Today made history in Dallas County, TX. For the first time in 4 decades, a cop was found guilty of murder. Jordan Edwards, aged 15, was in a car driving away from a party when Officer Roy Oliver shot at them, striking Edwards and killing him. A large number of activists and anti police brutality advocates are thrilled with the news. Kt marks one of oonly a handful of murder convictions for police shooting unarmed black citizens, but that’s not enough.
Yes… It is time for a COP to receive the death penalty, and Roy Oliver is that cop. We can’t continue to allow extrajudicial police killings to go unassailed. We can’t allow the negligible convictions that DO happen to be relegated to mandatory minimums. It puts the wellbeing of our country and our criminal justice system at risk.
Texas is one of, if not the leading state in executions, besides Louisiana. When a citizen kills a cop there, they get the death penalty. I don’t care what his job may have been before… If you kill a child, under the auspices of the state, your prior duties are rendered IRRELEVANT. You’re not a cop, you’re a murderer who use to have a badge. Imagine the signal that would be sent to Law Enforcement across the country, knowing one of their former colleagues was sentenced to the same demise he gave a child. This would speak volumes and perhaps even restore a bit of faith in our criminal justice system. The State of Texas claims to uphold “justice”, in large part thru the death penalty. We should all encourage them to put their money where their mouth is.
Exactly, make an example of him. We’ve done it with the general public for the longest. Slow the world that our justice system actually upholds Justice. Need I remind you, this is the first cop to be convicted of murder down there in decades. How many cops can you name that were executed.
Charlie Becker, an NYPD lieutenant, in the early 1900s. He was corrupt but was probably framed for the murder. There were two New Orleans cops who were sentenced to death in the 80s I think but I don’t know if they were ever actually executed.
Those are the only three cops ever sentenced to death in American history.
I’m against the death penalty personally but I am curious to see what excuses the state that was downright enthusiastic about executing minors and the mentally retarded will make for not giving this cop the needle.
Due to a Supreme Court decision decades ago, a general death penalty for murder isn’t considered constitutional. There have to be specific circumstances that allow the use of the death penalty.
Those circumstances for Texas are shown here:
If the victim had been under 10 years of age, this case would have been open to a capital sentence. The victim was 15, so no capital sentence would be possible.
The State of Illinois, however, let former Sgt. Jeff Pelo know he wasn’t above the general population when he was sentenced to over 400 years there for three dozen violent serial rapes.
I wasn’t familiar with the case so I went to Youtube and played the bodycam video. I still can’t tell what happened. The officer was investigating in a house, then multiple shots were fired from outside. Several officers ran in the direction that they thought the shots came from. People were running everywhere and it was mayhem. Then I hear some shots again, never saw the person being fired at and the cop yelling to another one…“are you alright. He was trying to hit you”. I couldn’t tell what happened.
The death penalty should be reserved for a special kind of evil and not to make a statement. I don’t know enough about what transpired to say this case did or didn’t warrant it. Simply by the 2 minute video, it was dark, shots had been fired, people were running around and it seemed the shooting was more a result of the mayhem than evil in the officer’s heart to murder someone because of their skin color.
I don’t think this is the case that should be the “example”. That should have been Michael Slager, who executed Walter Scott and then tried to cover it up. The fact that he will be free in 20 years or less is terrifying.
