Caught a glimpse of a bald eagle Saturday evening on my way home from an errand. He was circling over the Verdigris River not far from the house, likely looking for his dinner. That’s the second one I’ve seen in the wild down here, and it’s just as cool as the last one. There’s something majestic about seeing one of those birds soaring along. I only wish I’d had the chance to get a picture, but I was driving on the bridge at the time with no good place to pull off.
More on Felony Murder
I’ve written before about the felony murder doctrine. That’s where you can be charged with murder even though you didn’t actually harm someone.
In 1991, Charles Lee Burton and five others robbed an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama. Near the end of the robbery, after Burton and the other four robbers had left the store, Derrick Anthony DeBruce shot Douglas Levester Battle, who later died from the single gunshot.
All six men were eventually arrested.
Four of them pleaded guilty to felony murder and robbery. Two of them were sentenced to life without parole; one died in prison. Two others were sentenced to 25 years in prison; one was murdered while incarcerated.
DeBruce and Burton both went to trial, were found guilty, and both sentenced to death. Both went through an appeals process. DeBruce, the actual killer, was eventually resentenced to life without parole.
Burton’s appeals were rejected. He didn’t kill Battle. The man who did kill him didn’t get the death penalty.
When Alabama set Burton’s execution date, his case came back to the fore. Three of the surviving jurors contacted the governor, asking for clemency, as did Battle’s daughter.
Thursday afternoon, Governor Ivey commuted Burton’s sentence to life without parole.
Thoughts
There’s no question in my mind that this was the right decision for the governor. I wrote on social media that I thought it was the only moral decision she could make. It would have been a grave injustice to execute a man for murder when he wasn’t even in the building at the time.
I’m also on record as being completely against the death penalty. There are far too many cases of innocent people being exonerated for capital crimes to allow the several states to keep trying to kill criminals. Unless and until they can guarantee that they’ll get it right every time, we need to abolish the death penalty.
The states need to examine the felony murder doctrine closely and make sure it’s fairly applied. It cannot be reasonable or just to sentence an actual killer to life and another person to death.
Missouri
I note that the Missouri legislature is giving consideration to a bill to abolish the death penalty for the first time in ten years. I’m hopeful, though not expectant. Missouri is in the heart of the Bible Belt, and Christians love to kill the bad guy. Fingers crossed. Missouri has exonerated 56 people since 1989, including four from Death Row.
CSAM
Back in August, I wrote about the use of the phrase “child pornography” in news reports. I mentioned that I’d contacted the AP Stylebook editors, asking for a change in the Stylebook.
I still haven’t heard back from them. That’s not surprising, honestly.
Since then, though, I’ve contacted three other media outlets asking for them to change how they cover child sexual abuse material offenses. That included one Oklahoma TV station, one Columbus TV station, and the Columbus Dispatch. I’ve basically developed a 200-word bit of boilerplate text that I can send out pretty quickly when I come across an offending article. I’ve started keeping track of the media outlets I contact, too.
Part of me wants to go strategic and directly contact corporate owners like Sinclair or Rincon. My thinking is that individual stations probably can’t make changes like that on their own and have to defer to their owners.
And I freely admit that something like this is probably a pedantic attack against windmills. But words matter.
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