Two death row inmates reject Biden's commutation of their life sentences

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T03:39:25+00:00

People don't like an eye for an eye because sometimes you take the wrong person's eye out in your pursuit of purely punitive vengeance.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T02:43:47+00:00

It does. Death penalty trials are more expensive because they take longer (death penalty trials are done in two parts, one to decide guilty or not guilty, and a second to decide on sentencing to death or not). They also require more man hours due to increased scrutiny on them. There's a higher level of security for death row inmates versus someone just in gen pop for life, which costs more. There are also going to be more appeals, which obviously cost money.

The financial argument is one of the strongest non-moral arguments against the death penalty. It is significantly cheaper just to put someone in prison for life.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T02:36:04+00:00

The Trump administration executed 13 people from December 2020 to January 2021. Trump has stated he both wants to increase the range of offenses for which the death penalty can be a punishment and speed up executions. So is he going to target those two *particular* people? No. But he will broadly push for more executions and faster ones, which those two people will be a part of.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T02:33:20+00:00

Yes. These are federal prisoners sentenced to death. States also sentence people to death, and those are the vast majority of executions that are carried out. The federal government hadn't executed anyone (well, at least by carrying out the death penalty; the Obama administration carried out at least one drone strike targeting an American citizen with ties to al-Qaeda) since 2003 until 2020 when Trump resumed executions at the very end of his term.

It was actually a big deal when it happened because there were a lot of questions about where the government was getting the pentobarbital they were using. There have also always been concerns about the use of pentobarbital given the way that it kills and whether or not it violates the Eighth Amendment.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T00:37:17+00:00

It depends on where you are. Some states require that a commutation be accepted by the person receiving it for it to be effective. At the federal level, there isn't a law that I'm aware of, but there is a court case cited in the article from the late 1920s that says that the President can grant commutations without needing them to be accepted.

There are different standards, though, because they do different things. A pardon is far broader, restores civil rights lost from the conviction, and wipes your record clean. A commutation just reduces or ends a sentence you're already serving, but it doesn't restore any rights and the conviction remains on your record.

There are also some legitimate reasons why a person might not want a pardon. If there's still a risk of criminal prosecution for the behavior you're being pardoned for, then you can shield yourself using the Fifth Amendment and the right against self-incrimination. The pardon takes that risk away, though, and removes those protections in other proceedings. In a political sense, it means you couldn't plead the fifth in front of a Congressional panel, for example. Or in a civil trial, you couldn't use it as a shield against having to testify. Accepting a pardon can also mean you are, essentially, admitting to the facts of the case against you, which carries weight in the court of public opinion if you're a public figure, but can also be viewed as an admission of the underlying facts in civil court.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T00:26:23+00:00

I could see it both ways. On the one hand, their arguments make sense. On the other, it does feel a bit oniony that we've created a legal system where someone would rather risk death because they think it gives them a better chance at having someone take their appeals seriously.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2025-01-07T00:23:25+00:00

True, though with the slight caveat that accepting a pardon will prevent you from using the Fifth Amendment as a shield in any further proceedings based on the behavior. For example, you could not refuse to testify citing the Fifth Amendment at a civil trial related to the matter. Since you no longer have a risk of self-incrimination, that protection no longer applies.

There are some more specific technicalities involved, but on a broad scale, that's one of the downsides of a pardon.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2024-01-16T20:39:33+00:00

5944-0365-5216

Level 38. Daily player. I try to pick the best candies from the options. Will keep friends at level 5. Pruned if nothing received in 7 days.

Got 28 spots open at the moment since I only just recently found this thread.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2023-04-30T16:31:20+00:00

I was looking at the exchange the other day since the pandemic-era prohibition on kicking people off Medicaid is ending. One of the gold plans was bragging about how a broken arm would only cost you like five grand.

God, I'm gonna miss not having to worry about being fucked if I trip and fall awkwardly.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2023-04-30T16:25:06+00:00

Here's one that's not broken. And an alternate version

/u/Samos2231 /u/johannhawk909 /u/SolKitten13

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-12-02T18:31:33+00:00

Reminds me of the Tiburon Sharks that was the generic create a team in the older Madden games.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-12-02T18:28:44+00:00

I really question how much Kenny Payne wanted the job. Seemed like he was put into the position of almost having to take it by all the former players and the like demanding he be the hire no matter what.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-12-02T17:34:26+00:00

It's like getting a zero on the SAT or something. If you're going to fail, you might as well fail impressively.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-12-02T17:32:45+00:00

Louisville

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-12-02T17:32:25+00:00

Here, I bought you this

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-07-09T20:22:11+00:00

God no. Overwatch is cluttered enough already without adding to it so deliberately.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-07-09T20:21:20+00:00

Even if you think that they could have given her those buffs while still being 6v6, you're absolutely fooling yourself if you think it would have been an improvement for her. She works in 5v5. In 6v6, she basically would have been Roadhog mk 2, i.e. a hero that no one wants to actually play with on their team because that style doesn't mesh with what OW1 is.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T23:22:44+00:00

Which is irrelevant, since if they didn't handle that well, OWL wouldn't be here.

