UPDATE: Paul Warner Powell
PAUL WARNER POWELL EXECUTED FOR MURDER
excerpts of an article by Josh White – The Washington Post
Kristie Reed was on the basement floor, her throat and wrists slashed. Her older sister, Stacie, was upstairs, dead from a stab wound to the heart. When police reached Kristie, who was then 14 years old, an officer leaned in and asked who had done this to her. Kristie mouthed two words: “Paul Powell.”
More than 11 years later, Paul Warner Powell, 31, was executed in Virginia’s electric chair Thursday night. He was declared dead at 9:09. The Jan. 29, 1999, murder of one sister and the rape and near-slaying of the other in Manassas were among the most notorious crimes in the region’s recent history.
Besides the savage attack, the case was known for Powell’s boastful jailhouse letter to Prince William County’s chief prosecutor, which provided the crucial evidence that resulted in Thursday’s execution.
But it was Kristie Reed’s eyewitness account that led to Powell’s arrest and confession just hours after the slaying. She is left with decade-old memories of her sister and a neck laced with what she calls “battle scars.” Formerly against the death penalty, Kristie eagerly awaited Powell’s execution.
“I need to know that he’s gone, that we don’t have to deal with this anymore,” said Kristie Reed, 25, and an advocate for rape victims. “I was totally against the death penalty before this happened, and I didn’t know why people would want to do it. But those people haven’t been through what we’ve been through. Now I’m totally for it. He definitely deserves to die. He needs to die for what he did to Stacie.”
It has been a long decade for Kristie Reed and her mother, Lorraine Reed Whoberry, who have suffered through nearly unbelievable twists and turns. Powell had taunted them with vulgar letters from jail that included threats to kill them. And the legal case was emotional and difficult
After Kristie Reed took the stand to testify against Powell in 2000 — she never looked him in the eyes — prosecutors secured the first conviction and death sentence. At the hearing in which the judge imposed the jury’s sentence, the forewoman testified on Powell’s behalf, saying that she loved him and had made the wrong decision.
In 2001, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out Powell’s death sentence, ruling that the murder of one girl and the rape of another could not be considered the same crime — a factor necessary for the death penalty. After the ruling, Powell wrote an insulting letter to prosecutors. But in it, he admitted that he had tried to rape Stacie Reed, too. That admission tied Stacie’s attempted rape to her slaying and led prosecutors to re-indict him. He was convicted and sentenced to death a second time after another full trial in 2003.
ad_iconThroughout it all, Powell egged on Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert, who has now sent 10 people to Virginia’s death chamber, nearly 10 percent of all people executed in the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982. Usually unflappable, this case has at times brought tears to Ebert and has made him so close to the Reeds that they consider him part of their family.
“From the get-go, if anyone deserved the death penalty, Paul Powell deserved it,” Ebert said, recalling how moved he was when he saw Kristie in the hospital in 1999, heavily sedated and surrounded by teddy bears. He immediately thought of his daughters and how he would feel if one of them were lying there. “I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’m pretty callous. This case is more tragic than most I’ve witnessed because of the ages and the personalities of the victims. You can imagine the horror that went on in that basement as Kristie begged for her life. I got emotionally involved.”
Powell has never denied what happened in the Reed house. He told police that Stacie Reed, 16, “got stuck” with a large survival knife during an argument, according to court records. She broke a fingernail on Powell’s face and continued to fight after she was stabbed, falling lifeless into her sister’s room.
Powell waited around the house for Kristie Reed to come home, showed the teenager her sister’s body, then forced her into the basement, where he ordered her to strip naked, raped her, choked her, then cut and stabbed her.
Powell left her for dead.
Powell and Stacie Reed had begun socializing shortly before the slaying. Whoberry had never met him, and Kristie Reed had just recently learned his last name. Powell told authorities that on the day of the killing, he became angry with Stacie when she refused his sexual advances and instead took a phone call from her boyfriend.
“I knew from the moment I saw her that she was gone,” Kristie said, slowly recounting her fright in seeing her sister’s body. “Stacie put up a fight, but I’m not a fighter. If I know my life’s in jeopardy, I’ll do whatever you say. I did what he told me to do. He told me to go into the basement, and I did.”
Kristie identified Powell immediately, and police found him just hours later at a friend’s house. The sheath of his knife had Stacie’s blood on it, and police found a drawstring from Powell’s striped sweat shirt under Stacie’s body. Powell wore that sweat shirt during his first interview with Richard Leonard, who was then a detective with the Prince William police.
Leonard, who knew Powell from some small-time trouble he had caused in high school, had a rapport with him and quickly got him to admit his crimes. He said Powell had the hardest time discussing his assault on Kristie because he thinks Powell was ashamed of it.
“In 31 years of doing this, I know that you’re never going to understand the motives of a killer,” said Leonard, who is now with the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office. “They’re all bad, but everyone has a case that haunts them for a long period of time. This is that one for me.”
Jennifer Wasko, the forewoman on the jury that first convicted Powell and who later testified on his behalf, has also been through quite an ordeal. The trial scarred her, and her relationship with Powell tore apart her family and professional life. Now remarried, in a new career and living in West Virginia, she looks back on it all wishing she had never contacted Powell after the trial. She said she felt pity for someone she considered “crazy and lost” and wanted to help him.
Wasko spent hours on the phone with Powell and exchanged letters with him that she said ranged from sweet to hateful. The conversations petered out over time, but Wasko said she received a birthday message from him every year.
