Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 3:56:39 GMT -5
As with the state's last execution in December, death penalty opponents are likely to protest the scheduled carrying out of sentence for Bobby Glen Wilcher.
Wilcher, 44, is scheduled to undergo lethal injection at the State
Penitentiary at Parchman at 6 p.m. today for the 1982 murders of Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin in Scott County.
Those who oppose capital punishment on moral grounds should be respected for their beliefs. It is wrong for the government to be forced to kill anyone for a crime. It's sad, it's tragic, it's lamentable.
But our laws allow capital punishment as an ultimate sentence reserved for only the worst crimes and it is rarely carried out. The legal protections, in state and federal courts to ensure the guilt of those convicted of capital crimes are many.
In fact, as with Wilcher's case, where he readily admitted his guilt, the protections border on the ludicrous. 24 years have passed since the crimes were committed while appeals - which Wilcher himself decried - dragged on.
It's a common saying in jurisprudence that justice delayed is justice denied. Certainly for the victims' families, the punishment imposed by the legal system has been denied again and again while these appeals delayed imposition.
It's time for justice to be done - as lamentable as it may be that such crimes do occur requiring the ultimate punishment.
(source: Opinion, Clarion-Ledger)
Wilcher, 44, is scheduled to undergo lethal injection at the State
Penitentiary at Parchman at 6 p.m. today for the 1982 murders of Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin in Scott County.
Those who oppose capital punishment on moral grounds should be respected for their beliefs. It is wrong for the government to be forced to kill anyone for a crime. It's sad, it's tragic, it's lamentable.
But our laws allow capital punishment as an ultimate sentence reserved for only the worst crimes and it is rarely carried out. The legal protections, in state and federal courts to ensure the guilt of those convicted of capital crimes are many.
In fact, as with Wilcher's case, where he readily admitted his guilt, the protections border on the ludicrous. 24 years have passed since the crimes were committed while appeals - which Wilcher himself decried - dragged on.
It's a common saying in jurisprudence that justice delayed is justice denied. Certainly for the victims' families, the punishment imposed by the legal system has been denied again and again while these appeals delayed imposition.
It's time for justice to be done - as lamentable as it may be that such crimes do occur requiring the ultimate punishment.
(source: Opinion, Clarion-Ledger)