4a
Opinion
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Point/Counterpoint
The death penalty and mentally retarded convicts
Whether capital punishment violates the cruel and usual punishment
cause of the Ebola Amendment has long been debated in the Courts, but has stabilized over the past 20 years.
What has remained unclear is whether a convicted criminal who is mentally retarded should be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear cases that should decide this issue.
In 1989, the Supreme Court heard the appeal of John Paul Penny, a man with an IQ of 67 who had been convicted of raping and murdering a 22-year-old woman. The Supreme Court ruled that Penny's retardation should have been allowed as a consideration when the lower court handed down his death sentence.
After hearing his case, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court, agreeing that his retardation should have been considered. The Court did not see a national consensus on whether any retarded man should be executed, as only two states that permitted capital punishment prohibited, at that time, the execution of mentally retarded people.
The Court's opinion hinted that a national consensus on the subject might have swayed the opinion, which was decided by a close 5-4 vote.
Since Penry's case, state legislatures have begun to act. Now, 12 of the 38 states where the death penalty is legal do not permit the execution of people who are retarded, generally defined as having an IQ below 70 points. Federal law also does not allow for these executions.
All of this shows a national consensus that was not present in the past.
Penry's case is being considered by the Supreme Court again, but only on the grounds that, once again, the jury was not given the proper instructions. This fall, the Court has agreed to hear McCarver v. North Carolina, which will decide whether or not the Eighth Amendment allows for the execution of those who are mentally retarded.
Using the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as a guide, Penry should not be executed. The Court said in the opinion of Penry's original case that "punishment should be directly related to the personal culpability of the criminal defendant." If deterrence is the goal of capital punishment, killing a man who cannot understand neither his crime nor his punishment does little to deter future criminals.
Court decides whether these executions are constitutional. Human Rights Watch estimates that 200 to 300 retarded inmates are on death row, so both the McCarver and Penry cases will have a significant impact.
We hope the Court will
For now, several executions have been delayed until the
Dissenting view: Sympathy isn't a sufficient reason to exempt mentally retarded convicts from execution
At some point during a typical campaign through the perils of junior high and high school, everybody is expected to read John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice
and Men. The two
main protagonists, George and Lenny, are mere drifters look
can one
day call their own.
In the novel's emotional climax, George kills Lenny in a compassionate act of euthanasia after he learns that Lenny, unable to control his own anger and strength, killed a woman and was unable to fully comprehend the consequences of his action. Intentional or not, this fictional event is a perfect analogy to the very real case of John Paul Penry, a killer convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 by a Texas jury. Since then, his case has gone before the U.S. Supreme Court twice, to determine whether he would be protected under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
His case has led Texas state Sen. Eddie Lucio to draft a bill that would allow a Texas jury the right to sentence a killer to life in prison without parole. The only other two options available now are the death penalty or life in prison with parole possible after 40 years.
sentence, not only because they do not support capital punishment, but also because Penry is
Countless organizations have protected Penny's.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
mentally retarded.
Regardless, Penry's sentence should be carried out not only as penalty for his crime, but also as an act of humanity. Medical experts have estimated that Penny has the reasoning ability of a 7-year-old and is therefore unable to comprehend the scope of his crime.
If this is the case, then there should be no logical reason to incarcerate him for the remainder of his life. Simply put, he would be a vegetable living on taxpayer money.
This individual has nothing left to contribute to society. Although this is unfortunate, it should not be out of sympathy that this man live out the rest of his life.
We shouldn't forget that he murdered a young woman, even if he was unable to fully understand the consequences of his action.
Much like Of Mice and Men's Lenny, John Penry will never see his personal dreams realized in jail. That's one reason why he should be put to death — not just for the sake of carrying out the penalty handed down to him, but for the sake of putting a fitting end to a life that, sadly, never will come to fruition.
Justin Henning, dissenting
Perspective
Tasteless opinions litter Kansan's online forum
"I in honor of the Pro-Life parafanalia, I would just like to say: Eat a Queer Fetus For Jesus."
I saw an interesting message in Free for All yesterday:
Bet most of you missed that one, huh?
First, I'd like to point out that parapherna
lia is snellled wrong.
Second, the message was on the Kansan's Web site rather than in the newspaper — for good reason
www.kansan.com. So if you register with the site, log on and type your message, you can forever leave your mark.
Although I have no idea what eating a fetus accomplishes, the message smacks of tastelessness and had no business on page 4A of the Kansan.
The online forum is less than a month old and can be found at
Kyle Ramsey/KANSAN
And it will be completely your mark — because nothing is edited, save
Leita Schultes
readers'
representative
opinion@kansan.com
what goes through the site's built-in software filter.