After Powell sent his tirade to Ebert, admitting more details of the crime, Wasko said she felt no more responsibility for him.
“Everything that happened, he did it, he did it to himself,” said Wasko, who during the first trial went by Jennifer Day. “I can sleep at night now. He did what he did, and he’s getting what he deserves.”
And so, at nine minutes past nine, Eastern Daylight time, Paul Warner Powell paid the price for being a murderer and a rapist. Oh yeah, and for being one DUMB son of a bitch. While I don’t want to take any pleasure in the death of another human being, it’s hard not to giggle at the way Mr. Powell put himself in the electric chair with his own incredible foolish actions.
I wonder what Paul Warner Powell was thinking right before they threw the switch? Was he wishing he never raped and murdered Stacey and raped and nearly murdered her sister Kristie? Or was he wishing he just hadn’t written that damn letter? Do you think he ever had any real remorse for what he did?
So farewell Paul Warner Powell. You were an asshole, a racist, a murderer and a rapist, and now you paid the ultimate price for the choices you made in life. It’s my sincere hope that you asked for forgiveness before you died, it really is.
But somehow I think you died the way you lived – defiant to the end.

93 Comments »






Is there any particular reason he’s all… blue?
Either he’s holding his breath, or someone needs to add some yellow and mebbe some red to his picture… BUT WHO CARES? HE’S DEAD, SO IT’S ACCURATE NOW! HAH! ‘Cept prolly with more charring.
I was so gonna say this LOL! he looks probably about that, only maybe they need to add some char haha
I was thinking maybe he was a Smurf that should have just been erased.
well, he is now.
AMEN!
Looks like Hitler is getting a reprieve from nightly pineapples in the bum.
(Little Nicky reference, LOVE IT!)
haha.
LOL ..
Good riddance!!!! Why does it take 11 years to fry these kind of people. If there is a shadow of a doubt, I’ll give it to you we may want to reconsider the death penalty, but when someone like this has confessed an it is an absolute why are we dicking around with them. Need to go back to the Old West days. Try em one day and hang em the next. Case closed. Next!!!!
Normally, I’d count myself as someone who is against the death penalty. It’s not that I think murderers, rapists, and child molesters don’t deserve it, but more the double-whammy of needing to be absolutely positively _certain_ that the person convicted is responsible for the crime, and a moral conviction that when the state puts someone to death, it is doing it in the name of its citizens–many of whom don’t wish to have the blood of another human being on their hands under any circumstances, for any reason.
It’s cruel, savage, remorseless thugs like Paul Warner Powell that cause me to qualify statements like the one I made above with “normally”. Because as much as I believe in the inherent value, worth, and dignity of ALL human beings, and as hard as I try to remember that individuals who commit such acts have generally been treated with savage cruelty themselves, people like Powell remind me that sometimes, a human being really _can_ willingly destroy their own dignity, value, and worth. There is truly no doubt that Powell committed these horrific acts, so that eliminates the first of my objections, and given his crimes and his actions after the fact, I don’t see how there can be any doubt that at some point, he came face to face with his own humanity, and chose to murder that as well. Truly, Powell was as nearly inhuman and as nearly worthless as a human being can possibly make himself.
And that’s why, despite the fact that I normally object to the death penalty, I can honestly say that I don’t think I would have had a moral problem with throwing the switch on this monster with my own two hands. It’s not revenge, and there can be no real justice in a case like this. But what else is there to do with a black hole of hatred and seething evil except obliterate it, if it is within one’s power to do so?
Unfortunately, I don’t believe in hell, at least not in the traditional religious sense. Oh, but at times like these, I sincerely wish that I could. It will have to be enough for me to know that any future he might have had has been utterly blotted out. Unfortunately, I doubt that that could ever be enough for the people directly touched by the evil choices he made.
My God, what an incredible, sad, enraging _waste_ his life was…
I agree with everything you said. I’m theoretically against the death penalty, but some people make it so freaking HARD to be.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Nah there is no remorse for the crimes…however I believe he was thinking before they threw that switch “damn I am one dumb son of a bitch” I personally get all kinds of pleasure knowing this guy is dead,dead,dead!
Well said Dave! This is one instance where even the most devout anti death penalty crusader would have to sit down and shut up. If you see the pictures of the scars left on the survivors neck and realize she looks at these everyday, and they are the least of the damage done, no human being with any sense of humanity could argue this guy has any right to breathe the same air we do. Sick. Sick. Sick.
:-) I take your meaning, but just for the record: While it’s true I’m _normally_ against the death penalty, you’re not going to find me screaming about it through a bullhorn. It would probably be more accurate for me to say that I am pro-death penalty, but only when applied very sparingly and with extreme judiciousness, in cases in which guilt can be established with absolute certainty, and provided that standard can be defined and met that would prevent injustices such as biased application based on age, sex, race, or status as a military veteran.
But that’s neither here nor there, really; I only added it so that you would know where I was coming from. I can certainly agree to disagree with proponents of our current implementations of the death penalty in the US–especially when it comes to cases like this one. Powell may have been executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia (of which I am not a citizen), but as I said above I’d have had no problem with his execution being carried out in my name. In nearly every possible way I can think of, this pitiful excuse for a man truly earned his death.
*ZAP!* Buh-bye, you piece of shit.
Nah nah naaaaahhh nah
nah nah naaaaahhh nah
hey hey now
GOODBYE!!!!!
Sweet :-)
Don’t let the iron gate hit your ass as you skid into HELL!
it’s kinda hard to skid when he’s got Satan’s boot up his ass.
