Lawyers fight death penalty for synagogue shooting suspect

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Lawyers for the suspect in the synagogue shooting that killed 11 people in Pittsburgh have challenged his potential death sentence as unconstitutional.

Lawyers for Robert Bowers argued in court papers filed this week that capital punishment violates the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause and the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

They also said the practice of carrying out federal executions in state prisons violates a Tenth Amendment protection that says states can’t be made to enforce federal laws, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday.

Defense lawyer Judy Clarke has made similar arguments in other high-profile capital cases. Her clients have included Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tasarnaev, who is appealing his 2015 death sentence, and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, who entered a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.



File - In this Monday, Oct. 29, 2018 file photo, a makeshift memorial stands outside the Tree of Life Synagogue in the aftermath of a deadly shooting in Pittsburgh. Lawyers for Robert Bowers, the suspect in the synagogue shooting that killed 11 people in Pittsburgh, have challenged his potential death sentence as unconstitutional and argued in court papers filed this week that capital punishment violates the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause and the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They also said the practice of carrying out federal executions in state prisons violates a Tenth Amendment protection that says states can’t be made to enforce federal laws, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/af5e031e9d71ee35ee799659889052f5

[ck4829]

1. Lawyers fight death penalty for white nationalist terrorist

[onenote]

2. Lawyers fully represent their client.

[ck4829]

3. They're doing their job, just felt like pointing that out

It is a good thing that absolute scumbags that are the worst and most disgusting of America like Bowers, Unabomber, Dylann Roof, etc. get lawyers who protect them, I'm not trying to sound sarcastic, they have certain legal rights that we are all entitled to.

Judy Clarke, the lawyer to the worst of America, is a godsend.

I just feel a thread about Bowers that doesn't have "white nationalist terrorist" is kinda naked, that's all.

[moriah]

10. I get the wanting to point out that Bowers is a white nationalist terrorist.

But as a person who doesn't believe in the death penalty at all, I have to apply that belief to even a white nationalist terrorist like Bowers.

Even though in this case it's clear he is guilty, I feel like for those who are truly guilty of heinous crimes, death is too good for them.

Plus, when you execute someone, you end up creating a martyr in many people's eyes. Executing a white nationalist terrorist will just make that particular terrorist remembered forever and encourage others to do what he will not.

Locking him up, throwing away the key, and attempting to take the focus off of naming names of people who do awful things and instead naming and raising awareness of the victims of such atrocities and how much good they did in this world before they were taken....

Well, it may not be as viscerally satisfying, but society would be better off if we did that.

I know XKCD had some comic on this topic, essentially that everyone like Bowers should never have their actual names mentioned, instead just "Some Asshole" be used to identify them publicly.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Agree on no-death-penalty. Lock him up, lose the key.

This is probably a good case for "life without parole", but I can't support any executions.

[Odoreida]

4. I am opposed to the death penalty, even in cases like this.

I suppose that makes me a white nationalist?

[ck4829]

6. LOL, what? Seriously? That is quite the leap

Read my other reply before you go off self-labeling yourself a white nationalist to spite lil' ol' me, thanks.

[abqtommy]

7. I'm opposed to misuse of the death penalty. In a case like this I think it should be applied.

[marble falls]

9. I am also against the death penalty in all cases.

[Coventina]

5. I'm against the DP, no matter the crime. n/t

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Let him rot in jail

I wonder if killing him will make her m a martyr

[Mc Mike]

12. Life in prison without parole works.

I notice shitler and his coomps are currently engaged in cozying up to q anon, which this shithead was involved in. His mass murdering ways don't seem to have sullied the movement's reputation for the repugs and Rump.