I can't believe that it has been ten years since the Oklahoma City bombing. At the time, I was young and busy, in the middle of closing a six-month deal and could barely take time out to go to a conference room and watch the news. Now I have two children and the tragedies of that day haunt me.
When I was in law school doing volunteer death penalty work, our supervisors taught us about voir dire in capital cases. Jurors can be challenged for cause if they admit that they could not impose the death penalty under any circumstances. (The death penalty in Texas is "the Law," and jurors have to be able to apply "the Law.") So, a defense attorney will want to resurrect jurors who look like they are close to saying that they could not impose the death penalty. The trick is to come up with a hypo that is so horrific that any juror will admit that they could impose the death penalty in that situation. The one example our supervisors used? What if a madman blew up a building full of babies and children.
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1. Posted by Tung Yin on April 21, 2005 @ 9:12 | Permalink
What if a madman blew up a building full of babies and children.
Although I think the death penalty is probably a bad policy move, as well as cost inefficient, I have a hard time mustering up outrage over McVeigh's execution. I understand the abolitionist arguments and there're not unreasonable, but the fact that McVeigh cased the Murrah Building and therefore had to know that there was a daycare center inside is just too much to take. And I felt that way even before our little son was born.
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