LOL
So THAT’S where my other boot went….. >:)
I’m home sick today. Got the screaming squirts. So I am writing this while my bowls are their very best to eject everything liquid from my body.
B U T When I am better I WILL be doing a happy dance naked covered in beer!
I hope you fried long and well you sack of shit!
“happy dance naked covered in beer!”
LOL! Already did one for us both!!
And I shall be doing the “happy naked dance” covered in Gin in about 5 hours, woo-hooo!
Why wait for an execution to do the “happy naked dance”? I do mine every day at 10:15 AM – sometimes I don’t even wait until I’m in the breakroom.
aHAH! So it’s your fault! I feel a disturbance in the force each morning around that time…
I had to wait until I was off shift, lol. No nudity in the police department ;)
What does this bit mean?:
“The forewoman testified on Powell’s behalf, saying that she loved him and had made the wrong decision.”
I don’t remember it being mentioned in the original article.
Hmmm yea…prolly should have finished reading the whole thing before asking. It’s explained later – apologies!
What it means is that the forewoman could possibly be the topic of a future PYSIH writeup. She’s the type to chose her live-in dick over her kids.
Mmmmm…the aroma of fresh pig on the barbecue. Love it.
He killed somebody……..we say killing is wrong……..so we kill him……fucking genius that.
I’m sorry but I can not condone state sanctioned murder……just as I can not condone any other kind of murder…….the hypocrisy is just mind boggling……..
this thread is the modern day equivalent of cheering crowd that’s baying for blood at a public hanging in some town square. I mean really cheering for somebodies death is pretty crass by anyone’s standards
OH, PIFFLE! I’ve seen you drop trou here and take a squat before, but this has to be one of your largest, steamin’est coils yet. C’mon Stormy, you can do better than this!
Who said killing is wrong? I think murder is wrong. There’s a huge difference. Killing a monster like Powell saves lives in the future, and saves us from having to store him in a box for the next 50 years. He’ll never be anything but a drain and a terror. We put down rabid dogs. This guy is worse.
When a soldier kills during war, is that the same as what this bastard did? Not remotely. When we disposed of his already trashed life, was that the same as cold-blooded murder? Pffft. Have a Coke and a smile…
I’m happy and not moaning but the commandments clearly state “Thou shalt not kill” it doesn’t mention anything about unless he’s a rapist and a murderer.
i agree that the guy is a piece of shit that does not deserve to live and deserves to die a slow agonizing death……..But it’s not up to us to do that.
You know i’m a liberal guy but even I have rage and blood lust in my heart towards some of the assholes on this site and wish them a horrific death but I can’t help shaking the feeling that executions are wrong and that it’s not up us to carry them out.
Not saying he should not be in prison but i do believe even the darkest soul can be redeemed (not that they will but that they CAN)……..you know maybe I’m naive and I’m sure that if it were a member of my own family I’d change my tune pretty quick……But I dunno it just doesn’t sit right with me……i’m not religious either
But then again I have been raised in countries that don’t have the death penalty so maybe that is a contributing factor to my stance.
I like the idea of coke but i’m going to have to throw some rum in it ……it’s Friday night and that’s no time to be pondering the moral implications of executing some asshole rapist….It’s cocktail time :)
It’s Friday afternoon here. I’m at work. Rum sounds good. ;)
BTW, that god orders and condones killing all the time, all over the place. Just ask all of his followers in the Middle East and most of them in the US. I consider the 10 commandments to be more like guidelines because it appears god does as well. I won’t kill a man, but I’d gladly flip the switch on a monster.
Thou shalt not kill? Not sure man. I don’t consider myself spiritually intoxicated but do consider myself religious and I know the Bible is full of metaphors and inconsistencies at times and you’re right “Thou shall not kill” is non-specific but………..
Exodus 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
——————————————————————————–
Leviticus 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.
——————————————————————————–
Deuteronomy 19:21 “Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
——————————————————————————–
Matthew 5:21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER ‘ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’
Who am I to question? Just a thought:)
TGIF!!!!!
Stormy,
“the commandments clearly state “Thou shalt not kill” it doesn’t mention anything about unless he’s a rapist and a murderer.” – stormy
“the guy is a piece of shit that does not deserve to live and deserves to die a slow agonizing death……..But it’s not up to us to do that.” – stormy
“i’m not religious either” – stormy
Not religious? What commandments are you referring to then? Who gets to enforce said slow agonizing death? If it’s not us, and it’s not law officials, I can only assume you’re speaking of God, yet you claim to be not religious in the same post. Whether you are or aren’t doesn’t really matter, but if you want what you say to be worth it’s salt then try not to be so oppositional in the same post.
However, as previously asked, if it’s not up to us or law officials to put this sick dog down, who is it up to? God isn’t law, the commandments aren’t the law. To you they might a good code to follow, but to a lot of us they’re just arbitrary rules with no evidentiary support as to their existence for anyone who’s given the bible a good read. Had you read your bible, you would see in the very place these supposed commandments came from that God insists upon the execution of murderers. Exodus 21:12 “He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.”
So stormy, to paraphrase my unintentionally long post: yes it very well DOES give an exception to rapists and murderers.
How does the commandment “Thou Shalt not kill” make any exceptions?
I mean you can interpret the rest of the bible (or the qu’ran) to make it sound like it advocates all kind of crazy violent shit (and can probably make a good argument for the violent killing of homosexuals)….
