Gamso - For the Defense

I miss those days too, old friend. Thanks for lett...

2026-06-28T09:18:27.172-04:00

I miss those days too, old friend. Thanks for letting me know.

I'm publishing Dudley's links to his scree...

2025-06-24T12:37:47.056-04:00

I'm publishing Dudley's links to his screeds against my better judgment.
Dudley's a crank, consistently wrong, convinced that pretty much everything I write about what he takes to be the wonderfulness of the death penalty and how it's administered is either a lie or sign of my total ignorance. Sigh.
But I'm giving him this forum just this once. Enjoy it Dudley. Now you're done here.

Rebuttal of Lethal Injection "Expert", C...

2025-06-24T09:13:09.825-04:00

Rebuttal of Lethal Injection "Expert", Corinna Lain
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2025/06/rebuttal-of-lethal-injection-expert.html

The Untold Secrets of Prof. Corinna Lain
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-untold-secrets-of-prof-corinna-lain.html

Rebuttal: Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2025/05/rebuttal-secrets-of-killing-state.html

I've always understood tinkering with the mech...

2025-06-24T09:12:18.492-04:00

I've always understood tinkering with the mechanics as a last ditch means of preventing executions, but the fact that the death penalty remains at all is stunning. For a while, it seemed as if Americans had finally gotten past their blood lust and were prepare to put an end to capital punishment, but that window appears to have been slammed shut and we're back to squabbling about the mechanics of executions again. Very sad.

I'm interested in your footnotes, but I digest...

2025-06-07T09:07:04.938-04:00

I'm interested in your footnotes, but I digest.

I'm neither a lawyer nor USAmerican, but as a ...

2025-06-06T09:34:38.828-04:00

I'm neither a lawyer nor USAmerican, but as a longtime reader of the blawgosphere I'm glad to see you posting again.

Welcome back, brother Jeffrey. You were missed.

2025-06-05T16:24:39.002-04:00

Welcome back, brother Jeffrey. You were missed.

May her memory be a blessing. We've reached th...

2025-06-03T15:25:14.126-04:00

May her memory be a blessing. We've reached that stage of life, my friend. The least we can do is remember.

As I've said before: Firing squad. It's b...

2023-10-16T20:22:33.171-04:00

As I've said before: Firing squad. It's been used successfully in the past, and requires no special equipment or ceremony. No one (to the best of my knowledge) has ever survived the firing squad.

As to setting up the firing squad, all you really need to provide is a back stop and a pole to bind the target to. I'm betting that if you visited any red neck bar in Toledo, Ohio and told the Friday night crowd that you needed six volunteer shooters to execute some low life scum that had committed (insert heinous crime), and that these shooters would have to bring their own thirty caliber rifle and ammo, you'd get a squad and a backup squad in less than an hour.

However-comma.

While I used to be a staunch proponent of the death penalty, that is no longer the case. Thanks in part to your essays on the subject, I've altered my position substantially. I think life without parole is a better option in all but the truly sui generis cases.

As far as public execution, Saudi Arabia has public execution as do several other Islamic countries, and it hasn't caused them to ban the death penalty.

Excellent review and the censors never vstop

2023-05-03T05:04:51.411-04:00

Excellent review and the censors never vstop

Regarding the actual legal issue, would there real...

2022-12-07T01:27:49.890-05:00

Regarding the actual legal issue, would there really have been any chance at all for Khorry's case? Is there any precedent for someone suing to change the rules on who gets to be present at the execution?

While I agree generally that MO could have just le...

2022-12-06T11:57:15.813-05:00

While I agree generally that MO could have just let the daughter attend, and probably should have;

1) The wheels of the legal system grind intolerably slowly, so it's really hard to argue that someone approaching the end of their appeals doesn't see it coming. It's unlikely that the defense thought they could eke out another two years so that she would be the required 21 years old, and lawyers working death row cases in death row states absolutely should know about restrictions like those. So while it's possible, I suppose, that no one had explained those restrictions to Khorry, I'm going to uncharitably suggest that someone probably did, and it's not unlikely that this is an 11th hour stalling tactic.

2) Questioning whether the race of Johnson is material, I think, brutally misses the forest for the trees: Before going further Of course Johnson is guilty.

The facts of this case seem relatively uncontroversial. Johnson, as a 19 year old adult, armed himself and sought out McEntee, who Johnson blamed (with reason, but really... That's not an excuse) for the death of his brother, said so out loud, and then shot him. Whether you agree with the death penalty or not, there are precious few fact patterns more clear cut than this. Might a white defendant have been treated more leniently by the system? I suppose it's possible, but unlikely... The system for better or worse, seems to take killing policemen more seriously than other murders.

Might the race of the jury makeup skewed the verdict? Also maybe... But the question then is "Did we lift the floor or lower the ceiling?" If there was a racial component here, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the assumption is that white juries might be more willing to convict a black person that black people might be, and in marginal cases, that might actually be an issue, but in cases like this, that assumption ends up that black jurists might be more likely to nullify the law based on some kind of racial solidarity with the defendant. Again... Johnson was obviously guilty. So while someone who doesn't like the death penalty might see the jury nullification that was the hung jury as a positive, the reality is that while juries have the right to nullify, it's probably not good on the whole that they do.

He should have been convicted for something--we ca...

