Unlamented

This story passed almost un-noticed in the past three weeks:  John Evander Couey is dead.  He passed away due to complications from anal cancer on September 30.

Couey was convicted of kidnapping nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford and burying her alive.

Couey took Jessica from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in February 2005, triggering a massive search. The third-grader’s body was found about three weeks later in a grave in Couey’s yard, only about 150 yards from her home.

Her body was found under a foot of dirt wrapped in two garbage bags. She had poked holes through the bags with her fingers, although her hands were bound with wire. She was still clutching her favorite stuffed animal, a purple dolphin.

While I’ve written that I oppose the death penalty for the solitary principle that executing the innocent is far worse than letting the guilty sit in jail for life, there was no doubt whatsoever about Couey’s guilt.   I had planned, in all sincerity, to host a party on Couey’s execution date.   I’ll confess to hoping that his execution would have been botched very, very badly.

God forgives.  So I hope He’ll forgive me for hoping that there’s a Hell, and that Couey is getting signed up for their 401K right now.

16 thoughts on “Unlamented

  1. Good riddance.

    I don’t suppose there is any hope that Couey might be buried in……..two garbage bags and a shallow grave? Poetic justice of a sort.

  2. I was in Sarasota when this happened. Believe me, the people down there noticed, and they think he got off way to easy.

  3. there is no 401k in Hell so he’s doubly screwed.
    They do however have government run health care.

  4. With the odds of being put to death for a crime you didn’t commit at about 1 in a billion, there really is no rational reason to oppose the death penalty.

  5. K,

    With all due respect, you need to stop with the “1 in a billion” bit.

    The facts are there and incontrovertible; out of 7,000 death sentences issued in the past 33 years for convictions “beyond a reasonable doubt”, over 200 have been overturned because they were completely wrong. That means 1 out of 140, with on the average six new ones a year.

    And of those 7,000, we know that one was a mistake. The Innocence Project says at least 14 executions in the past 50 years are suspicious enough to warrant some investigation (not that it’ll do anyone any good).

    Crunch the numbers any way you’d like:

    Odds of a death sentence being wrong: 1/170 (so far)

    One in 170? If I was sending my kid to the doctor for a tonsillectomy, and one out of 170 of his patients died on the table, I’d find another doctor.

    That’s plenty rational.

    Odds of a confirmed innocent person being executed among all death row cases: 1/7000
    Odds of a likely innocent person being executed among all death row cases: 1/437
    Odds of being an unjustly-death-sentenced person in whole US: 1/1.2 million
    Percent of executions among entire population that were or are believed to be erroneous: 1/18.7 million.

    You’ll note only the latter of these comes within three orders of magnitude of “1 in a billion”, and then only barely.

    You favor the death penalty. That’s fine. In Couey’s case, so do I. But making up numbers that make no sense is what liberals do.

    Aim higher than that!

  6. Mitch,

    Please tell us you don’t think your odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit are 1 out of 170. Do you think your readers are that dumb?

    Twisting numbers that make no sense is what liberals do. 😉

    We are talking about the odds TODAY, not 50 years ago or 33 years ago or even 10 years ago for that matter.

    The population that I place myself in is not with those on death row, it is with the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of innocent law abiding people.

    Therefore, Mitch, the odds of being put to death for a crime I did not commit are about 1 in a billion. 8)

  7. Please tell us you don’t think your odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit are 1 out of 170. Do you think your readers are that dumb?

    What is 7,000 divided by 200?

    One out of 170 “beyond a reasonable doubt” death sentences is overturned.

    Twisting numbers that make no sense is what liberals do.

    Er, OK, so show me a number that I’ve twisted.

    We are talking about the odds TODAY, not 50 years ago or 33 years ago or even 10 years ago for that matter.

    Utterly irrelevant. Do you believe that judges and juries are more perfect than they were back then? That prosecutors are more scrupulous now than they were? Bear in mind, “Humans can never be perfect” is a key tenet of actual conservatism.