…But that was written by man…….the ten commandments are from the mac daddy himself and you can try and interpret it how ever you want but I think it’s pretty straight forward you know……”you must not kill”….
Fuck I don’t even believe in God…..why am I arguing this point?
Stormy I am not going to argue that point. I believe strongly in God and I have killed in war. I know I am going to hell. But then again it is not my decision to make now it is?
Stormy,
The commandment “Thou shalt not Kill” actually seems to translate from”Thou shalt not Murder” and was further stratified to be that you don’t kill without a good reason, especially not the Jewish sages who are in charge of making, errr…. keeping the rules. Some folks argue the 6th commandment is actually, “thou shalt not waste life.”
How does someone find an exception within the Bible, Talmud or Koran for killing people? Like anything kept through multiple administrations, the law was changed by those who wished to reinterpret. In short, Thou Shalt not Kill was bent in various directions into, thou shalt not murder those who don’t deserve it.
Regarding this particular thing, the Bible specifically mentions this one passage that burns in my brain any time I’m feeling lazy.
“Any tree that does not bear fruit, shall be cut down, and thrown into the fire.”
It’s actually repeated twice in Matthew 3-10, first with a reference that the axe is at the root of the tree and how fruit trees that don’t bear good fruit are doomed, and yet again in 7-19 as above. If I considered the Bible any more than a flawed manuscript of man’s interpretation of divine wisdom, I might be prone to growing more fruit trees than I currently do. As far as a death penalty, during the course of the history that the entire bible covered, no exception was really made for the death penalty. Even when Christians were facing lions, the actual limitation was an exception to the rule, not a defiance that Lordly men and governments did not have the right to kill you where you stood.
I reject a biblical answer for the death penalty, however, as we’ve sparred in the past. I argue that its a question of barriers.
I had a small group of Beavers swim up to my back yard and kill a pair of willow trees. I tried a variety of barriers before I decided to use steel cloth wired around the trees that were left. This year I’ll modify the ugly cloth and add a different barrier. The Beavers are still there, swimming in the night, looking for an opening, but the barriers will be modified with a change in the technology I’m willing to use and the inventiveness I can try. I’m limited, because my neighbors and the other people paddling on the shared lake don’t want to see ugly solutions that despoil the views and/or lower property values. I can’t take a shotgun to the beavers, discharge could threaten people. I tried animal control and was disgusted with the highway robbery of a commercial trapper (he wanted to charge me a fee for every house on the lake, that could be affected by the Beaver). No, I’m stuck with the pragmatic solutions for now. The death penalty is a pragmatic solution, not to merely housing, but to the neighbors who don’t want to see this man or men like him living in our back yard or some day escaping. We can’t end his murderous rage, make him less likely to rape without maiming him or murdering him. So we pay an exorbitant price, have these things, these monsters who attack human beings, put down. Personally, I’d rather have all of the beavers in the world compared to even a single rapist murderer like the man above.
I am not very knowledgeable about the Bible. Don’t share many Christian beliefs, but I do follow the same moral code regarding some things. Basically, live your life in a way that doesn’t negatively effect others, is how I like to put it. Make ethical decisions based on what will do the most good for the most involved. I like to think that being rid of this piece of crap does not negatively effect the majority of others (since he will no longer be around to rape or kill anyone else) and does the most good for everyone involved (who really wants to spend tax dollars keeping him alive? Not me! Plus, the victim and the family can be rest assured he will not be around any more.) Anyway, wasn’t it God himself who gave us the ultimate death penalty for Eve eating the damned fruit off the wrong tree? Because of her lack of judgment, according to the Bible, each and every single living creature will eventually die…not that I believe a word of that, but if you want to start bringing God and the Bible into it, what say you to that?
It also says in the bible “an eye for an eye”
Guess you skipped that part.
Yeah an eye for an eye part is just one sentence someone wrote in a very long book that’s full of contradictory advice like “Turn the other cheek”…..
But the ten fucking commandments are pretty much the word of god……Not really open to interpretation.
I just don’t think killing people is the answer
The current ten commandments that we know IS an interpretation. The bible is the supposed word of god translated through human minds and eventually written down. It’s naive to think it’s never been edited.
Any god that expects humans to just take it, let others kill your family off, rape you, steal from you, shit on everything you love and turn the other cheek, is not a god I can get behind. Sorry, I can no more wrap my brain around that concept than I can sit locked in a dark room with polka music playing and remain sane.
If someone rapes me, I believe that person should be raped. If someone kills someone by either intention or fatal stupidity (eg. drunk driving), that person should be killed. If you’re willing to do it to someone else, you should be willing to have it done to you. I have no more love, understanding and compassion for murderers than they do for me or their victims. If god doesn’t like it, god has plenty of blind worshipers to chose from.
The government and state has a moral high ground from which it judges people in the name of righteousness……Which basically means that we can not sink to the depths of the people we are judging otherwise everything the law stands for is just bullshit an in effect the government just becomes a gang.
The moral high ground is a motherfucker sure enough
Moral high ground? Which government? Surely you don’t mean the US? *GUFFAW!* ;)
I do not believe that taking the moral high ground obligates us to allow murderers and rapists to live better than many law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. There is no fairness or logic in that, yet that is exactly what is happening in many of our prisons. I think it sends the wrong message to criminals, don’t you? Kill someone, preferably multiple people, and most likely you’ll get a solo cell with three hot meals and heat and air conditioning, as well as video games and movies all the time. You’ll also get the perverse entertainment of dragging your victim and/or their surviving family through the pain of it all repeatedly, over the course of many years, before it’s all over.
