Q. 1: When you think about the healthcare reform in the United States, What is the best solution in regards of Health Insurance and the Government?
A: I truly believe that the government should have a major role in providing healthcare insurance.

Q. 2: What would be the best solution when it comes to America’s energy needs?
A: Strong investments in renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

Q. 3: What do you think about illegal immigration?
A: Most illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the US, with some exceptions.

Q. 4: What do you think about the US pursuing its interests abroad?
A: Quick tip current leaders… The US should listen to other countries more often than not!

Q. 5: Should School Curriculums and education in the US be set at National levels?
A: I believe so… I think school curriculums should be set more by national standards than at a local level.

Q. 6: Same sex marriage, do you Support?
A: Boy… That’s a tough one… but in my opinion, I think that same sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not to marry in a traditional sense.

Q. 7: Abortion? Do you support?
A: I do not support abortion and neither should those in my party. I strongly believe that a pregnant woman is caring another life. Rather than killing the unborn life, we should all give this unborn life a chance to live its life just as me and everyone else had a chance to. Another wards, I strongly believe that abortion should be illegal in most cases.

Q. 8: In your opinion, is the country’s economy something a president can do a lot about, or is that beyond any one President’s control?
A: Beyond any one President’s control in my opinion.

Q. 9: The death penalty, many say that it should be abolished, what’s your take on this sensitive issue?
A: I hear a lot of people say it’s a necessity and while I commend them for their sentiments and reasoning, I just can’t seem to bring myself to support the continued existence of the death penalty. I’m completely against the death penalty. Murder or not, A human life is precious and taking the condemned individuals life would be basically stooping to their lows. We would be basically murdering that individual… something that I can’t see myself doing. In the most extreme natures of murders, a life Sentence would be enough justice for everyone around… rather than killing another individual in what most would call “Victor’s Justice”.

-Author: Oscar Trejo Jr
-Speaker of the House

Oscar Trejo Jr is a Published Author whose most notible for his latest release titled “The Spellbound Heart: A Collection of Enchanted Poetry”. He is currently the Speaker of the House of Vanity Shades and a political Activist!

“The Spellbound Heart” can be purchased through:

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Websites:
http://vanityshades.yolasite.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Mysterious.Enigma24
http://twitter.com/OTrejoJr

^^^^Author: Oscar Trejo Jr at a Meet and Greet in Raymond, TX.

^^^^Promotional Poster featuring “Vanity Shades”  and the Author’s 3 books.

 
^^Author’s Personal Logo featuring the VNP Snake in a black BG!

BAGHDAD — Iraq executed 17 convicted criminals in one day this week, the justice ministry said on Wednesday, bringing to at least 51 the number so far this year.

“The justice ministry carried out (death) sentences against 17 people condemned for terrorist and criminal crimes … on Tuesday,” a statement said.

“The ministry is continuing to carry out punishments against criminals according to the law and the constitution,” Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari was quoted as saying.

Last month, ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi said Iraq had so far executed 34 people this year, including two women and a Syrian. That is half the entire figure of 68 for all of 2011, including three foreigners and three Iraqi women.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock last week at the number of executions, criticising the lack of transparency in court proceedings and calling for an immediate suspension of the death penalty.

“I call on the government of Iraq to implement an immediate moratorium on the institution of the death penalty,” she said.

“Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day,” said Pillay, a South African high court judge.

“Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure,” she said.

The United Nations estimates that more than 1,200 people have been sentenced to death in Iraq since 2004, but it does not have comprehensive statistics on executions.

Death sentences in Iraq must be signed by the country’s president, currently Jalal Talabani, but the chief executive may delegate that authority to either of the two vice presidents. As Talabani is an ardent opponent of the death penalty, that is what he does.

He sent a letter to THe Gaston Gazette from death row in Central Prison in Raleigh North Carolina. “Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure , watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced meals a day. I’m housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with round the clock medical care 24/7.”

It is said he killed two other women, Randi Dean Saldana who was 30 years old when she was killed in 2009 and another 30 year old Deborah Ratchford, in 1992, in this coming March (2012) he is scheduled for a trial for Saldana’s murder.

Hembree said, “I laugh at you self-righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so called justice system. The state of North Carolina has sentenced me to death, but it is not real.

State Rep of North Carolina Paul Stam told WDTV an ABC affliate in Raleigh/Durham that he will probably die of old age rather than being put to death.

I find this man detestable. Can you imagine being the mother or father of this dear girl they’ll never see again and he brags about his  life. I say make a special declaration and put him to death tonight. He doesn’t deserve to breathe the air we all breathe.

The US remains one of the few countries in the world that still engages in capital punishment.  Historically, however, it was widely used in a wide variety of ways that are sure to make you uncomfortable if you pause to think about it too long.

Mubarak and his seven co-defendants are facing charges of complicity in the killings and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Wednesday’s hearing coincided with the second day of voting in the third and final round of parliamentary elections that began on Nov. 28. Even before the final round, Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest political group, were assured of a majority in the new legislature. They are likely to bolster their gains in the final round, since many of the nine provinces voting have been traditional Islamist strongholds. 

