Man has last meal before becoming 1,000th execution in US (AFP)

[Up2Late]

(Well, at least it took 29 years to reach this number.)

Man has last meal before becoming 1,000th execution in US

01/12/2005 23h50

RALEIGH, United States (AFP) - Kenneth Boyd had his last meal of steak and a Pepsi, hours before he was to become the 1,000 person to be executed since the United States reintroduced the death penalty in 1976. The family of the 57-year-old who was found guilty of the 1988 killing of his wife and father-in-law said no reprieve was expected and the condemned man was resigned to his fate.

Boyd was to be killed by lethal injection at 2:00am (0700 GMT) Friday but the execution has drawn international attention because of the symbolic figure. Boyd, who has spent 11 years on death row in this southeastern state, spent his final day in meetings with his family before having his last meal -- a New York strip steak, salad, a roll and butter and a cola drink.

"He is in good spirits, he knows he is going to a better place," said Kenneth Smith, a son of the condemned man. "I forgave him, the victim's family have forgiven him. I understand Jesus forgives everyone," the son added.

But the victims' family did not show any public sign of forgiveness. "If anyone deserves it, this guy does," his brother-in-law, Craig Curry, was quoted as saying in The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. Boyd, a Vietnam War veteran, was found guilty of killing his wife Julie and father-in-law Thomas Curry in 1988.

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/051201235056.sx95hst2.html>

(more at link above)

[darkmaestro019]

1. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

I do think, philosophically, that there are crimes that deserve death--but I do not think anyone on Earth is in a position to decide which ones, or in which cases, or even if we've got the right person. The government can't manage to build roads that work or count votes, I certainly do NOT think they have any business deciding who lives or who dies.

I wish some peace for everyone involved in this awful situation.

[Christa]

2. How beautiful you said it. nt.

[Beaverhausen]

3. Well said n/t

[driver8]

4. I have always had a hard time putting into words my feelings about

the death penalty. You described how I feel perfectly with your post.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Well said, sir.

The land of the free,
And the home of Sodium thiopental.

[Skip Intro]

5. And now, I guess, the world is a better place.

or justice has been served, or something like that.

KILLING is wrong, so KILL KILLERS because KILLING is wrong.

I've never gotten it.

WWJD?

[smomfr]

8. Imagine facing a lethal injection

knowing your inocent (it´s happened). It must feel a little like being buried alive.

[Endangered Specie]

7. you know, I live in NC... and I must say...

I dont care if we are 'looked down on' because of roasting #1000.


Its just a number, why dont y'all go get pissed off about #1034 or something?

[Dead_Parrot]

9. True...

I challenge anyone to to name #998 without looking it up on the internet. So what's significant about 1000, apart from being a round number? Is this guy more important than the other 999?

[Endangered Specie]

10. He murdered his wife and father because she was cheating on him...

pretty run of the mill for a DP case if you ask me.

It would have been nicer to have Tookie be #1000, I guess he'll be #1002 or something.

[Dead_Parrot]

11. Just a guy, then.

Like George Alexander. I guess someone has to fill the slot... :(

[Endangered Specie]

13. Not just a guy, just a typical DP case...

I wont lose any sleep over his timely passing.

[Dead_Parrot]

14. Fair enough

I don't know him from Adam, so I doubt I'll be up all night chewing the pillow in anguish, either...

It just seems a shame. Whilst it probably doesn't include this guy, I'm sure at least one of those thousand didn't deserve it...

But then, I doubt his wife did either. Sorry, I always get a bit mixed over the DP.

I'll shut up. :)

[Endangered Specie]

15. thats understandable...

its not a black and white subject, Id even be willing to support a moratorium to fix the many problems in the justice system.

[Dead_Parrot]

16. I've a sneaky feeling

That there's a lot to said for locking someone up for life. 'Till they die of old age, no parole. At least if turns out you're wrong later, you can let them go with a wedge of compensation.

In Scotland, they have 3 possible verdicts for a murder case: "guilty", "not guilty", and "not proven" for the borderline cases. I wonder if there's scope for a similar system in the US: Like you say, it's not a black & white subject, and in my experiance there's no such thing as a black & white verdict, either...

[Up2Late]

12. We're not looking down on North Carolina because of this, it could...

...have just as easily been one of our states too. Hell, one reprieve from the Governor and "The Terminator" in California would get the 1000th execution of "Tookie" Williams.

It's the whole death penalty thing that doesn't make any sense to us.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

17. This is a satirical comment right? Like the Republicans that said 1000

dead soldiers was no special matter?

[Endangered Specie]

18. U.S. Executes 1,000th Person Since 1977 (ABC, CBS)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1365283
{
RALEIGH, N.C. Dec 2, 2005 — A convicted murderer was put to death Friday in the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977.

Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m., said state Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker. Boyd was convicted of killing his estranged wife and father-in-law in 1988.

His death came after both Gov. Mike Easley and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene and stop the execution.
}

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/01/national/main1091410.shtml

[expatriot]

19. I remember when I was a kid and morrally undeveloped

I thought it was so cool that Utah executed people with firing squads.


from article:" The Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah."

[napi21]

20. Well, now Aanauld can relax, and all the other Gov's can too.

The BIG deal was who was going to be responsible for the 1,000th one!

[Erika]

21. A citizen kills so the state kills the citizen

Two wrongs make a right?

All studies show the death penalty is NOT a deterrent to committing a crime, so how do they justify the state killing?

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Erika]

23. Kill babies? Are you a Satanist?

Where are you coming from? There is no record to show death penalties reduce crimes. Post stats otherwise.

[LiberalInGeorgia2005]

26. I'm just guessing here

But I think he/she is talking about how democrats usually support abortion, but oppose the death penalty.

[Nicholas D. Wolfwood]

27. What?

I don't understand what you're trying to say in your post. First, you say that studies showing the death penalty is not a deterrent are flawed. Then you point out that "there are people in prison for murder and our laws didn't stop them" and that "studies also show that a number of criminals went to a neighboring state to commit their crimes in fear of the death penalty," claims that seem to indicate that the death penalty is not a deterrent.
Personally, I'm opposed to the death penalty and believe that the goal of the prison system should be rehabilitation, and that serious criminals should serve life sentences.

Plus, are you saying that pro-choice women are "bitches" and "murderers"? :mad:

[Jella]

29. I appreciate your sentiments

on the death penalty and prison rehabilitation. I think you summed it up as well as I could have.

[michreject]

31. A false argument

That's because the criminal doesn't think that he/she will be caught. To the person commiting the crime the punishment never enters the equation.

[Trevelyan]

24. ACLU has 3 current petitions against the death penalty, I signed all 3 and

the petition/emails are sent to your Congresspersons - Other great petitions to get involved against torture and the unPatriot Act:

http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AP_alerts_all

Below is a listing of some of our most significant recent victories:

Defeated many of the Bush Administration’s most egregious attempts to deny liberty in the name of national security. Federal judges in New Jersey and Michigan rejected the government’s blanket policy of conducting secret deportation hearings in post-September 11 cases as a violation of the First Amendment. The ACLU brought both cases on behalf of news organizations and members of the public. We also led a massive media campaign which forced the Administration to dramatically scale back its proposed domestic spy program, Operation TIPS, which would have recruited postal and utility workers to spy on Americans in their homes.

Hailed four major victories in the ACLU’s ongoing campaign to abolish capital punishment in America. In the states, Illinois and then Maryland declared moratoriums on the death penalty. And in the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that that executing people with mental retardation violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment. The Court also ruled that a death penalty trial must be resolved be a jury rather than a judge. Finally, a U.S. District Judge declared that the federal death penalty is unconstitutional.

=======
I sent a supportive email to General Pace for standing up to Rumsfeld on the torture issue. It seemed small, but who knows?

This looks like the right place http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html

[Erika]

25. Torture is always evil and never acceptable

I read that quote today. Too bad W finds torture acceptable.

[shance]

28. We asked Mr. Boyd to murder in Vietnam, he came back broken, and

and tortured.

How did we help Mr. Boyd for his years of being shot at and traumatized so the war boys could profit?

We threw him away. We ignored him and his pain and rage when he got back from Vietnam.

One more reason to look at how we are treating these kids who don't come from money and dont have the financial protection and educational opportunities to escape the clutches of being used by the Military Industrial Complex and predators.

Mr. Boyd was used. He had a future and hopes ahead of him like every other kid that age. But the war boys had something else in mind for Mr. Boyd.

Mr. Boyd was obviously a broken and shattered man when he got back. Perhaps he was somewhat prone to losing his temper or reacting under too much stress. Nothing like a Vietnam to snap a person right to the other side of sanity.

However when he got back, our government and all of us as Americans let Mr. Boyd and thousands of others live with the horror they were forced to inflict and receive, and expected them to move on as if nothing ever happened.

Then he killed his wife and his father.

Im sure that was what his dreams and hopes were when he was a young child growing up. But of course it was not.

Our government and those profiting from war taught him to murder, and then threw Mr. Boyd out like a piece of used garbage, slamming the door in his face.

But that's okay. We'll turn on Desperate Housewives and forget about it. After all, it didn't affect us, did it?

[Chicago Democrat]

30. His blood and the blood of thousands of innocents on our hands!

May GOD FORGIVE US ALL!