Is this what god intended? Is this the moral high ground that good people are obligated to stand on? If so, god has some explaining to do. I know that’s arrogant, but I feel confident in being arrogant towards a deity who behaves that way. If god exists, I highly doubt he’s THAT god.
My moral high ground is made of the fact that I have never killed anyone, or committed any horrible crime. I don’t drive drunk, I never have. I don’t rape, I never have. I’ve never kidnapped anyone. I use my words, not my fists unless I must protect myself. I took a pack of gum from a store when I was 13, but I felt bad about it and returned it. The proprietor was so stunned he let me keep the gum. I may have tossed a ball at someones head in preschool, but they probably deserved it. All of this, yet I’m no ones doormat. If someone ever stabs me, I intend to stab them back or die trying. Someone who resorts to violence doesn’t understand discussion. Sometimes you must translate your words into their language. Hammurabi would be proud.
If, by taking ‘the moral high ground’, you mean we should just let the criminals live and pay for their needs out of our taxes because that’s the right thing to do… fuck that. I’d rather roll around in the gutter. At least it’ll be a safe gutter at that point, rather than this lofty moral cesspool we seem to be wallowing in.
No that’s cool man….you sound like a decent human being and do not commit these horrendous acts which is great you know more people like in the world and it would be a much nicer place to live.
But murders are being committed in YOUR name by the government.
All I can equate this to is prisoners of war…….now my grandfather was a in Japanese prisoner of war camp and was pretty much tortured half to death and treated in the most appalling way……but that doesn’t mean that we should have then tortured our prisoners of war as pay back for this behaviour does it?
Like the Taliban beheading people they capture in combat……we must not sink to their level and start cutting heads off ourselves……you know we should treat our prisoners with some degree of dignity that they wouldn’t show us in a million years
You know if we are on the side of righteousness we have to behave in better more restrained way…….Even though every bone in your body is screaming out for revenge and blood.
If I could get a hold of the people who tortured my grandmother in Dachau, I would torture them in kind. Oh yes, I would have no compunction about it.
But would I feel justified torturing someone completely uninvolved because I or my family were tortured? You don’t victimize the innocent because their leader or someone on their street or someone who looks like them wronged you. That’s gangland bullshit. All it does is perpetuate itself. If you kill my brother, I won’t feel wrong flipping a switch on you if you were found guilty and sentenced to death. Your brother has nothing to do with the crime, therefore he is innocent of it. Why would I kill him?
Murderers target the innocent. The death sentence targets the guilty. Is it perfect? Of course not, no system is. I do not deny innocent people have been executed. Here’s some harsh reality – way more guilty than innocent people have been executed, and the ones who were innocent are a small group in comparison to the victims of the guilty. Collateral damage is a horrible thing, but sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the few in the interests of the many.
yeah but you can’t really look at these cases personally though….
..because if that were the case i would have that fucker who stole my car stereo last year stoned to death and who ever keeps dumping trash in my garden would have their hands cut off.
you know but then again I don’t think that should be the punishment for these infractions……Except when they are done to me……Then death to them all ;)
i dunno man maybe I’m wrong on this like I said I’m pretty torn on the subject…..I will have to ponder on it a bit more me thinks
Here’s the way I look at it stormy…
God created us in his likeness, right?
EXCEPT we have the ability to make mistakes and sin, because we are, in fact, ONLY IN HIS LIKENESS.
The first commandment can be interpreted in so many ways.
“Thou shalt not kill”
Pro-lifers would say that abortion was an abomination of God. If that were true, don’t you think His almighty Holiness would smyte those who had one done?
Murderers get to kill people.
Can you justify that?
I understand that you are against the death penalty. Would you rather have these psychos back on the streets or allow them to continue to live off YOUR TAX DOLLARS for the rest of their lives, causing an overload in the prison systems because You don’t think executing them is right?
The way I look at it, this is one less rapist out on the streets, murdering innocent teenaged girls. God knows, we could use a hell of a lot less of those creeps.
I can dig what your saying but i’m more pissed off that my taxes are used to fight stupid wars or to lock up non violent drug users……i get your point though totally like i said I’m pretty conflicted myself over this debate.
You know i’m not saying 100% that the death penalty is wrong but i kind of have this creeping feeling that it’s probably wrong,.
Now if it was up to me i would lobotomise prisoners and turn them into mindless zombie types…….you know cut out the bad parts and put them to work in menial jobs where they can do something positive for society….
Actually, stormy, your taxes are being used to pay the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who are risking their lives in those stupid wars.
Don’t get me wrong I support the troops and am appreciative of their sacrifice
i just don’t support the fuck heads that send these troops out to risk their lives fighting illegal wars in the name of big businesses……
Here’s where I feel I must fill you in on something… The “wars” you speak of are not being fought in the name of big business, granted, BB may be hovering in the background, but the heart of the matter is the solemn Oath that every servicemember takes upon enlistment… It states “I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Not just domestic enemies, but ALL enemies. And The Sailor’s Creed goes further, saying “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and I will obey the orders of those appointed over me. I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and all who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.” Not just in the US, but around the WORLD. The Oath of Enlistment has been around since 1775 and The Sailor’s Creed has been in use since 1994. These words are the lifeblood and pulse of our country. They stand behind every war and battle our country has been involved in. Every scrimmage, every frontal assault, every special operation has a firm foundation in these ideals. So, since this is the case, how is any war stupid? An enemy of big business in America is an enemy of America, because the US is built upon commercialism and free trade. Who cares if a business has overseas interest and may benefit from our servicemembers being deployed to that particular country? The must be a bigger reason that just to protect an company’s interests… We are protecting the interests of each individual that makes up this great country.
