Railroad Killer to die tomorrow

[Soxy]

I will take a stab at it. There is also a commandment that says Eye for an Eye which I take to mean that if you kill an knowingly innocent person then your life has to forfeited.

It's not one of the Big Ten, but yes, it is a command inasmuch as the other commandments (like killing unwed non-virgins, only having slaves from adjacent countries, etc). It's merely a list in one of the books of the Law (Exodus) for a code of behavior. You'll see that not far from that exact phrase (which, yes, does include a life for a life) will be how to repay a slave should you knock a tooth out. Essentially, this is merely one in a long list of provisions about how a good Jew should live his/her life. Biblically, one could look at these laws as part of the Abrahamic Covenant (it's been about 6 years since I took Old Testment stuff, so bear with me). Basically, the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, stuff was one of 500 plus (not sure how many) provisions in the Abrahamic covanent. So, if a Jew would like to claim that the law of "retributive justice" (which is heavily advocated in the pentateuch) then, fine I'll buy it because to Jews, those first five books are the "bread" (or manna) of the Jewish faith.

 

Christians, however, do not hold these laws sacred. Jesus is considered, by Christians, to be the theological fulfillment of the initial covenant God made with the Jews. In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus replaces the Jewish Law with himself as the central tenent (manna, bread) of faith. He is, accordign to Christians, the Bread of Life, not the law.

 

Other instances of Jesus being against this concept of retributive Justice can be seen even in the most central parts of Christian faith, namely the Lord's prayer (which makes forgiveness of a sinner conditional upon the sinner forgiving those who sinned him/her). Jesus also goes so far as to say that if you have a grudge against your brother, you must first settle that grievance before even being allowed at the alter. Essentially, what I'm arguing here, is that the Old Testament adage of "eye for an eye" is, at least according to the Christian faith, no longer a rationale for behavior. Instead, christians must love the Lord God and their neighbors as themselves. Essentially, if you do not forgive those who have sinned against you, you aren't just forfeiting your life, but your relationship with the Creator.

 

Also, if you can, I'd like you to list three mainline churches that support the death penalty.

 

Like LCR pointed out, you are talking out of your ass. "Eye for an eye" is Biblically from Exodus (also Leviticus), and non-Biblically reflected in the code of Hammurabi.

 

You are apparently also unaware of what the Nazz had to say about Old Testament retributive justice, according to the Gospel of Matthew:

 

You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also . . .

 

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

 

Ah, well, I understand that the soft and fuzzy lovey-dovey Jesus is hard for the Kill 'em All Cult to abide sometimes.

Dammit, you beat me to it.

 

However, I would like to just add that the whole Turn the Other Cheek stuff, isn't about pacifism and nonviolence only, one theologian (my bff, Walter Wink) suggests that it was Jesus being all, subversive and trying to upend the classist system he lived in. And I object to teh soft and fuzzy lovey-dovey Jesus. His rules are freaking hard.

[FlaSoxxJim]

However, I would like to just add that the whole Turn the Other Cheek stuff, isn't about pacifism and nonviolence only, one theologian (my bff, Walter Wink) suggests that it was Jesus being all, subversive and trying to upend the classist system he lived in. And I object to teh soft and fuzzy lovey-dovey Jesus. His rules are freaking hard.

 

Point taken, but the subsequent verses in Matthew about loving your enemy certainly are about pacifism and nonviolence, and they flow out of JC's trashing the eye4eye concept.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

This guy caused terror and panic all around the country. Now it is his time to die and meet Tookie and the rest of the murdering thugs.

Railroad killer set to die

 

 

FINISH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'll bite on the death penalty stuff.

 

I know I'm likely to be flamed and the difference is in philosophy.

 

For all the people proclaiming that religion is being taken out of schools and the public arena, it is amazing how so many of the so-called "conservatives" (I don't even want to slander actual conservatives by putting them in with the cult of Bush personality since his ilk is anything but conservative) fail to mention capital punishment in their case.

 

Its "Thou shalt not kill" It isn't "Thou shalt not kill, except when..." or "Amend Section A".

 

If you're going to say that life is sacred and it is wrong for an individual to kill -- then how can it be right for the state?

 

And these stats are not specific to the case, but I figured they'd work in a better over-arching discussion of capital punishment (remembering that the US is the one Western industrialized nation to still continue the practice) Over 80% of people executed since 1976 were convicted of killing white victims, although people of color make up more than half of all homicide victims in the US. A defendant who can afford his or her own attorney is much less likely to be sentenced to die. 95% of all people sentenced to death in the US could not afford their own attorney.