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Why Not to Support the Death Penalty

     For decades the death penalty has been used as a last resort for violent criminals who have committed crimes such as murderer and treason. The death penalty might be an acceptable punishment for these types of crimes, but did you know, that sentencing someone to death by lethal injection costs about three times more than putting that same person in prison for life.

     Depending on the state, a trial and execution can cost anywhere between one to three million dollars. This is due to the endless appeals and all of the additional required procedures to sentence a person to death. On the other hand, a regular trial and a life sentence with no parole costs around one million dollars. To keep someone in prison is about $22,000 a year per person depending on the prison. Two thirds of the states favor the death penalty, Texas being one of those state with over 477 people executed. In the past six years, the state of Texas has spent over $183 million dollars on the death penalty. That is a substantial amount of taxpayer dollars that could have benefited other causes such as education or could have been used to build public buildings.

     Not only is the cost of death penalty cases outrageous, but the execution of a human being is interpreted by some as a cruel and unusual punishment. It is also seen as a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states “No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” This is also stated in the U.S. Constitution under the Eighth and the Fourteenth Amendment.

     Others believe that keeping the death penalty would defer people from committing serious offences such as murder. However, there is no credible evidence suggesting that this is true. In fact, it has been proven that the states that are not in favor of the death penalty seem to have a much lower murder rate than those that do. So the death penalty clearly has no effect on an individual who intends to commit a murder or another federal crime that would result in the death penalty.

     Another reason that the death penalty should be removed is because of racial discrimination. Studies have shown that when a black defendant and a white defendant are convicted of a similar crime, the black defendant is 38 percent or 3.9 times more likely to be sentenced to receive the death penalty. Other studies conducted also show that if a black defendant killed a white victim, the punishment would be much more severe than if the victim was black. This shows that race significantly affects the outcome of whether a person lives or dies.

     The ultimate reason why the death penalty should not exist is because on rare occasions, a person might get convicted wrongfully and be put on death row awaiting execution for a crime they did not commit. This has happened to over 100 people since 1973, each person had served an average of 9 years on death row, later being exonerated and released. There have also been 8 people who were executed and later found not guilty. That is one of the main reasons the death penalty should be banned and replaced with life in prison without parole. 

The death penalty is good for two things, in my opinion.  The first is that the offender is literally incapable of killing anyone else, because they are no longer with us.  The second is that the State does not have to burden the taxpayers with the costs of incarceration.  Getting some of the killers off of the streets, and out of life in general, is a good thing.  Then again, if two or more killers pop up in place of the offender that has been put to death, you have a problem on your hands.

The bottom line is that society does not want to take that chance that someone who killed once, will kill again.  So we kill off the perpetrator of the crime, in that we do not have to deal with the same individual killing someone 25 years from now.  How do we go about addressing crime in the United States?  We put more cops on the streets, we keep more people in jail, for longer periods of time, we make it easier to get incarcerated, we build more prisons.

Now there is some bleeding heart somewhere that is going to suggest that rehabilitation will address crime.  Well that may or may not help those that have already committed a crime in the first place.  We have a prison-industrial complex in this country, which means that our economy is dependent, upon prisons being built, people going to jail, lawyers, judges, cops, and everyone else whose fate this perpetrator is in the hands of. 

We are not getting tough on crime.  What we are doing, is making a business off of crime, at the other end, which means that while perpetrators of crime are doing their best to hold onto whatever profits they gain from illegal activities, we are doing our best, to take them down once they reach the pinnacle of their success, so we can make that money off of them through the penal system, at the hands of the taxpayer.  If we really wanted to, we could arrest that drug dealer when they make that first sale, we could arrest that prostitute when she turns that first trick, we could arrest that White collar criminal when evidence of the con that they are running surfaces for the first time.  But we do not do that in America, we let people get big, and score big as they take that long fall back to reality. 

I would be in favor of the death penalty if men were actually being killed for the crimes that they committed.  However, too many innocent men are being killed.  On top of this, is the fact that those who are killed, are not really suffering at the hands of a true sentence; death is certain, dealing with a prison sentence is not.  Someone that does not care about their life, that does not have respect for human life, could care less if you put them to sleep. 

Support for the death penalty is a contentious issue in the U.S., with varying levels of support depending upon where people live, their economic status, religion, race, and a host of other factors.  Surveys regularly show that 65% to 80% of adults are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murders.  As of April 1, 2008, the death penalty was authorized by 37 states, the Federal Government, and the U.S. Military.  One of the principal arguments of those in favor of this form of punishment is that it acts as a deterrent to violent crime.

There are, however, compelling arguments against imposition of the death penalty.  Despite the fact that a majority of adults are in favor of the death penalty, an ABC News/Washington Post poll in 2001 determined that most American adults believe that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent, it is applied unfairly across jurisdictions, and innocent people are sometimes executed. 

While there is no definitive answer to how many innocent people have been executed, according to Amnesty International, USA, since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death row due to their wrongful conviction.  In 2001, 10 people were released from death row after it was found that they had been wrongfully convicted.  Studies have also shown that the death penalty is more often applied to defendants who are minorities or indigent than to those who are wealthy or white.