I read through the whole thread to this point without much of a response. I guess I sort of understand both sides of the death penalty debate.
What made me start this particular post was my gut reaction to the argument between Stormy and NavyCop. I am going to keep this short and blunt, but I want to make a couple of things very, very clear up front: This message represents my own personal opinion, obviously. It is not an attempt to represent the opinion of anyone else nor is it an attempt to step into an argument in someone else’s stead.
I am not sure what constitutes a “stupid” war. But while I believe–I feel I have no choice to believe–that violence, fighting, and killing are sometimes necessary to defend freedom in the real world, I also utterly reject the idea that war is made a noble enterprise simply by virtue of the oaths of the men and women who fight, or that the willingness of combatants to sacrifice their lives to maintain the freedom of their country and its citizens makes it unseemly to criticize or publicly oppose the reason for, conduct of, or stated goals of a war. For that matter, I also reject the notion that civilians who have never served cannot have a valid opinion on such matters.
Indeed, I would argue that _only_ noncombatants can be removed enough from the events of a war to be in a position to make sound judgments on such issues. Perhaps it’s just that I’m being defensive because I have never served in the military; I doubt that’s the case, but I can’t pretend to be aware of every facet of my motivation for action. However, I have spent the better part of 12 years of graduate study examining war, its role in American society, and how information about the cause, nature, experience, purpose, and conduct of war is created and transmitted and made sense of by various segments of US culture. My studies have led me to believe that while there are certainly Americans who hold naive anti-war viewpoints, such activists tend to endure loud public questioning of their beliefs at some point. This was true even (or maybe even especially) of those who protested the war in Vietnam (though it is also true that much of the questioning was done after the fact). It was certainly true of the first Gulf War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The viewpoint that all too often goes unquestioned is that which attempts to represent any military action taken by the United States as intrinsically just and as manifestly justified. The truth is that this could not be the case anymore than it is possible for human beings to be perfect; for it would take perfect men and women to make perfect decisions 100% of the time. Regardless of anyone’s opinion about any particular way, it is a sad reality that it very much _is_ possible for the lives of military men and women to be sacrificed for unjust or immoral causes. It very much _is_ possible to waste the precious lives of our soldiers in wars that are poorly conceived, poorly planned, and poorly fought. And it is possible for oath-taking American military personnel to sacrifice their lives in support of a goal that runs counter to their own understanding of the values they want to protect.
This is not just a devil’s advocate argument, and I am not saying these things to be provocative or because I dislike the military or because I want to devalue and dishonor those who serve. I say these things because I passionately believe that it is vital that Americans understand them. One of the great strengths of Americans is their love of freedom. One of our greatest weaknesses is our tendency to ignore or forget that freedom does not exist in the absence of responsibility. If Americans love their freedom, and want to keep it, then it is their duty to question the goals of our leaders often and loudly–and the more urgent the situation, the more essential the questioning. If members of the military truly value freedom and want to defend it, then they must understand that civilians’ rational, conscience-based questioning of, support for, _and_ opposition to military action is as vital to the establishment and maintenance of freedom and liberty as the making of war sometimes is.
i don’t know i really don’t mean to disrespect any soldiers or sailors. but Iraq did not represent a threat to us and I think it is the duty of every soldier to question orders that seem at odds with their oath.
These wars seem like crusades to me. I mean i don’t think that the US has been in a justified war since WWII. I think that there are murky reasons for going into war in the middle east. It’s just not black and white any more there are lots of shades of grey going on here.
But if only one soldier dies for unjustified causes it’s too much……I mean it’s your duty to follow orders but it is also your duty to question these orders.
I mean for me your country has to be under direct threat or attack to go to war……not on some half assed intelligence about WMDs and scare tactics…..I’m not saying that Saddam was not a tyrant but I don’t think it was up to us to overthrow him either.
You know America is just behaving like an empire at the moment taming savages and bringing them democracy……Which is a whole other thing than protecting it’s interests
Stormy, find me a point in human history where there wasn’t an empire on Earth. It’s a rare empire that isn’t driven by some religion or other. There will always be a conqueror, an empire, a dictator that the rest of the world disagrees with, that the rest of the world looks to for rescue, that the rest of the world reviles as the source of all evil on the planet. Currently the US is that empire, and yes it’s the biggest, strongest empire in history. That doesn’t mean it stops here, that we will always be the top dog. The torch will be passed. It always is, that’s just the natural cycle of things. All empires rise and fall. Then the world will turn their ire towards the next guy.
If I’m talking out of my ass, please someone correct me, but it seems to me that humanity has always had empires for as long as there have been organized societies. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but to point at the US and say we’re The Empire and we have nothing but evil in mind for the rest of the world (who run to us every time the planet moves…) is to ignore the entire span of human history and every empire that ever was.
You’re so hell-bent on pointing out the evils of the American Empire… have you ever recognized the good we’ve done all over the planet? When anyone calls, we’re there. We ignore our own infrastructure and the health of our own citizens to rescue others. Do you think the money we poured into Haiti was EXTRA? What about all of the damage we still have in New Orleans? What about our economy? Our sick and homeless? Our crumbling school system? What would happen if we pulled all of our assistance from everyone else, closed our borders and concentrated on healing our own country? Would you consider that a blessing?
