Comments

1
Capital punishment brings out the best in everyone.
2
Whenever I read news like this I can't help but wonder if anyone really learns or gains anything useful from using the death penalty. So justice is being served...what now? It seems like such a futile punishment to me.
3
@1: the inner humanitarian.
4
I figured Charles would do a last minute thing here, so I re-read all 17 comments from the post earlier today. Very thoughtful stuff from SLOGGERS on a tough subject. Like the abortion debate, feelings run very high here....

As I have mentioned in the past, I favor capital punishment in very rare and limited cases, where the world would be better off without that particular dark soul hanging around in a meat prison. It isn't vengeance or deterrence - it's just time to move on.
5
The media loves this guy Lewis. They want families desperate for closure through killing, but they aren't finding as many as they would like.

I would love to see where Mr. Lewis is at 15 years from now and whether he feels he benefited from being a media clown.
6
I recently attended the funeral of my wife's 23 year old nephew, the victum of senseless violence. I have adult children of my own. I cannot find it in my heart to disparage Mr. Lewis.
7
I'd be for the death penalty if it was cheaper and quicker. It took "us" 7 years and who knows how much tax-payer money to kill this guy (certainly more than it would have to house and feed him in prison for the rest of his life). There has to be a more cost effective and expeditious way to put "caught red handed" killers to death.
8
@ 7, unless you have a way of showing your accounting methods, I'd keep superfluous nonsense like "it cost more taxpayer money now than life imprisonment" to myself if I were you. I know that standard state cases that drag on for upwards of 20 years can do that, but I kinda doubt federal death row incarceration (which is relatively swift) is so costly.

That said, I don't think Mr. Lewis is going to get the satisfaction he seeks from witnessing Muhammad's execution. It will be interesting if they got any comments from him right after it happened.
9
Fucking sick that there's such thing as government sanctioned murder. The U.S. is so goddamn medieval on this shit - can't believe it's legal. What the fuck does it solve? This final description is a perfect example of what it's all about - revenge.
10
@8, anyway you slice it (or in this case inject it, har har) 7 years is about 6 and a half years too long and all of those appeals are far too expensive.

@9, are you telling us that you're under the illusion that so called "civilized" humans aren't also at the same time aggressive animals? At the end of the day the death penalty is really just the amplification of an integral facet of human nature.
11
I'm under no illusion about human nature. It's fucking sick though. And the justifications of it in this pseudo-rational tone are sicker.
12
Mr. Lewis' bloodthirsty attitude is one of the chief reasons I oppose the death penalty. The desire for revenge is very human, but it's not part of our better nature. Justice should not be about revenge.
13
@ 10, unless you're doing something about that (pressing your legislators to either ban the death penalty or reform the process so that there aren't so many appeals), I'd say your stated concern about the costs is disingenuous.

If you're against the death penalty, just say so. The costs are a practical issue, not a moral one.
14
@10, how do you propose to distinguish between the obviously-guilty cases and the not-guilty ones? We routinely execute the innocent in this country, it's pretty clear. You want to make it easier? It's all very well to say "he was clearly guilty, should have been killed a long time ago", but Cameron Todd Willingham's case was just as open-and-shut. But he wasn't guilty.

What do you say to the families of the innocent who have been put to death erroneously by the brute power of the state? "Oops"?
15
@11, you want to know what's sicker? Anthropocentrism. We place far too much importance on our oh so precious existences/realities/opinions. So John Allen Muhammad is dead. The brain power we're expending wrestling with this difficult topic right here on the Slog more than justifies his execution IMO.
16
@14, you raise a legit point...that's another reason I'm against the death penalty.
17
Even tho seldom favor the death penalty, this man was an enemy of society and had no redeemable quality to him. What he did and what he duped that teen into doing is something horrendous. As far as I'm concerned the world is a much safer place this night.
18
I'm against the death penalty. I can understand the desire for revenge. Still, I wouldn't want to link the life of my child to the murder of another.

I do hope that Lewis finds some closure.
20
@17.. lc .. '..no redeemable quality to him'..
and what do you know about redemption ? careful..lest ye be judged.
19
If this portrayal of Mr. Lewis's naked blood-lust shocks even one person into the realization that proponents of capital punishment are enemies of civil society, then the show will have served a valid purpose.
21
@20, WTF is "civil society" but one massive repression? Sex, aggression, and yes, even murder are in our DNA. It's easy (and naieve) to pretend you're above the fray when you get to use your illusion every day.
22
21: Oh, you're so edgy. It's always refreshing to get a dose of social darwinism from internet toughguys. "Yeah man, like life is meaningless and we're all animals in a cage, fightin for survival. It's all about animal instinct man, about the alphas leading the pack." This pseudo-Freudian ubermensche bullshit is retarded. Even evolutionary biologists understand that civil society has a purpose separate from repression. Our societies evolved for a reason, and no nineteenth-century psychobabble is going to change that fact. Social organization has actually aided our survival as a species. So has empathy. So take your bold masculinity and death penality and shove it up your ass, alpha man.
23
Charles,
Presently and forever, Mr. Muhammad is no longer with us. And, yes the world is indeed safer w/o him especially considering what his intentions were:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11s…

I am in agreement with you Charles. Like Ted Bundy some serial killers (in this case Mr. Muhammad) are more equal than others and they get a media circus (i.e. "reality show") for better or for worse.
24
The sad thing is that some of the people involved think this will help them with their grief.