    TODAY, six people are being released from death row a year, on average, because they were wrongly convicted. There have been five in 2009 so far, the most recent being 22 days ago.

    If your car was breaking down six times a year, would you file a lemon law suit?

    The population that I place myself in is not with those on death row, it is with the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of innocent law abiding people.

    Which is likely enough the population that not a few of the exonerated people put themselves in before they spent years, sometimes decades, wrongly on death row.

    Cameron Todd Willingham most likely considered himself a law-abiding guy before faulty science got him executed for a murder it now seems a lock that he didn’t commit.

    Willingham is one out of 300 million. So your number is three times as optimistic as it should be, from that alone.

    Therefore, Mitch, the odds of being put to death for a crime I did not commit are about 1 in a billion

    But I’ve just shown you that it was triple that, and that’s only if you assume that Cameron Willingham was the only person ever wrongly executed. And if you believe that, then you have WAY too much faith in government.

  8. Wow, Mitch, you really do think your chances of being put to death for a crime you did not commit are 1 in 170?
    Have you lost your mind? That certainly is twisted.
    The odds are much, much, much closer to 1 in a billion.
    You have more of a chance of running over an innocent person with your bike and killing them.

    ….

    “Which is likely enough the population that not a few of the exonerated people put themselves in before they spent years, sometimes decades, wrongly on death row.”

    Which actually gave them a better chance of being exonerated than a life in prison sentence would. 8)

    ….

    “…one out of 300 million…”

    *cue Kip from Napolian Dynamite… …technology…*

    Mitch, don’t look to the past to arrive at a 1 in 300 million chance; look to the present and into the future and you will see it is closer to 1 in a billion.

    In your heart you know I am right.

  9. In your heart you know I am right.

    Not only do I know in my heart and my brain that you are wrong, but I’ve shown it on my blog with actual numbers and stuff.

    Wow, Mitch, you really do think your chances of being put to death for a crime you did not commit are 1 in 170?

    Read what I wrote. Do the math. One out of 170 “beyond a reasonable doubt” death sentence convictions have ended in exonerations. That means that one out of 170 death sentences – that we know of – were completely wrong.

    Have you lost your mind? That certainly is twisted.

    I suppose calling something “crazy” is easier than actually spending the effort that it’d take to prove it. Just like the left going after Michele Bachmann.

    The odds are much, much, much closer to 1 in a billion.

    You keep quoting the one in a billion number. Show us the math – the actual numbers and calculations you use to lead to that number. Like I did with all the numbers above.

    But before we do, remember – I have already knocked the odds down to 1 in 300 million; we have at least one mistaken execution, pretty much proven dead to rights.

    So answer the question using actual numbers and calculations. Not chanting how I supposedly “know you’re right”, which, dude.

    Which actually gave them a better chance of being exonerated than a life in prison sentence would.

    Again, show us numbers that’d support that assertion.


    Mitch, don’t look to the past to arrive at a 1 in 300 million chance; look to the present and into the future and you will see it is closer to 1 in a billion.

    No, I looked at all the numbers that matter in the present death row debate; convictions since 1976, when the death penalty was re-authorized. Those are the only numbers that matter.

    Your assignment is clear. Bring numbers. Show how you’re putting them together. Just as I’ve done.

  10. Well, at least I have been successful in getting Mr. Berg to realize the odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit to be much, much, much, much closer to 1 in a billion than 1 in 170. 8)

    Now if I can only get him to stop living in the past. That is soooo Uncle Rico.

    ….

    Mitch, if you can show your work that the present odds (i.e. TODAY! not over 30 years ago!) are no better than 1 in 300 million I will agree to those odds, but, you are dealing in the past with past technologies (again, that was over 30 years ago!!!)… not to mention that you had to cop out with “it now seems” and “pretty much proven” for your numbers.

    Therefore, accounting for present technology and future improvements to our court system, we can indeed expect the odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit to be about 1 in a billion.

  11. Well, at least I have been successful in getting Mr. Berg to realize the odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit to be much, much, much, much closer to 1 in a billion than 1 in 170.

