By Nicholas Stix
Revised at 3:06 a.m., on Monday, April 4, 2011.
It seems to be getting easier for whites, even white women, to receive the death penalty. After all, in spite of being a woman, and having not even been in the room where her victims were murdered, Shawna Forde was recently sentenced to death. By contrast, in Vanessa Coleman’s diary, she celebrated her participation—“I've had one hell of an adventure in the big TN,” and “Ha Ha”—in the Knoxville Horror gang rape-torture murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, yet Coleman was acquitted of rape and murder, and only convicted of “facilitation” of rape and murder.
The difference: Forde is white, while Coleman is black.
In many states that have the death penalty, it has become virtually impossible for a prosecutor to get justice for the People, no matter how heinous the crime, when a black killer is in the dock. Every sort of subterfuge that was irrelevant in my childhood suddenly comes into play. ‘He didn’t pull the trigger.’ ‘He had a dreadful childhood, with a miserable, unloving family.’ ‘His family loves him.’ (Knoxville Horror killer Letalvis Cobbins actually used both of the foregoing defenses, at different times!) ‘Because a disproportionate number of black men have been sentenced to death, it would be racist to sentence my client to death.’
‘My client is mentally ill.’ Even, ‘My client suffers from low I.Q.,’ from the same crowd that, the rest of the time, insists that I.Q. doesn’t exist, and that blacks are just as smart as whites. (In case someone should object that we’re talking about individual cases, the “low I.Q.” scam is reserved solely for blacks.) ‘Too many people from the same jurisdiction have been condemned to death.’
Since-disgraced Knoxville Horror Judge Richard Baumgartner instituted busing schemes, in order to stack three trials’ juries full of blacks.
Chief Justice Judith Kaye of the New York State Court of Appeals went so far as to find a non-existent constitutional violation in New York State’s death penalty statute, in order to impose her will.
Among juror groups, the worst demographic is blacks (followed by white women), who can’t even be trusted to convict a black murderer caught red-handed.
Of all of the thousands of black murderers in recent years, I know of only two blacks, offhand, who managed to screw up their trials enough to receive just sentences: The Knoxville Horror’s Lemaricus Davidson and New Orleans’ Isaiah Doyle.
Davidson confounded Judge Baumgartner’s best efforts to scuttle justice. The jurist wanted to bus in sympathetic black jurors from Davidson County, instead of having Davidson face a predominantly white panel from Knox County, where he’d committed the atrocity. Davidson insisted, however, over the objections of both the Judge and his own lawyers, on being tried by a Knox County jury, which duly voted to give him the ultimate sanction.
Which brings us to Mr. Isaiah Doyle.
Doyle, 28, killed Hwa Lee, 26, on Aug. 4, 2005, even though she complied with his demands that she give him cash from the register behind the counter of her parents' Barataria Boulevard convenience Store.
He blasted her with four .45-caliber rounds and initially told Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office detectives it was an accident. For that, he was convicted of murder by a jury Thursday night.
But, after warning court officials for days he'd take the witness stand, he testified Friday during his penalty hearing that the shooting was no mistake.
“The only reason she was shot four times is because the gun jammed,” he told the jury. “Otherwise, I would have emptied the gun in her f------ head.”
The jury had to consider whether he was mentally retarded, meaning a life sentence in prison was automatic, or to recommend he receive the death penalty.
His attorneys, Kyla Blanchard-Romanach, Bruce Dodd and Cesar Vazquez - argued he was mentally retarded. Under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, executing the mentally retarded is considered cruel and unusual punishment.
The prosecutors, Vince Paciera and Jackie Maloney, argued he faked his illnesses.
Doyle testified against the advice of his attorneys and said he had no remorse for what he did to Lee. He said he had no sympathy for her or her family. And he lashed out at the jury.
“I hate every last one of you, especially him right there,” he said pointing to a man on the panel. “I wish I could cut his head off.”
At another point in his testimony, he said, “If I had an AK-47 (assault rifle), I'd kill every last one of you.”
His mother and two sisters pleaded with the jury to spare his life and said he wrestled with mental illnesses since he was a child.
Lee's sister, Jamie Lee, testified with a heavy Korean accent about how her mother cries every day and her once-lively father lives a life of lethargy.
“Right now, we are alive, but we are not alive like normal people,” she testified.
She said she [sic] news of her sister's death forced her to give birth to her child three weeks early.
Now the birthdays blend with the anniversary of Hwa Lee’s death, Jamie Lee testified.
“It was the same day as my sister’s death,” she testified. “I can’t even celebrate my baby’s birthday.”
She cried while at the witness stand and as she walked out of court.
Jurors passed a box of tissue, some of them dabbing the tears from their eyes.
[“Jury recommends Isaiah Doyle be executed for murder of store clerk,” by Paul Purpura, The Times-Picayune, last updated at 12:26, on Saturday, March 26, 2011.]
Hours later, the jury, which included nine women, condemned Doyle to death.
Note to all aspiring black murderers, and black murderers who have not yet been tried, in death penalty jurisdictions: Remember not to talk about wanting to murder the jury, before it has pronounced its sentence.
Thanks to reader-researcher RC.
Yes, Davidson and Doyle, along with the two Wichita killers, are the ones that come to mind. The Carr brothers were sentenced in 2002, and the Wichita Horror is now a decade in the past.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the recent news item about Brian Nichols, the Atlanta Courthouse killer?
David In TN
Yay !! Too bad it will take 20 years. Also too bad it won't be at the end of a rope. Grieving Mammy wailing "he beez a good keeid" in 5...4...3...
ReplyDeleteI do love the hypocrisy of their I.Q. game.
ReplyDelete