Chuck Schumer: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Should Face Death Penalty

[OhioChick]

04/21/2013 1:23 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said federal prosecutors should seek the death penalty for Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

During a Sunday appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Schumer was asked by host Candy Crowley whether Tsarnaev should face capital punishment if he is found guilty, even though it is banned in the state of Massachusetts.

"The federal law allows the death penalty," Schumer said, adding that he wrote that federal law in 1994 while chairing the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime.

"This is just the kind of case that it should be applied to," he said. "In fact, the only other time it's been used since '94 is on Timothy McVeigh. And given what I've seen, it would be appropriate to use the death penalty in this case, and I would hope they would apply it in federal court."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, also said prosecutors should ask for a death sentence for Tsarnaev.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-death-penalty_n_3127642.html

[hrmjustin]

1. He deserves it but the death penalty is so wrong so I say no.

[steve2470]

6. I agree, life in prison in a very small cell alone is much worse to me nt

[lastlib]

7. I agree!

It is my firm belief that the state should never have the power to take life.

[Junkpet]

29. ^^^Agreed!^^^

[exboyfil]

2. I thought McVeigh

was executed under the federal law because he killed federal workers.

[Mariana]

24. There may be a possibility of a federal charge.

In 2007, for example, Paul Ross Evans was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 40 years for building and placing a bomb at an abortion clinic in Austin, Texas.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/10676231.html

[tularetom]

3. Maybe so, but why don't we try him first

I really wish these assholes would keep their yaps shut.

[lastlib]

5. **DINGDINGDING!!!** WINNER!!!

Politicians need to stay the hell out of it and let the legal system take its course! It's gonna be hard enough to get an impartial jury to give the guy a fair trial, without their self-serving BS interjected!

[Canuckistanian]

23. Politicians especially

I remember when Nixon declared Charles Manson guilty in the middle of his trial. It almost caused a mistrial.

[kestrel91316]

4. I'm undecided. Yes, I want him dead and in hell. Time will see to that regardless.

Do I want the taxpayers to have to pay the bill for the DP vs LWOP? NO.

Is the DP misused too often and wrongly convicted innocents executed? HELL yes.

[Morning Dew]

8. The death penalty is barbaric. n/m

[FourScore]

9. Really? How 'bout some due process first?

Guilty via meadia grandstanding...Geez...I'm disappointed in Schumer and Feinstein. They should know better.

[MrSlayer]

10. Of course he should.

This is an open and shut case, a model capital case. Oh, he'll still get his trial and all but there is no doubt of his guilt. Perry Mason couldn't get this guy off.

Maybe he can try to trade off information for his life but I'm betting he doesn't know a whole lot. The older brother seems to have been the connected one.

We'll see.

[Terra Alta]

11. The death penalty is state sanctioned murder.

What Tsarnaev did was wrong, and he should be locked up for the rest of his life for it. Killing him won't bring back the dead victims to life, or make the amputees magically regrow their limbs. Locking him in a tiny Supermax cell 23 hours a day for the rest of his life would be a far more appropriate punishment.

[FarCenter]

13. Murder is unlawful killing

Since the death penalty is legal, it is, by definition, not murder.

[RebelOne]

14. Yes, I agree. I do believe in the death penalty,

but I think that locking him up for the rest of his life would be a far better punishment because he is only 19, so he will definitely suffer behind bars for a long, long time.

[KittyWampus]

20. You know what would be even better? Seeing if he can face up to what he did and spend the rest of

his life locked up doing something to somehow give back to society.

I disagree with the death penalty and also locking people up to rot no matter what potential there is for some rehabilitation.

[closeupready]

12. It's startling that both of them casually endorse state-sanctioned execution.

And very disappointing.

Capital punishment is always wrong.

[jsr]

15. But etiquette says torture him first

[Robyn66]

16. The death penalthy is 100% wrong 100% of the time

There is a part of me that cant help but feel for a 19 year old who made the choices this one did. Maybe I will lose all sympathy as this boy begins to speak, but there is something just so sad about him and about his life being over just as much as those he killed. He is only two years older than my daughter. Besides, I do not beleive in responding to murder with murder. There is more to this that we will learn and it is all very very sad.

[beyurslf]

17. I agree with the Senators.

[Hugabear]

18. If you oppose the death penalty, you don't make exceptions

Doesn't matter who or what.

[marmar]

21. Agreed. I oppose it without equivocation or hesitation.

There's no moral flexibility on this one.

[markpkessinger]

22. Spot on!

If you support the death penalty in an "easy" (in manner of speaking) case such as this one, then you should ask yourself how you feel about an indigent defendant served at trial by inexperienced or inadequate counsel, who gets railroaded by some local yokel district attorney for a crime he didn't commit. Because the hard truth of the matter is you don't get one without the other.

[KittyWampus]

19. Let him live and perhaps someday understand his acts were harmful and wrong or kill him for revenge-

Death penalty is stupid.

[jessie04]

25. I'm against the death penalty

but I really won't shed a tear if this guy gets it.

[leftynyc]

34. Pretty much how I feel too

I couldn't sit on the jury due to my position on the DP but I will lose no sleep over this one.

[spanone]

26. congress doesn't enforce law, they should stfu

[OhioChick]

27. Kick

[Blue_In_AK]

28. Can we have a trial first?

[Junkpet]

30. Impropriety, whether real or conceived...

...is what the next anti-American terrorist cell is hoping for in this case, it's good for recruitment and motivation. The "martyrdom" of a "terrorist" is not beneficial. Let him rot and be forgotten about.

[Orsino]

32. Let the kill-'em-harder posturing begin!

C'mon, Dems, don't let the GOP be more macho than you.

[snooper2]

33. I say put a tracking device in him

Drop him in the middle of Afghanistan and see how long he lasts...

See if the fundies take him in or reject him as a fake