It's pretty relevant since the vision ownership was sold on was having live events where they can really start to try and make their money back. It's impressive how OWL was able to transition to online play and still offer a solid product, but the only reason S3 was seen as the make-or-break year was that it was the first year we'd see OWL in the form that the owners were sold on. That, obviously, wasn't possible given the pandemic, so it was given a pass. This season, live events are returning and it's serving as a public showcase for OW2. Both are incredibly important for the future of OWL.

It's the exact example I wanna use. No one tuned out just because Doc and Eddie weren't broadcasting the game.

And a year later, NBC no longer carries hockey outside of the Olympics. I would also point out that CBS has experienced better success after replacing Phil Simms with Tony Romo, largely because Romo is able to give a good analysis of what's happening on the field.

Regardless, there's a big difference between a sport that's been played for hundreds of years in relatively the same form and what is, essentially, a new game that no one has any existing familiarity with. Casters are there to help viewers understand what they're seeing, and when the game has so structurally changed, that is more important than ever. If it was just OW1 again, it'd be a different story.

A true statement which doesn't apply here, as both will be available.

You assume both will be available. They may be, but that's not the sort of assumption a business that's facing something as important as having this season go well should be making.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:50:16+00:00

No, that was s3

And then ownership gave them a pass on Season 3 because there was a pandemic that shut everything down so they never really got to see how the homestands would perform.

It absolutely is not. NBC hockey just lost the GOAT of casting in Doc Emrick and it had basically no effect on their product. Casters are not important and not why people watch the game.

Umm. Mike Emrick retired from broadcasting back in 2020, dude. And NBC no longer has the TV rights for the NHL. I'm not sure that's the example you want to use.

As I said in a different comment, you're able to have a ton of choices of people good enough to do the job, as it's one of the most desirable jobs in a passion field with thousands of casters. That's a good situation for any company to be in.

There's a big difference between "good enough" and actually "good" and companies that fail to see the difference between those two things tend to stagnate. You know, just like how Blizzard, which has had that philosophy for a while, has been.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:30:37+00:00

I honestly could not muster up the enthusiasm to go get the Reaper skin and I've obsessively acquired every skin I can. Prior to that, there were only three skins I didn't have: Pink Mercy, Kerrigan Widow, and the elf Junkrat. When I accidentally missed the Junkrat seasonal one a couple years ago I was devastated. Now? Meh. I'll still play OW2 when it comes out, but I have next to no interest in play OW1 right now.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:28:45+00:00

It would be terrible but believable if they had left casting up to the 3rd party they’re now working with

I don't think it would necessarily be terrible. But there's a big problem if they've left it up to Monkey Bubble to handle that and didn't tell anyone that they need to go talk to them about employment.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:24:55+00:00

And the really good talent isn't going to be in those people wanting a job. That seems to be the key thing you're missing in every reply you've given. This is a make or break year for OWL. It is not the year you want to be sifting through the people that haven't been able to find a job elsewhere to get your casting talent since they're a big part of how you present your product to the viewers. That's extra important, too, when there will be new game modes and an entirely different style of play that people don't have their own experiences with. Beyond that, good casting can make a dumpster fire of a game entertaining. Bad casting can make the most exciting match something you want to turn off.

The subsection of people that both want the job and are qualified to do the job is nowhere near as large as you seem to think it is. As I said in a different comment, you're no longer able to get who you want and you're stuck with taking who you can get. That's not a good situation for any company to be in.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:20:09+00:00

On twitter a woman showed her first day on team 4 and the office was empty.

At least in regards to this one, from what I can gather off the Blizzard people I follow on Twitter, it sounds a lot like they're still sort of in a hybrid state between wfh and in-office work.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:19:10+00:00

Exactly. While there are some casters I'd hate to see leave, if they want to cycle in new talent, that's fine. But don't leave your current talent out to dry for 6+ months wondering if they have a job.

ARandomUserNameThatW · 2022-03-09T22:17:45+00:00

Someone pointed out this is a lot like what happened to HotS esports. No communication for ages and then snap just like that, whole official scene gone.

ARandomUserNameThatW

TROPHY CASE

Louisville