US set to carry out 1,000th execution this week

[jefferson_dem]

:cry:

US set to carry out 1,000th execution this week
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is virtually certain this week to execute its 1,000th prisoner since 1977 with two inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection in North Carolina and South Carolina, where they are unlikely to be granted clemency, experts said on Wednesday.

<SNIP>

If they proceed the executions will mark the 1,000th and 1,001st since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty almost 30 years ago.

That distinction would have fallen on Virginia prisoner Robin Lovitt, but Gov. Mark Warner on Tuesday commuted his sentence to life in prison because a court clerk violated state law by destroying DNA evidence that might have proved Lovitt innocent.

<SNIP>

A Gallup poll last month showed 64 percent of Americans supported the death penalty, the lowest level in 27 years, compared with a high of 80 percent in 1994.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051130/pl_nm/crime_execution_dc

[chalky]

1. I couldn't help but wonder if Warner commuted Lovitt's sentence just

to keep from going down in history as "the Governor that killed the 1000th prisoner".

Cynical? Moi?

[oostevo]

2. No matter the reason ...

I'm still glad he did it. I'm very much not a death penalty fan.

Still, if he were thinking politically, he probably wouldn't want to commute death penalty sentences -- he's thinking of running for president, and most people (it seems) look favorably on a strong program of killing off prisoners.

[Endangered Specie]

3. Why cry over such assholes...

save the tears for people more deserving sheesh :eyes: :nopity: