On the news the reports from a doctor says his front temporal right side of his brain is wired so he could not cannot control his impulses. Personally I do not buy into that. Others with the same type of brain scans do not rape and murder little girls.
2007-03-14 07:19:30 · 5 answers · asked by luminous 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Yes. He has outraged an entire community and I believe that the system in Florida is ready to make an example out of him. Right now there are far too many sex crimes being committed against young children across this nation. Florida does not have a precedent set already for crimes such as this. With all the outrage I find it hard to believe the Florida court won't use this opportunity to finally lay down a precedent and cool the fire that Couey and his abhorrent behavior has caused. Further, I do not believe the people of Florida are buying into his 'insanity' defense either and they would be further incensed if he were given any less punishment than he completely deserves. Florida's elected judges and prosecutor's would suffer the consequences if they allowed that to happen.
2007-03-14 10:43:19 · answer #1 · answered by redwinegirl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Florida has executed five people in the last year. They are the number five state nationally in executions. So they are arguably not shy about the death penalty (link 1).
So I tried to find similar cases in the past. Though the crime is inarguably heinous, there are some mitigating factors: though he's been arrested many times, he's never been found guilty of a crime of this magnitude before (mostly unwelcome kissing and robbery), his crime arguably befits a person of someone with very limited intelligence (a locked door would probably have stopped him, and the body was hidden so poorly that it was found within a couple weeks), and he is arguably the victim himself of lifelong abuse. It might even be argued that he didn't even directly kill the girl (he didn't), but just couldn't figure out any other way to hide her permanently (with an unfortunately far more heinous outcome than if he HAD killed her).
I went back a year or two, and couldn't find evidence of anyone with limited mental capacity being executed in Florida, despite their relatively high number of cases. I DID find evidence of them being manipulated and testifying against other people when they were on trial, but not given the death penalty themselves. There have been other people executed for just one murder before, however, so that's not too much of an obstacle.
But I think the intelligence is going to be a deal breaker. If his attourney is correct, it may not even be legal to apply the death penalty in Florida to John Couey. Federal laws prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded, and the generally accepted level for this is an IQ of 70. Couey's IQ is 64 (link 2).
So I don't think you're going to see a death penalty in this case. There's little precedent for it, and it may not even be legal. And that alone is probably enough to save him.
Of course, if you want to talk about whether he SHOULD be executed, that's a completely different question...
2007-03-14 16:37:12 · answer #2 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
he might get the death penalty but i doubt it since he only killed person and since he has a problem with his brain he wont get the death penalty even if he does deserve it
2007-03-14 15:30:13 · answer #3 · answered by julina t 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably.
2007-03-14 14:29:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, by all means....He should be killed.
He should suffer the same fate as the little girl.
.......................................................
If anyone does not agree with me.
They need to seek help, ASAP.
2007-03-14 14:29:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