 

Thats because leftists like you keep throwing up court challenges to any expansion of the death penalty to make it imposed in a uniform manner for certain crimes. "THATS RACIST" Whaa whaa whaa.......thats all we ever hear from you regards to the death penalty, yet its opposition from your side that keeps conditions the way they are.

 

When you add in that there is no deterrance effect from capital punishment, that the trials cost so much more than life without parole, the numerous times that prosecutors have been "thrown under the bus" and caught for hiding exculpatory evidence and that there have been innocent people both executed and released from death row -- it adds a few bumps to believing that the social and economic costs of the death penalty are worth paying for.

 

 

Once again, you are the reason for all of this. It is YOU that throw up all these legal challenges. It is YOU that fight every case tooth and nail no matter how damning the evidence and thats what drives up the cost. It is YOU that file one bulls*** appeal after another to drag a case out in the courts even if the condemned wants to drop his appeals and die.

 

You f***ing hypocritical leftists have some nerve. You deliberately create the conditions for the death sentence to fail with prepostorus court challenges and then you have the nerve to point to the trouble you caused and say thats why the death penalty does not work.

[Rex Kickass]

Nuke, last time I checked LCR wasn't a lawyer. So cool it already.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Thats because leftists like you keep throwing up court challenges to any expansion of the death penalty to make it imposed in a uniform manner for certain crimes. "THATS RACIST" Whaa whaa whaa.......thats all we ever hear from you regards to the death penalty, yet its opposition from your side that keeps conditions the way they are.

 

Yeah who needs pesky little things like facts when discussing the distribution of capital punishment in America!

 

Once again, you are the reason for all of this. It is YOU that throw up all these legal challenges. It is YOU that fight every case tooth and nail no matter how damning the evidence and thats what drives up the cost. It is YOU that file one bulls*** appeal after another to drag a case out in the courts even if the condemned wants to drop his appeals and die.

 

Yes, Nuke. I am responsible. It's all me. I don't go to sleep but rather file appeals for death row inmates, give Al Qaeda terrorists intelligence and weaponry and in my spare time take dumps on American flags, drown puppies and throw the carcasses/fecal matter at soldiers. You really got me pinned down.

 

Nuke, what drives up the cost is that the law demands MANDATORY APPEALS for capital cases. Add in the costs of experts for both sides, DNA analysis, forensics etc. and the cost skyrockets comparatively to a regular case. It isn't a choice to fight for appeals -- appeals are mandatory via the law. The law attempts to have a safeguard in place because a person's life is at stake if they f*** up. It's been proven that life without parole costs much less of the precious tax dollars to be spent.

 

You f***ing hypocritical leftists have some nerve. You deliberately create the conditions for the death sentence to fail with prepostorus court challenges and then you have the nerve to point to the trouble you caused and say thats why the death penalty does not work.

 

Yeah, because the idea that people are innocent on death row completely escapes you. But then I guess nobody has been exonerated, have they? Nuke, a system where 95% of the people receiving the death penalty have no money for lawyers that aren't court appointed (a.k.a. likely have multiple cases at the same time and odds are have not tried a capital case before, let alone have the time to prepare an adequate defense), a system where prosecutors have been nailed for hiding exculpatory evidence, a system where black people accused of killing white victims are more likely to get the death penalty (despite blacks making up more of the murder victims nationwide) and a system where we're the last Western industrial nation performing the procedure is why it is failing (not to mention the moral rights of sanctity of life, etc.) But really -- a fabulous projection on your part.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Nuke, last time I checked LCR wasn't a lawyer. So cool it already.

 

 

I didn't mean him personally but those who think like him and who are, in fact, responsible for the conduct I talked about.

 

 

Just to clarify.

[minors]

Here is the complete story on this thug hope that something happens to the injection so that he has to face some ultimate pain I would like to be there when the needle is administered and wish this was a public execution so that he could feel the embarrassment of seeing all the people waiting for him to die.