It won't.
25
Every single useful organ of his should be donated to whoever needs it whether he agrees to it or not. This is the only redeeming thing his pathetic life can give at least.
26
@25 I'm pretty sure his body and organs are junk after the state pumped them full of poison.
27
It's always interesting to me that so few people seem to be able to grasp the difference between individual action and state action.

If someone killed my daughter, I would make it my mission in life to make sure that they died screaming. I would want to see them tortured to death over a protracted period of time. And I might consider taking steps to achieve that, in spite of the law. But I wouldn't want to live in a society that acted to advance those objectives, or had mechanisms in place to help me achieve them. Vengeance, which is a perfectly understandable and, sometimes, ungovernable impulse, should never compel the reasoning of the state.

Mr. Lewis deserves his vengeance. But the state has no justification for acting as his proxy.
28
HE DIE
29
The vengeance sought by the victims' family will not be found tonight. Malvo will likely go quietly, as if he is going to sleep. The victims were not prepared to die, and that certainly wasn't quiet. The victims' families want more than they are going to get.

It's interesting to read what witnesses to Timothy McVeigh's execution had to say.
30
Malvo, Muhammed ... whatever.
31
Today is a sad day. The death penalty is un-Christian. It legitimizes revenge and the use of violence to solve problems. It is also a waste of tax payer money in that it is more expensive to execute someone than it is to keep them alive in prison. It is also worthless as a crime deterrent.
32
Well said Judah @27. Very well said.
33
Over 2/3 of countries have banned the death penalty. The only countries that execute more people per year than the US are China, North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. We have Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Singapore, Iraq, Syria, India, and Sudan beat.

It's shameful it takes so long to change how we do things in this country.
34
I hope that everyone who was in favor of this murder (Charles) feels better. I hope this capital punishment has paid off for you, or has somehow brought some relief to somebody, because it was oh-so-expensive for everyone else (pro or con). BTW, Charles: yours was not a very "European" stance.
35
Why is Lewis being made the bad guy in this scenario? His daughter was murdered in cold-blood. You guys are idiots.
36
I thought death sentences routinely take 10+ years to carry out--even 20 or more. Lawyers are lined up to defend high-profile killers. So how did this guy go so quickly?
37
@ all;

He took at least 10 lives and paid for it with only one. Was that a fair deal? I don't really think so. Why did they deserve to die, but he deserved to live out his natural life in prison for taking their lives?

None of them got the benefit of "natural life." He shouldn't either.

@14:

It APPEARS Willingham was innocent from evidence, but who really knows? I really am on your side in that case based on evidence, but can't say with certainty.

@6:

Yes, until you've had a family member lost to senseless violence, you really don't know what this kind of thing does for your "closure" (sorry Catalina) process. It does bring some satisfaction, knowing that the monster won't ever be able to escape prison and do it to someone else. Because sometimes murderers DO escape and reoffend.
38
Well for Mr.Muhammad and his family he left 3 2 sons and 1 daughter and they are very upset he got to be executed what are they thinking when they executing Mr.Muhammed to me two wrongs doesnt make it right when they pressed the button for the leathal executed method it makes them smaller than Mr.Muhammed an it shouldnt be done done in the first place because when he got home form the war over seas he was very depressed and very upset and his wife got an devorce and he took it out on the world and what he did wasnt right but pple make mistakes and he just need some time to think what he did was wrong and he needed collciling n some mental help in stead the hole execution thing that he face and they should be upset who set the execution thing for him he need the chance to change instead they didnt think i dont like the governer of VA n im not going to VA just vist with family n i will never live in VA now because of the governer what he did to me it is another live rested for nothing just what he did n for his family his sons and a daughter im very srry he needed to live his life behind bars but get mental help n if he was still a live i whould vist with him an talk to him and yeah he had a chance to change like any other person look at what other people did n they didnt get the death pently n who ever did the execution of Mr.Muhammed is a smaller person than he ever be so just think of that n should be a sham of them selves for doing that plz mess me Mr.Muhammeds family n i felt very awfull not glad or excited just mad n depressed and upset i wish i have met Mr.Muhammed plz mess me Mr.Muhammed family members at ba43green@gmail.com
39
@26--If I recall correctly, the only thing that's useable from the body of a lethal injection victim are the corneas.

I don't think the state should be in the business of homicide. And that's what even the most humane execution is: homicide. Repaying death with death is the Old Way. It's obsolete and it's time to move away from it.

I am a lot less opposed to the execution of serial killers and mass murderers like McVeigh and Muhammad. Someone who has killed a whole lot of people is still a danger to society even behind prison walls. But. I don't think anyone, no matter what he's done, should be strapped to a gurney, intubated and anesthetized; then poisoned twice. You put a dog down that way, you'd go to jail.

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