    No, K, you have not. You have shown that you need to read a good book on logic!

    A citizen’s odds of being picked off the street and charged, convicted “beyond a reasonable doubt” and sentenced to death for a crime he/she did not commit, as I showed, is known to be about 250 out of 300 million. That means a little under one in a million. Those are hard numbers; there is no rational debate about them.

    Now if I can only get him to stop living in the past. That is soooo Uncle Rico.

    Mitch, if you can show your work that the present odds (i.e. TODAY! not over 30 years ago!)

    KRod, that is an utterly illogical constraint. You figure your odds based on a one day time frame? That’s utterly meaningless.

    The odds are calculated based on total convictions, total exonerations, and total wrongful executions under our current system – NOT for a given day. The former statistic means something; the latter does not.

    are no better than 1 in 300 million I will agree to those odds, but, you are dealing in the past with past technologies (again, that was over 30 years ago!!!)… not to mention that you had to cop out with “it now seems” and “pretty much proven” for your numbers.

    It wasn’t a cop-out, it was understatement. I gave you the actual numbers, something you seem unable to do.

    Therefore, accounting for present technology and future improvements to our court system,

    What “present technology?” Be specific!

    DNA? Sure, DNA is often reliable – presuming not only that the prosecutors and cops are competent and honest about collecting it (didja read through the list of exhonerations and see how many people got sent to death row by corrupt cops and prosecutors?), or that the defense knows how to use it (did you see how many people on death row had incompetent public defenders – sometimes crappy lawyers, sometimes personal injury lawyers who got sucked into defending a death row case), or even that there even is any (many, many death row cases have no DNA evidence at all. The Willingham case had none – and the “state of the art” science that led to his conviction “beyond a reasonable doubt” is now known to be utterly flawed).

    What “future improvements in the court system?” Seriously – name them! We’ll have jurors with ESP or prosecutors wtih Liar Rings? Be specific!

    we can indeed expect the odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit to be about 1 in a billion.

    I’m a dummy, so I’ll have to ask again; show me the numbers, please. Walk me through PRECISELY how you arrive at one in a billion.

    Or stop using the number.

  12. For crying out loud, Mitch, make up your mind!!!!
    Are the odds of you being put to death for a crime you did not commit 1 in 170, or 1 in a million, or 1 in 300 million?

    “A citizen’s odds of being picked off the street and charged, convicted “beyond a reasonable doubt” and sentenced to death for a crime he/she did not commit, as I showed, is known to be about 250 out of 300 million. That means a little under one in a million. Those are hard numbers; there is no rational debate about them.”

    Correction, we are talking about actually being put to death, not simply arrested or convicted or even sentenced.
    What are the odds of being put to death for a crime you did not commit? 1 in a billion

    Can you name 250 people out of 300 million people that were put to death for a crime they did not commit?

    Maybe “cop out” is the wrong term for you saying “it now seems” and “pretty much proven” for your numbers and then turn around and claim they are “hard numbers”. Hint: “pretty much” does not equate to “hard numbers”.

    You did name one “maybe” and, with the population over your time-frame it is closer to a billion than a million.

    “You figure your odds based on a one day time frame?”

    No, just the present forward. It would be moronic to base odds on the way things worked back in the 1770s, so please don’t bring up the Salem Witch Trials to make your point like you tried to do with your potential bad cop or incompetent defenders…

    The bottom line, Mitch, is that if you can’t wrap YOUR “logical” head around the fact that technology and keeping our court system clean has improved in the last 30 plus years, well, I guess you are more closed minded than I thought. Didn’t you claim you were an optimist?

    “I’m a dummy,…”

    I never would say that about you. 😉

    .

    We start, with today’s technology, and the population of innocent people in this country… hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions… and we hold ourselves to continuous improvement and an oath for justice to be blind… and we logically reason that the odds of being wrongly put to death for a crime you did not commit to be about 1 in a billion.

    And as a side note, who are you to place more value on a life in prison over a quick and painless death? For some, captivity is the cruelest form of punishment.

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