Singing Loudly

It's been a little while, since I've posted my weekly death penalty roundup. That's mainly due to being busy with other things. However, this week and next week is nothing but finals, so I figure I can procrastinate a little.

The death penalty sentence of Steven Ray Thacker, has been upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court. He was found guilty in 2000 for the first degree murder of a tow truck driver.

Meanwhile, in Ft. Bragg, N.C., Sgt. Akbar was sentenced to death by a military jury. Many will remember him from the crime he committed when he threw a hand grenade into his own camp of American soldiers in Iraq.

Zacarias Moussaoui has plead guilty despite fearing that he will receive the death penalty. He was linked in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and there is no question about it that the prosecutors will seek the death penalty during the sentencing phase.

Republicans in Iowa are on the march to get their state death penalty reinstated. Unfortunately, they broke State Senate rules by trying to attach the provisions to a bill cracking down on sex offenders. This sort of thing is really disturbing to me, because it cheats the system. If the Democratic forces are properly at work then push for this bill on it's own. It doesn't need to be in a rider to a sex offender bill. Now the Republican cons in that country will make the fraudulent misrepresentation that Democrats struck down a bill that would have cracked down on sex offenders. If you want the death penalty then introduce a proper bill.

Al Knight of Fairplay (writing in the Denver Post) tells an interesting story about a death row prisoner who was sentenced to the death penalty on three separate occasions. I wonder what the odds of that happening are?

Finally, there appears to be a quite accurate software program that predicts whether or not a defendant is likely to receive the death penalty.