeed I believe to be all but a menace to society, but I just can't go and fix them permanently. So, explain to me (other than the cost), why anyone else should be able to kill someone for their own personal gain or pleasure and all but get away with it...on second thought, don't...I'll just leave that as a rhetorical question. And I do NOT care if someone thinks me callous for my beliefs in this regard.

[seamusTX]

If you want to call life in prison without parole "getting away with it," I won't argue with you.

I'm not saying at all that the offender deserves a break. If the facts reported in this case are correct, he entered a bank to rob it. When he saw that there was an armed guard, all he had to do was leave and go to a bank that didn't have an armed guard (which most don't).

Instead he killed a man who was just doing his job, and then compounded his crime by terrorizing and endangering the lives of other innocent people. If he had gotten his hands on a vehicle, he may well have killed and injured others.

Morally, he deserves to roast on a spit and be fed to dogs.

The legal protections of due process are in place to protect the innocent.

Most of these decisions were made by the Texas legislature and elected judges. Granted, many decisions came from appointed federal judges upholding the U.S. Constitution or federal civil rights laws.

Like nearly every problem that is laid at the feet of government, the voters have the solution in their hands twice a year (or more often sometimes).

- Jim

[Beiruty]

Convicted, one-appeal and then end-of-life in 30 days. What is should cost more than life in prison.