A judge sentenced 17 year old Rod Ferrell to death on the electric chair.
"I think, you are a disturbed young man"
With this comment, the judge admitted the claim of the defence about
the mental illness of Rod Farrell. The juvenile, 16 years old at the date
of crime, admitted he killed two adults in a rite of vampires. The members
of his vampire group are accused to be principals of the murders. Regardless
of age, mental illness or personal involvment, the prosecution seeks only
the death for the other male member (this boy surrendered his right to
a trial and now face live in prison_ .
BTW: The aquitted girl (the only one with something like a senseful
motive for the crime) sold her story to a true crime writer. I hope you
enjoy the movie...
Unlike other civilized countries, almost all states in the USA don't have a juvenile justice system, that deserves this name. Juveniles accused of serious crimes are sentenced like adults. The youngest "adult" accused of murder, I know about, was a 14 year old girl in Texas (thanks god, no death sentence).
25 years ago, America had normal laws to deal with mental illness of criminals. But as a mental ill man tried to kill a american president, things changed (btw: this president is also mental ill now).
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Despite this, it is still possible to be aquitted for mental illness
in some states, like this young woman, Jillian Robbins, a sniper who shot
a other woman, randomly walking on a university campus. She can be aquitted,
if her mental illness is prooved.
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Amy Grossberg was accused of murdering her newborn child together with
her lover Brian Peterson. Most of the sentences in comparable cases are
5 to 10 years in prison, but both are facing the death penalty. Unlike
almost all other death penalty cases, both are freed on 300000 dollar bail
to electronical monitored house arrest.
The prosecution claimed, the child died from injuries and a broken
skull before it was dumped into trash. Brian Petersen pleaded guilty to
involuntary manslaugther and face now a sentence between 3.5 and 10 years
in prison. Amy Grossberg is still facing the death penalty, despite the
fact she can proove, she was not capable to harm the newborn, due to medical
problems after the birth.
Informations
about the Amy Grossberg case
Informations
about the Amy Grossberg case
Informations
about the Amy Grossberg case
The states of the USA begin now to destroy their system of appeals,
that should prevent the killings of innocent people.
The number of appeals and the money to pay legal proceedings are reduced.
The quality of appointed lawyer is decreasing. It's not uncommon, to appoint
a freshman in criminal trials to a death row inmate, but this is of course
only a problem for poor murders.
A increasing number of death row inmates are confronted with the fact
they could not expect justice or clemency anymore. Some people give up
hope and stop their appeals. They commit suicide by allowing the state
to kill them without further juristic inspection of their case.
There is only one case, you can understand, why this peoples want to
die.
Erica Sheppard stopped her appeals before her three children are old
enough to understand, what's going on.
But in most cases, the wish to die is simply a question of depression
and mental illness. A famous case in Ohio (a state, where opposion against
the death penalty is relative strong and didn't kill someone in the last
25 years) is about a supposed mental ill death row inmate, who want's to
be killed only by the state (and not by the other death row cell inmates,
who tried to murder him).