 

 

 

Serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, also called the Railway Killer, was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who wandered the country on trains to commit his crimes and facilitate his getaways. He evaded capture for a considerable time, having no fixed addresses, and making undocumented international transit between Mexico, the United States, and Canada until he was captured. On March 23, 1997 in Ocala, Florida, Jesse Howell, 19, was bludgeoned to death with an air hose coupling and left beside some railroad tracks. His fiance,16-year-old Wendy VonHuben was raped, strangled, suffocated and buried in a shallow grave approximately 30 miles away in We Hope, Florida. Christopher Maier of Lexington, Kentucky was bludgeoned to death on August 29, 1997 by Resendiz. Resendiz also raped and severely beat Christopher's girlfriend, who nearly died as a result. Christopher was 21 years old. He was a University of Kentucky student who was walking along nearby railroad tracks with his girlfriend when the two were attacked by Resendiz. On October 4, 1998, in Hughes Spring, Texas, Leafie Mason, 81, was hammered to death with a fire iron by Resendiz, who entered her home through a window. Her house was right in front of the railroad tracks. Claudia Benton, 39 was a doctor in Houston who worked with children. On December 17, 1998, Claudia was raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned repeatedly after she entered her home, which was near the train tracks. Police found her Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio and found Resendiz's fingerprints on the steering column. Norman J. Sirnic, 46, and Karen Sirnic, 47, were bludgeoned to death on May 2, 1999, by a sledgehammer. The murders occurred in a parsonage of the United Church of Christ in Weimar, Texas where Norman was the pastor. The building was located adjacent to a railroad. The Sirnics' red Mazda was also found in San Antonio three weeks later, and fingerprints linked their case with the Claudia Benton case. Noemi Dominguez, a 26-year-old schoolteacher in Houston, was bludgeoned to death in her apartment near some railroad tracks on June 4, 1999. Seven days later, her white Honda Civic was discovered by state troopers on the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. Resendiz's next known victim was Josephine Konvicka, 73 years old. On June 4, 1999, Josephine was killed by the blow of a pointed garden tool on the head while she lay sleeping in her home. Her farmhouse was not far from Weimar. Resendiz attempted to steal her car but was unable to take it since he could not find the car keys. On June 15, 1999, Resendiz showed up far from Texas, in Gorham, Illinois. Resendiz shot George Morber, Sr., 80, in the head with a shotgun and then clubbed Carolyn Frederick, 52, to death. Their house was located only 100 yards away from a railroad line. Later, a witness saw a man matching Resendiz's description driving Carolyn Frederick's red pickup truck 60 miles south of the murder scene, in Cairo, Illinois. In an effort to find the killer, police tracked down Resendiz's sister, Manuela. Manuela feared that her brother might kill someone else or be killed by the FBI, so she agreed to help. A Texas Ranger named Drew Carter, accompanied by Manuela and a spiritual advisor met with Resendiz on a bridge connecting El Paso, Texas, with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Resendiz surrendered to him. The state of Texas tried Resendiz for the murder of Dr. Claudia Benton. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. There could be many additional murders that Resendiz committed that were never tied to him.

 

 

Just a few more hours remaining until your trip to meet Tookie

[Steff]

However there are tons of people getting on planes to fly to remote destinations all over the world who cannot have children that would love to adopt a child.

 

 

There are PLENTY of children in the US to adopt.. if the laws weren't so effed up, it would be easier for them. Flying all over the world is a last effort for many as the US has screwed them. It really is a very sad situation.

[santo=dorf]

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 04:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If the child has medical issues, or in the cases of rape/incest, or in the cases of the mothers health. Sure, I am not as closed minded on the subject as a lot of people are.

 

However there are tons of people getting on planes to fly to remote destinations all over the world who cannot have children that would love to adopt a child.

Are we running short on bastard children?

 

Who wants a kid born as a crack baby? As Steff mentioned before, adoption is a long process. It's not like one of those people giving away free puppies out of a cardboard box.

 

 

As for this killer, good for the justic system. He is a waste of space and tax dollars in the long run. Is there anyone here that thinks the justice system may have screwed up and this guy wasn't responsible?

 

You can't bring back a life, therefore get rid of the death penalty entirely.

Edited June 27, 2006 by santo=dorf

[BigSqwert]

You can't bring back a life, therefore get rid of the death penalty entirely.

I have no problem with that.

[minors]

Under 7 hours until you are dead!!! Enjoy what little time you have left and think about how you destroyed all of the families.

 

 

Rot in Hell

[Gregory Pratt]

Under 7 hours until you are dead!!! Enjoy what little time you have left and think about how you destroyed all of the families.

Rot in Hell

 

Am I the only one who thinks it's creepy to gloat over a serial killer's pending death on a message board?

[Rex Kickass]

We don't allow countdown to death threads here. Closed.