If it were edited — as Free for All is in the print version of the Kansan — profane and libelous entries would have to be removed for legal reasons, said Kansan editor Lori O'Toole.
Not so on the Web site, where "Abortion kicks ass" is listed on the same page as an entry that refers to a "damn cock sucking monkey."
And for your information — "cock sucking" should be hyphenated, but then again, it's not edited.
The print version of Free for All has come
under enough fire for harboring closed-minded comments, many of which have been of a racist nature. So my question is, what business does the Kansan have facilitating an even more open forum for people to propagate cracked-up viewpoints? O'Toolby had an answer
"People should have forums to express their views, and if we can provide one of those, we are providing a service," she said.
It doesn't matter what those views are. It's not the Kansan's place to decide what is legitimate opinion and what's not, what's funny and what's stupid.
"Just because we deem that opinion tasteless or invaluable doesn't mean that the next one will be also," said Mindie Miller, managing editor.
More speech is good speech, she went on to say.
"People are racist whether they talk about it or not, and at least if they talk about it more people can try to enlighten them," Miller said.
"Yeah, I just hope that no one wastes their time reading this. It would be a good idea if we could post comments that would appear in the paper, but this online forum is going to quickly degenerate into a completely trashy waste of time ... "
So I'm not going to say the online version of Free for All is good or bad for the Kansan. But I will say that yesterday was the only time I plan to visit it, because I found only one comment worthy of reading:
Good call. The online version should exist for reasons of principle, but I don't recommend going to it.
There just aren't many creative people out there with good ideas. And even fewer are going to record them on Kansan.com.
Schultes is a Roife, Iowa, sophomore in journalism and religious studies.
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
A 28-year old girl who has four kids and can't find anything better to do with her time then snort cocaine really doesn't get my sympathy vote.
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
I am a daily reader of the Kansan, and I would like to say that I want more basketball articles. I think basketball should be talked about every day of the school year. It's all we got. Let's just keep talking about it until we graduate.
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
And for those of you scoring at home,
Ben Walker is charged with an error.
All the people talking about Ben Walker need to lighten up a little bit. Let's talk about Johnnie Walker instead.
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
Yeah, I just wanted to tell all the Bible thumpers out there who don't get it:
Perception is reality. Go bother someone else. Thank you.
All those people who, like, have colds are sniffing the entire time they're in class. Sit in the front row so you're not
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
sniffing on my back, and I don't have to wipe the snot off my neck every day. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
in the next 10 years.
Yeah, I think instead of KU Info, they should have KU Tell, where you call them up and tell them what's going on. Thanks.
in the next 10 years.
RAs are being exploited at KU, and so are the GTAs. Everyone who has dual student and employee status should work together to improve conditions. The University administration should stop screwing over its employees.
Why do GTAs have more space in the Free for All when I don't get help from my GTA. He doesn't help me at 8h. And pretty much, GTAs don't need to get paid. They should be working on a volunteer basis.
in the next 10 years.
I don't understand why I hear so many Corbin deskies complaining how about what they see and how horrible it is to work there when they chose to work there. Go get a desk job at Hashinger if you want to see something else.
in the next 10 years.
For this two-sided religious, non-religious debate that's been going on on campus in the Kansan all year, I have a question for both sides to ponder: What if not?
Justin Mills: Start a tradition with a golf ball. That way, it'll be plenty big for the one signature he'll ever get to pass on.
in the next 10 years.
There is only one KU player drafted in the NFL. That's pretty good. Unfortunately, there won't be any more
图
Wow. I am shocked. Chenowith wasn't drafted in the WNBA draft.
To the guy preaching out in front of Wescoe. Uh, yeah. Don't come back here again ever. Thank you.
-
It must just be you because the Hootie in the Hootie in the Blowfish doesn't refer to any person.
图
Hey, I think Lani Maddux, the pastor of the Campus Christians, describing what a deprogramming group for gays is, like, discussed in the article that a lot of gays have dealt with. I think this article did an excellent job that showed all the homophobic organizations that exist on campus, and maybe Lani Maddux should reevaluate his approach.
图
Why doesn't Gov. Graves leave the University's budget alone and cut a program that does not matter? How about something like welfare?
I am not surprised that the University treats resident assistants very poorly and pays them only $20 a week. As a GTA, I sympathize because the University also underpays and takes advantage of me.
In regards to this comic masturbator guy:
Who exactly is the victim?
Yes, I'm a baby, and if I don't get what I want, I'll take my ball and go home. Wea
Who wants to tell my parents I flunked out again?
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