@Stormy Yes Iraq was a huge threat to us as well as our friends in the region. Kuwait, Israel, Saudi Arabia Jeman and a few others. Saddam was sending checks of $25,000 to the famalies of terrorists that kill jews. Live and let live?
What about the ships that were intercepted going to Egypt and Lebenon carring weapons, explosives and ammo to kill more Jews originiting from Iraq?
then we have the attempts from Saddam to open up to terrorists for training camps. He was offeing money and shelter to wanted terrorists.
As far as the WMD’s well guy guess what I get a check every month from VA for my fucked liver and kidneys thanks to the VX gas that Saddam “never had” and fired at us with rockets that he also never had. The whole invasion of Kuwait was a mistake or what? His open threats to Saudi and Iran never really happened?
I was up on the boarder with Iraq and Kuwait in 1992. Was always funny watching the Iriqi solders and commandoes try to cross the boarder. Naturally I had them dead to rights armed and illegally crossing. They got a singlewarning and a single warning shit. Some turned back. Some recieved a 7.62mm hole in the chest.
OH also in Aug 2005 over 500 WMD’s in the form of mustard gas shells and VX gas shells were found. According to the UN these are WMD’s.
As far as an illegal war? Under Clinton there were 13 approved US resolutions allowing for military action against Iraq. Bush never had to go to the UN. But he tried to do the right thing. Sadly the press never reported on that little item did they.
As I have stated in the past take the entire MSM put them on an island then we can deposit our nuclear waste there.
good thing you don’t control it uh? I don’t understand why anyone would want to keep this pos alive. if it had been you, or say your daughter, you’d probably feel way differently. What do you think it an acceptable sentence? Life in prison, no parole? So we can pump him full of tranquilizers (that we will all have to pay for) for his “depression” or whatever else he comes up with. I’d rather save my money to pay for someone like Brandon Hughes. I am glad this dead guy is no longer wasting my precious air.
When you get to Hell, say hi to Jim Jones for me and tell him how much of a scumbag he is.
Jim Jones is a man of the cloth he’ll be in heaven
rotflmao! Oh yes – I hear he’s up for sainthood too.
sarcasm noted. :)
He would be a saint. St. James.
Ah, good riddance. He spent the last decade taunting people. Regardless of where he is now, he is dead and can no longer torment the family of the girl he raped and tried to murder and the girl he tried to rape and murdered. He can never hurt, harass, or terrorize anyone ever again, and that’s what matters the most.
they said that about Freddy Kruger ;)
Wonder where his grave is? I’d kind of like to spit on it.
One down, ? to go.
In reference mainly to the Strings composed of multiple threads containing the multiple posts by Stormy, vcbecky, NavyCop and now Dave.
1. The call of the death penalty, as executed by the government is not an assumption to a more moral power. It is a surrender of rights in a social contract in order to allow a party interested in public safety the right to condemn, punish and exonerate men and women accused of crimes. It is a single step removed from mob justice in as much as it gives duties to the mob members, assigns penalties to participants who abuse or fail to do their duty and then conducts justice in a timely manner that attempts to give every reasonable opportunity for the accused to escape justice they’d be afforded by a reasonable consideration of doubt. It was deemed better than trial by lord, better than trial by superstition, trial by fire, trial by mob and summary justice. It is not perfect, merely an evolution of one step above the currently discarded methods.
2. I hold the soldiers in uniform blameless for Iraq and Afghanistan. I hold that Afghanistan was and is a just conflict and war, not because of its conduct, but because it was a reasonable response to an actual act of war by a recognized service of their government of which the government of Afghanistan was a willing participant and supporter. I do not, however, condone a war on terror, in as much as I think wars on poverty, drugs, crime and in or through the name of religion–all of these are stupid and those who create and support them are made more ignorant and stupid by their existence. A reasonable case for war in Iraq could have been made without the words Weapons of Mass Destruction. A wide eyed and understanding of actual boots on the ground responses could have been made to the reconstruction and development of a stable government could have been ready before the troops hit the ground. We did it in Holland and France before D Day, constituting governments in the UK BEFORE we invaded. We should have done the same for Iraq and Afghanistan. Pick an allied country of the US to host a constitutional convention and setup a government that begins planning reconstruction, has cash in hand when the time starts and has a vested interest in fair and open governance. My choice for a reasonable place to hold such a government council? Turkey.
All that said, as a liberal, we had more reason to invade Iran than we did moving into Iraq the day we invaded. Iran held American territory, had never answered for abuses of American prisoners, had not returned dead Americans, was in defiance of International treaties on the development of WMD’s, Actively mined international and disputed waters, had fired on an American war ship in international waters (with an Exocet missile no less), and harbored international terrorists and gave them comfort. Iraq was a dog and pony show, Iran was the threat to destabilizing the region. Even still, invading Iran at that time would have been as stupid as invading Iraq. We had a war to win permanently in Afghanistan. Opening another front so quickly was moronic. If we’d fought only in Afghanistan and invested the monies we spent fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan would still require our aid, but they’d be much further along.
3. The death penalty is an extension of justice that is the will of the people. When we have a solution that is acceptable to the mob, reasonably better than death and that under our circumstances performs a similar or better role, we can replace it. Until then, like Abortion, it is a brutal thing we need to deal with very bad decisions.
Ha Ha. You dumb fuck. Got what you deserved. Only humanely. Not like you did to those girls. Fucking asshole. Go to hell bitch. This makes my week right here. Whose the bitch ass now? Ha ha. LOL.
