Arkansas Blog

I wonder if this guy would mind bequeathing me his last name after we off him? I would love to be known as "Rob Nooner."

Guv ain't gawna stop what the townfolk aim to make happen. There's gonna be a hangin dad gummit. Ma cooked up some good eatin and gravy for me and the boys and thar ain't no game on tonight.

We'll jus have to go mosey down and have little chat with the dang govner. He might reckon to be ready to have to go to his place in Searcy for a spell till we mayke things right.

I know it's not PC around here to be pro-death penalty, and I'm a big fan of the play "Exonerated," which spelled out how misguided death penalty cases can be, and how the innocent have spent a good portion of their lives waiting on death row before some lucky break finally freed them. (Great play if you ever get to see it, btw).

That said, I've followed this case since the night news broke that young Scot Stobaugh died on the floor of the Fun Wash on Markham. It hard to believe it's already been 14 years ago. Nooner and Rocket were also convicted of their involvement in the killing of a pregnant female convenience store cashier at about the same time. Their previous stint in prison and exposure to some of the white-man hatred that goes on in there among the incarcerated fanatical Muslims led to their immediately getting into trouble just days after release. They both had their lives still to live, a lot of time to do something productive in the free world, and they came out of prison with a venomous "whitey done you wrong and needs to die" anger that erased three innocent people, one unborn, from this earth, ruined many lives, including their own, and broke many hearts. Will Nooner's execution keep some other young man from taking another couple of lives for some pocket change? No. A deserving sentence, since he at one time asked to die, would be for him to live for the rest of his days behind bars.
Yet, on the other hand, I believe he should be executed, and in the same way as he allowed his victims to expire, bleeding and crying and in horrible pain, on a cold floor, all alone.

Good! Now Nooner can earn some money speaking at the Clinton School.

So then on the one hand you want him to live a miserable, wretched, horrible life and on the other you want him to die a miserable, wretched, horrible death. Our justice system is so whacked out yet murder is so heinous and reprehesible that I'm torn too. I say kill the assholes, sometimes on the same day, if you iknow they did it. On the other hand, well, maybe we should give them three squares a day. Wishy washy huh. Note to self: Get some balls on the issue damn it.

But don't get me started on the Pulaski Jail Joke. Murders and other violent crimes waiting to happen due to over-crowding. Yes, some cracked-up asshole or assholes is out running around that shouldn't be and is going to do some very bad shit because there was no room at the inn. Then should civic leaders who let the jail situation develop go to Death Row. Interesting Question.

Speaking at the school? Hell, if he's really guilty but can write children's books they might endow a chair for him.

"Yet, on the other hand, I believe he should be executed, and in the same way as he allowed his victims to expire, bleeding and crying and in horrible pain, on a cold floor, all alone." -- jimmyboy

I've followed this case all through the years, too, jimmyboy, and my take on this sorry excuse for a human being, be he white or black or green, is an exact replica of yours.

Normally (and particularly after reading Grisham's book about the Ron Williamson case in Oklahoma), I would call for life behind bars, in isolation, and without any chance of parole; but, considering that the Stobaugh murder was so heinous, my first choice for punishment is in quotes above. The PC police? Screw 'em.

I can't believe I'm going to do it but I am going to quote Orrin Hatch. He said something along the lines of: the death penalty is our societies recognition of the sanctity of human life. Hell, he probably contoted that in the rest of some speech to justify some whacko rightwing BS but I'll use the quote anyway. Maybe it was someone else. Anyway, someone said it.

And I do beieve that in theory. It's just the way we do it is so messy and delayed and oh, yeah, delayed some more.

We should do it. Not as deterrent. Simply as punishment. But has to be 100% evidence. But when we do it we should do it the next day. boom. Trial. Guilty verdict. Heinous crime. Execution that week. This dragging it out is twisted.

IABL... if there were perfect justice in this nation your barbaric suggestion could bear fruit. However there is not. There is O.J., Cheney, Mark Foley, and poor dumb minority justice. Which one would you choose? Which one could you afford? I make no excuses for any murderer even though the U.S. hands out some of the stiffest sentences in the world. I'm with the former Governor of Illinois who stopped all executions due to a poor, unfair justice system.

And before you sound off on me too harshly let me add my father was murdered when I was 11. The murderer was paroled by Bill Clinton's Parole Board. Clinton was my neighbor and class mate in H.S. I did not interfere. The killer served over half his life in prison and came out a very sickly man.
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I am a proponent of the death penalty, not because of its deterrent value to others (because it does not deter others) but because it is a consequence of one's actions in depriving someone else of a worthy life.

Ironically, if the culprit acknowledges his crime, personally accepts the death penalty as appropriate justice for his act but, through the extended legal review and confirmation process prior to execution, SOMEHOW manages to demonstrate sincere repentance and that his life has redeeming qualities before the state executes him, I could accept subsequent commutation of his death penalty to a life sentence.

If his conduct post-conviction is lacking in repentance and he shows no redeeming qualities, stick a needle in him - he's done.

So sorry to hear about your loss, eLwood. You seem to have accepted the outcome gracefully. I think your Dad could have been proud of how you turned out.

Thanks, widj,
when JFK's widow remarked "There are some things you never get over" I knew instinctively what she meant. For the victims there's years thinking of revenge then someday you realize that's a waste and it's for suckers, as mentioned in The Sting. I still think this nation is far to harsh in handing out sentences. Jails have not necessary made us more safe. I'm for programs that offer a way out and up for anyone. Repentance of the criminal is necessary as Don Key remarked and forgiveness by the victims is also necessary. It lightens your load.
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"when JFK's widow remarked "There are some things you never get over" I knew instinctively what she meant. For the victims there's years thinking of revenge then someday you realize that's a waste and it's for suckers, as mentioned in The Sting. I still think this nation is far to harsh in handing out sentences. Jails have not necessary made us more safe. I'm for programs that offer a way out and up for anyone. Repentance of the criminal is necessary as Don Key remarked and forgiveness by the victims is also necessary. It lightens your load. "
Posted by: eLwood

Well put eLwood. Sister Helen Prejean remarked that after an execution in Texas, a member of the murder victim's family said to her "It's not enough."

No, nothing can be enough to replace a loved one. And to make matters worse, with the death penalty, the circle of victims is widened. Another family is irreparably injured. The families of the executioners must suffer the conseuences of this policy (alchohol and substance abuse among those who carry out executions--from the actual executioners to the tie-down team--is rampant). No wonder critics say capital punishment brutalizes society.