2022-11-29T17:49:17.875-05:00

He should have been convicted for something--we can't have armed vigilantes doling out deadly justice wherever they see fit--but the death penalty for murder, in what was clearly a crime of passion motivated by the immediate death of his brother due to the action and inaction of his target? That verdict astounds me.

Expecting Jack Marshall to actually address the Co...

2022-11-29T15:48:51.306-05:00

Expecting Jack Marshall to actually address the Constitutional issues at play in any case is a fool's errand.

Q: Does the Honorable Brian C. Wimes of the United...

2022-11-28T16:13:22.294-05:00

Q: Does the Honorable Brian C. Wimes of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Central Division actually have the authority to rule in favor of Khorry Ramey? After all, the law clearly says (insert several thousand words here), and it's understood.

My own opinion is that Kevin Johnson should never have been convicted. Just let me sit on that jury and see what happens. Officer William McEntee is guilty as hell of depraved indifference and got what he had coming to him. More or less, anyway. Then we have the all white jury.

So - here we all are. Yes, the daughter will suffer 'real, palpable, and devastating' harm, but she's old enough to serve in the military, old enough to vote, old enough to drink, so in my opinion she's old enough to watch as her father passes into the next life.

Good job, Jeff. Keep it up!

I found your post from this other law blog, critiq...

2022-11-27T00:28:24.414-05:00

I found your post from this other law blog, critiquing your opinion. Thoughts on this?
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/11/26/in-this-law-vs-ethics-clash-choosing-law-over-ethics-is-the-ethical-course-2/#comments

I'm very sorry you lost your nice dog. The on...

2022-11-25T10:37:42.593-05:00

I'm very sorry you lost your nice dog. The only bad part about owning a pet is that you're bound to outlive them, and that isn't easy.

On top of this you and yours have the Wuhan Flu, which is no fun at all. I've had it, as have a few of my friends. So - you'll be miserable for a few days, sick for ten. At our age it isn't like we haven't been through similar circumstances before this.

Meantime, here's how! Happy daze, and happy Thanksgiving.

Would you have them first raped and tortured? And...

2021-12-31T10:12:19.488-05:00

Would you have them first raped and tortured? And then killed as they killed? Perhaps multiple times? That's Leviticus, after all: "Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again." Leviticus 24:20. And, of course, the same chapter calls for killing those who blaspheme. Lev. 24:16.

I prefer the New Testament's gospel of mercy:

Jesus said:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matthew 5:38-39. That came just after, "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Mat. 5:7. And then there's from John: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." John 8:7.

Good stuff, reminiscent of the Bryan Stevenson quo...

2021-12-01T12:10:29.625-05:00

Good stuff, reminiscent of the Bryan Stevenson quotation: “Mercy is just when it is rooted in hopefulness and freely given. Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.” Ironic that those seeking "a pound of flesh" are only denying themselves a level of liberation in the end.

I'm publishing this, but with some misgivings....

2021-04-13T09:11:43.272-04:00

I'm publishing this, but with some misgivings. Keith Dressel is dead. He was, the jury said, murdered. Whatever the circumstances, and whatever there may be to say about the victim, murder is always wrong. Nobody should be killed. That's one of my mantras here. Another is that facts are different from beliefs. Whatever you believe about whether the cops identified themselves they either did or did not. You can believe what you want, but you don't know. (Neither do I.) And shouting the belief doesn't make it so.

Dressel was a bad cop and a racist. I had an encou...

2021-04-13T06:13:42.016-04:00

Dressel was a bad cop and a racist. I had an encounter with him while him and his partner were watching a bar. Him and his partner literally beat up me and my cousins because of a bar fight. The guys we fought with were white so they assumed it was our fault (for being arabic) they came out guns drawn and never identified themselves. We had no idea what was going on or why these guys had there guns pulled out on us. People at the bar tried taking pictures and videos of what was going on but the other cops there wouldn't let them. Of course they wouldn't let the cops were beating the shit out of us. Then they make up charges for felony assault. Nothing ever held up because the ppl we got into a fight with never showed up and literally NO ONE WAS EVEN HURT. Except the 4 of us were all charged. I was handcuffed on the ground while Dective Dressel was jumping up and down on my back. Yes I was talking shit but does that give him the right to do that? Or another cop banging my friends head against a window saying I hate you fucking arabs. I wasnt happy to hear about Dressel but I was relieved to know he couldn't do that to anyone else. I DONT BELIEVE THAT THEY IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES IN THE JOBE CASE. At that time police were never held accountable. Who's going to believe a kid vs a cop?

Free melvin bonnell.

2021-04-06T12:35:59.691-04:00

Free melvin bonnell.

Lot of folks don't. Some could, but just refus...

2021-03-15T08:14:25.880-04:00

Lot of folks don't. Some could, but just refuse to. Sigh.

Good to hear from you, Jack.

I'm pretty much with shg. I've wondered a...

2021-03-14T21:18:27.615-04:00

I'm pretty much with shg. I've wondered about Sowell now and again. I don't believe anyone just wakes up one morning and decides to become a serial killer, or a rapist, or a violent criminal of any kind. These things take time, and usually require extraordinary circumstances.

A friend of mine once remarked, "I didn't have a kind and gentle upbringing, and I'm no serial killer!"

"No," I replied, "but there are a lot of people who aren't like you."

He didn't get it. He still doesn't.

Oh well.

Everything I really understand about the death pen...

2021-02-10T13:21:39.555-05:00

Everything I really understand about the death penalty, I've learned from you, old friend. This too.