Mr. Powell –
Tell the 9/11 terrorists that flew the planes into the World Trade Center that the true and living God is not pleased with their actions…. Although YOU, Mr. Powell, may be one of their 72 promised virgins! Damn hell really sucks for them and for you!
At least Paul Powell will be along side with the 9/11 Terrorists. Let’s not forget Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris/Dylan Kkebold, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Gertrude Baniszewski too. Worthless scumbags deserve each other.
na-na na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey GOODBYE!
One less dreg on this earth…
I’M NOT SORRY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ;)
RIDE THE LIGHTNING!! GOOF-ASS PIECE OF SHIT!!!!
Wait! Where are you going? I was gonna make espresso! ;-D
Since the days of Socrates, people have been trying to rehabilitate psychopaths to no avail. IMO, there is no point keeping a convicted sadistic psychopath alive. They have no remorse for what they did, because they truly do not feel empathy. It is all about themselves and the pleasure and control they can take from someone else. Why spend tax payer dollars to keep someone like this alive for the next 40-50+ years? In these cases, the death penalty is a win/win for society.
Wow….I just found it, what he said to the prosecutor. It’s on a site called Imsurroundedbyidiots.com
What a total POS.
Google Paul Warner Powell and you’ll find the site Imsurroundedbyidiots.
You all have got to read what he said in his letter to the prosecutor. OMG…. It makes me sick and filled with rage.
Since the piece of shit chose to get the chair it would be the shit if the executioner “accidently” forgot to moisten his head sponge so his head caught on fire, kinda like what happened with Ted Bundy.
You’re all stupid American fools! The death penalty is never necessary; the civilised world has abolished it. This man acted distastefully, but being cruel isn’t an acceptable response.
I personally find it necessary. Are you going to pay to keep these monsters alive in prison for 50 years? Give me a break. If you don’t agree with the DP then maybe you should write to your congressman, oh wait you’re not an American, so your opinion on our death penalty doesn’t matter :D
You must be some form of UK idiot, you still have a Queen after the end of feudalism, and think beans are good on toast and more horribly for breakfast. Now that we’ve identified your ethnocentrisms and mine, let’s boil this down.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
The US has the 24th highest murder rate. The UK has the 48th, but let’s look at a few nations with higher murder rates but who also don’t have the death penalty!
Russia abolished their death penalty with an explicit and implicit moratorium. They can still do it for very rare circumstances, but their murder rate is higher than the US per capita. Why is that? Could it be because they have a higher incidence of crime? Could there be factors you and your civilized brethren refuse to consider because you’re too stupid to read and/or think for yourself? Could it be that you doubt a nation that managed to govern themselves without the UK’s influence for 200+ years, helped to invent just about half of all modern conveniences and continues to provide insightful additions to nearly every field of human endeavor, has to use methods that differ from your own?
There are not perfect countries, people or causes. There are only shades of gray you infantile bastard. Take forty minutes of your time to consider what the death penalty really does in the United States, and if you still can’t figure it out, ask someone here to explain it to you. After you’re better informed, as sign of gratitude, you should start spelling color without the damn u.
That’s the third computer monitor you’ve ruined by forcing me to hose it down with coffee. You bastard. ;)
what colour was it?
Distastefully? No, you see, your post is distasteful. What Paul Warner Powell did was the act of an rabid animal, and he was put down like a rabid animal. What would have been distasteful to me would have been to allow this piece of feces to live and continue to harass his surviving victim and her family.
I really hope some day you or someone you love is the victim of violent crime. Maybe then you’ll understand that it’s more than vengeance that motivates the desire for capital punishment.
Eh, go eat a spotted dick.
Bwahahahahahaha! Spotted dick! You finally got me back Becky – there’s ginger ale all over my monitor and keyboard.
That brought Owen Wilson’s reaction to Spotted Dick to mind (from Shanghai Knights) hahahaha!!! Who named that shite!?
OK the rest of the world has done away with it and funny how in those same countries crime is still running rampant. I live here in ye ol Germany where the death penalty has been long dead. And crime is on the rise. Funny dat eh?
funny those facts huh?
also on the rise violent crime. then there is the pedo’s comming out of everywhere now that they don’t get punished. They get a free trip tot he looney bin for a few months of good drugs and soft music. AND they are “healed” YAH FOR CIVILIZED CHILDREN EVERYWHERE!
Johno? Have you sucked that spotted dick yet? You need to atleast then you’ll be too busy to think up incredibly bullshit like that anymore.
I am glad your dead. Rot in hell fucknut. It’s is sad to me that it takes something this tragic to get people to realize that the death penalty is a proper form of punishment for people like this. She was against the death penalty now she is all for it because it happend to her. At least her eyes have been opened.
I have to stop you right there stormy. I’ve got no problem with your opinion, or the guy who has the opposite one too, but this isn’t a political blog. There are plenty of other places where they will be happy to debate you on this subject. I’m not scolding you here, just trying to keep the thread on-topic.
I’m going to ask people to leave this comment alone and stick to the topics that relate to the story.
Ai ai captain…….Shit i don’t even remember how we got on to the subject :)
*kicks the ground in shame* Yes Max, I’m sorry :(
Whew…thanks Max. My head was starting to spin.
On topic….I’d love to know what that tool wrote in his boasting letter to the prosecutor. What a dumbass.
So many times justice is poorly served. Here, it finally was. Especially considering the monster himself cinched the case.