The death penalty and Noel Richard Lopez
The horrendous beating death of Noel Richard Lopez by two men at a Capitol Hill construction (which the Seattle Crime Blogger covered on Tuesday) site got me to thinking about the death penalty in Washington State, due to the horrible nature of the crime.
The two men suspected in Lopez's murder probably won't be getting it, as Washington State only has the option of execution if offenders are convicted of aggravated first-degree murder, which these two men are not eligible to be tried under. Check out this rundown of the 13 different situations where someone can be tried for that crime.
My original post was going to be a debate on whether or not they deserved the death penalty (and whether the death penalty is a viable means of punishment due to states justice systems inherent flaws) if found guilty of beating a man with various objects over the course of several hours...but as it turns out, it doesn't matter if they deserve it, because they are not eligible.
Yet through the course of the research, I found an interesting tidbit on the State legislature's website.
Four prisoners have been executed in Washington State since 1976 (the year the Supreme Court's ban on capital punishment was overturned). And while that information may be of little interest to most readers, what stood out to me was the fact that prisoners that are to be executed can choose death by hanging if they so desire.
Hanging?! 118 years after the first electric chair execution, our state still has an option for death row prisoners to die via the very practice the chair was created to eliminate. Unbelievable. I have to wonder what kind of public outcry we could expect should a prisoner decide to serve out his sentence at the end of a rope. Whether that situation will arise in the foreseeable future is anyone's guess.
I believe there was one case where a guy chose hanging and then ate himself into obesity so they couldn't hang him. Now don't quote me on that but I think that's how it went down. Quite a few years ago.
When I lived up there I never did like the way the state handled death penalty cases.. No wonder why the taxes are so high, you have to keep increasing them for all the prisoners you keep locked up for many, many years :)
my girlfriend is the sister of noel lopez. he was a very ill man with bipolar disorder.seattle police were called and i heard her beg them to get him off the street for his own safety to no avail. he was too trusting of these guys.he needed to get back on his meds.these guys had been looking for him for a few days because they heard he had scared a street girl, though he did nothing to her but he had to pay..with his life. these guys are pure evil. they were bragging about the beating and thats how they were caught. so please stop this talk like noel was a normal thinking guy when they beat him. he paid dearly for not getting or accepting help. pray they get life!