Here's Your Crime Problem - Triple Murderer Escapes Death Penalty

Anti death penalty advocates have been pushing to eliminate the death penalty claiming that it does not deter crime. This is a load of bull. The real problem is that nobody is willing to give the death penalty a chance so there is little chance of a criminal getting the death penalty. This is clearly illustrated in the huge gap between the number of murders committed each year and the total number of executions carried out since the Supreme Court brought back the death penalty as a possible consequence for serious crimes.

Take the case of triple murderer/rapist Brian Nichols:

Nichols, 37, was convicted last month of 54 counts for a deadly shooting rampage that began March 11, 2005, in the same courthouse where he stood trial.

Nichols, who was being tried for rape, shot three people to death as he escaped from the downtown courthouse that day and a federal agent the next day in Atlanta's Buckhead district before being captured in neighboring Gwinnett County. - CNN

If there was ever a person who deserved to get the death penalty, it was this guy. Yet, three of the nine jurors thought that this murderer deserved to continue living. This is especially selfish of them because he has already shown a willingness to do anything, including murder, in order to escape. And now with a life sentence with no possibility of parole he was every reason to try and escape again and there is nothing the Government can do in terms of threats to stop him if given the opportunity.

Jurors told Bodiford on Friday night that they were deadlocked, with nine in favor of death and three in favor of life without parole.

Under Georgia law, the jurors must reach a unanimous decision in order to impose a death sentence. In the absence of a unanimous jury verdict, the decision fell in the hands of Bodiford.

Defense lawyers said Nichols, who confessed to the killings, suffers from a mental disorder.

The jurors unanimously found the necessary aggravating circumstances in the four murders, but they were split over the death penalty. - CNN

Surely this guy's story started will before he was charged with rape. How many other breaks was he given only to commit more crimes? As it turns out, Many:

Berks County records show that Nichols had been arrested at least three times during his short stay at the university.. In 1990, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, stemming from an incident in a university dining hall, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges and the others were dropped.

The next year, Nichols was arrested twice in a month for criminal trespassing, misdemeanor criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. Those charges were later dropped. After his brief stay at Kutztown, Nichols went to Newberry College from 1992 to 1993, and played football there. Athletic spokesman Ryan Gross said that during that time Nichols was kicked off the football team for stealing from a dorm room.

After dropping out of school, Nichols moved to Georgia in 1995. He worked for Hewlett-Packard for eight years, as a UNIX systems engineer. Nichols last employment was working as a computer engineer for a logistics subsidiary of Atlanta-based shipping giant UPS. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested in the rape case. According to his brother, Nichols earned a six-figure income and regularly attended church.

He was arrested after being charged with the brutal assault of his former girlfriend of 8 years after their break up. After discovering that she was dating Chris Rowell, a minister from their church, Nichols forced his way into her home, bound her with duct tape at gun point and raped her. He was charged with rape, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated sodomy, burglary, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime. The first case had ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. Nichols had told people in the courthouse "I'm not going to go lying down" when he learned that he would be retried. Nichols’ friends warned the DA’s office he might try to escape and one friend told prosecutors that Nichols planned to escape and asked him to leave a credit card in the pocket of the suit jacket he would wear to court. Nichols mother also emailed the Fulton County Sheriff's Office to tell them she believed her son may try to take an officers weapon. The retrial began the next week and the tension heightened even further 2 days before the crime spree when deputies escorting Nichols from the courthouse to his jail cell noticed something in his shoes. They found two sharp "shanks," common jailhouse weapons fashioned out of metal which possibly came from a door hinge. Nichols also taunted Assistant District Attorney Gayle Abramson and Assistant District Attorney Ash Joshi during the retrial by saying "you're doing a much better job this time" and he was apparently aware that his case was going poorly. The actions prompted Judge Barnes to have a meeting the day before the escape with counsel and he asked for extra security during Nichols scheduled testimony that Friday since the prosecution in the rape case had planned to call its last witness that day and jury deliberations were upon him. Nichols would have faced life in prison if convicted. - Wikipedia

Looking at the history of this guy he kept getting the benefit of other's misguided compassion. EVEN WHEN HIS OWN FRIENDS AND FAMILY WARNED THE AUTHORITIES THAT HE WAS A DANGEROUS PERSON AND MIGHT ATTEMPT A VIOLENT ESCAPE FROM COURT.

The US will never solve its crime problem until people like this are given the punishment they deserve. The US still has the death penalty; it should find the will to start using it. Hell, courts are not even charging people with attempted murder diluting the possible penalties before criminals even get into the courtroom (See: Attempted Murder Headline = "Armed woman arrested after entering police HQ")

When the number of executions starts to approach the number of people convicted of murder each year, I guarantee that you'll see a sharp decline in the number of both, especially a decline in the number of repeat offenders. As I wrote back in 2006:

I know that many people have problems with the death penalty. I think the main problems are that it is not used enough. The 1,000th execution milestone was just pasted a short while back. It took about 30 years to execute 1,000 murderers. In 2004 there were 16,137 murders. 62% of those murders resulted in arrests. So if the death penalty was being used for the crime, there should be thousands of death penalty sentences carried out each year. Instead, we have people being sentenced to life in prison, or less. So when people claim that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, I wonder how they know, because it is not being used except as an exception. I suspect that if your chances of facing the death penalty were certain, that would be something for criminals to think about. - FFI

And as I said before, "Just remember, there are 6 billion apples on this planet. Too many people are too concerned about the rotten apples. Rotten apples should be thrown away. Do what you can to keep them fresh, but if they insist on turning rotten, then there should be no guilt in throwing away garbage. Can we please reform our death penalty laws and turn it into a useful tool against crime."

Otherwise we deserve the crime problem that we have.

Previous:
Finnish Triple-Murderer Freed From Prison - 26 Feb 08
Attempted Murder Headline = "Armed woman arrested after entering police HQ" - 24 Feb 08
Strong Argument for the Death Penalty - 12 Sept 06
Maryland Backs Away from Death Penalty for Sniper - 6 March 06
Minors, the Death Penalty and Abortion - 29 Nov 05

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