The question of deterrence, though hotly debated, is clearer.  With the exception of professional hit men, few people are in a rational frame of mind when they kill others, making it almost hopeless to expect any form of punishment to deter their actions.  U.S. police chiefs rank the death penalty as least effective among 7 methods of reducing the rate of homicides, with a substantial number viewing reducing drug use, improving availability of jobs, simplifying court procedures, and longer sentences as more effective.  In 1995, a study showed that the annual percentage increase in homicides in California increased 10% per year from 1952 to 1967 when the state was applying the death penalty, but from 1968 to 1991, when the state stopped executions the rate of increase in homicides was only 4.8%.  A state-by-state comparison also shows that the states that execute people, for the most part, also have higher rates of homicides than the states that do not, sometimes by a significant margin.  In 1996, the states with the death penalty had an average murder rate of 7.1 per 100,000 population compared to a rate of 3.6 per 100,000 population in those states which did not execute people.

Considering this information, why do a majority of Americans seem to still favor imposition of the death penalty?  Part of the problem lies in how polls are conducted.  People are often asked simply if they favor the death penalty for convicted murders.  When asked if they favor execution or life sentences without parole, the percentage supporting the death penalty drops.  Pro-death penalty people often argue that the cost of maintenance of a convicted killer for life is too high.  But, considering the length of time between conviction and execution; often many years; this is a weak argument.  In addition, there’s the danger of executing an innocent person.  A person incarcerated, who is later found innocent, can be released.  A large chunk of his or her life has been lost, but some compensation can be paid.  An innocent person who has been executed cannot accept an apology, and it has to be small comfort for the family of the wrongfully executed person.

In the Twenty-first century, it is depressing that the most powerful country on the planet still clings to the medieval notion that putting a person to death is an acceptable form of punishment.  It is high time we took a closer look at ourselves as a society, and asked the hard questions; are we allowing political expediency and inflamed passions to overrule the common sense and intelligence that we claim to have?  If we can put a man on the moon, can we not find a more civilized way to dispense justice?

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The death penalty: I hope that others put up with crazy ideas and then think not.

Strangely there is no picture of this wealthy businessman and former parliamentarian to find. Even in the Chinese newspapers are not.

Kitzhaber’s bombshell arrived your day following the Or Best Courtroom stated it allows the actual deadly shot delivery associated with Whilst gary Haugen to visit ahead.

Within slamming the actual brakes upon Oregon’s very first delivery within fourteen many years, the actual Democrat governor stated the actual state passing away fee program is actually “broken” as well as he or she promised in order to drive with regard to reforms within the 2013 legal program.

“It is actually period with this condition to think about another strategy, inch Kitzhaber stated. “I won’t take part in the jeopardized as well as inequitable program any more; as well as I’ll not really permit additional executions to occur whilst I’m governor. inch

Below Oregon’s make-up, governors possess capturing capacity to give reprieves, commutations as well as pardons for all those charged associated with offences.

Kitzhaber stated he or she had been working out their expert in order to concern the short-term liberation with regard to Haugen, enduring “for the actual length associated with my personal phrase within workplace. inch

“I might have commuted Mr. Haugen’s phrase, and even the actual phrases of individuals upon passing away strip, alive within jail with no chance of parole, inch he or she stated. “I didn’t do this since the plan of the condition upon funds consequence isn’t my own on it’s own to determine. It’s a issue for those Oregonians to determine. Which is my personal wish — certainly my personal purpose — which my personal motion these days brings in regards to a lengthy past due re-evaluation in our present plan as well as our bodies associated with funds consequence. inch

Kitzhaber permitted 2 executions in order to continue, within 1996 as well as 1997, throughout their very first phrase because governor.

Talking today in a push meeting within their ceremonial workplace, the actual governor stated he’s “regretted individuals options since — each due to my very own heavy individual convictions regarding funds consequence as well as simply because used Or comes with an costly as well as unworkable program which does not fulfill fundamental requirements associated with rights. Twenty-seven many years following voters reinstated the actual passing away fee it’s obvious the machine is actually damaged. inch

Haugen, forty-nine, offers waived their lawful is attractive as well as frequently announced their need to be performed.

Upon Fri, Marion Region Signal Assess Frederick Guimond authorized their passing away bring about, permitting the actual 12 ,. 6 delivery.

Within under your own accord shedding their is attractive, Haugen adopted within the actions from the final 2 performed inmates — serial monster Douglas Wright within 1996 as well as Salem dual monster Harry Moore within 1997. Each forgotten their own is attractive.

Kitzhaber stated he or she agonized more than regardless of whether he or she ought to cease the actual executions associated with Wright as well as Moore, explaining all of them “as probably the most distressing as well as hard choices I’ve created because governor as well as I’ve revisited as well as asked all of them again and again in the past fourteen many years. inch

Kitzhaber’s choice in order to derail Haugen’s delivery motivated jaw-dropping responses.

“It’s fairly amazing, inch stated Dorrie Gorham, among Haugen’s lawyers.

Gorham forecasted which Haugen will be surprised as well as let down.

“It’s likely to rock and roll their globe, inch he or she stated.