South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Moeller execution set for 10:00 pm Tuesday
Fellow South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:
At 10:00 pm on Tuesday, 30 October, for the second time in as many weeks, South Dakota will kill a man. State officials are set to execute Donald Moeller for the 1990 murder of Becky O’Connell at the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls in the name of the State of South Dakota. Not, however, in the name of all South Dakotans.
A coalition led by the South Dakota Peace & Justice Center (SDPJC), Pax Christi, and South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (SDADP) will be holding a vigil for Moeller’s execution outside the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. The vigil is set to begin at 8:00 pm at the base of the penitentiary flagpole on North Drive, and you are invited to join us.
The prayerful, nonviolent gathering will be a time for song, a time for silent reflection, and a time for solidarity with all victims of violence and respect for life in all its forms. Participants are asked to bring lawnchairs and wind-proof candles, and to dress warmly.
If you are unable to make it to Sioux Falls on Tuesday night, please let us know if you would like to and are able to hold a solidarity vigil in your hometown.
I’ll be that guy. World won’t miss him.
You are right, don’t think there will be too many broken hearts, but that is not the point I am making. My point is my taxdollars going to KILLING people. Government does not have that right unless we are in a war or self defense. Let him slobber on himself for the rest of his life in a cold dark cell. He has already been there a very long time, what’s 20 more years?
A guy rapes and kills a little girl. He hemorrhages the state of millions of tax dollars trying to get out of his crime.
In my eyes, this is self defense. The government is protecting itself and the greater good by executing Moeller. He will never rape, kill, bully, threaten, or intimidate again.
The evidence was overwhelming and damning.
I don’t think every person that is on death row should be there, nor should they be executed. However, Moeller’s case is cut and dry. It is what it is.
rtunate that
BJ – Actually, if they would have just sentenced him to life, we would have saved millions. I just have a problem with my taxdollars assisting in suicides. If he wants to die, throw a rope into his cell. If he doesn’t, throw him in general population and see how he fares. But please, stop using my money to put the animal down.
DL- You keep calling it a suicide. It is anything but. You are just looking at number. I am saying that this is money well spent. The State PROTECTED his his rights and gets to kill him. I mean the punishment fits the crime. At least you can see that the State did better spending the money than does the federal government when it comes to proscuting people or military budgets. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who would shoot him for just the expense and the time to put a bullet through his brain, but then you would complain that it is vigilantism.
Keeping him alive for 22 years and spending millions on his appeals is money well spent? If they would have sentenced him to life it would be way less expensive.
DL is right… it has been shown in study after study that it is cheaper to sentence a person to life than it is to put them on death row due to all the extra appeals legal loopholes.
I don’t mind suicide actually… I’d just rather see the inmates make that choice themselves. Put a cyanide capsule in each death row cell and if the inmate wants to off themselves have it at. I’d even spring for a bottle of Evian to wash it down.
If death penalties would be run like they were in the past (swift and public) and not pussified as they now are they would work, wouldn’t cost us $millions to carry out and would be an effective deterrent. Instead we have a court system that is more concerned about the rights of child rapists/murderers than the children whom they rape and murder. It took more than TWICE as long as Becky O’Connell had been ALIVE to put her killer to death! That’s ridiculous! I’m all for everyone taking advantage of all the rights afforded them by law. But we all know Moeller was a shitbag. He had a page of felonies. This was just the cherry on top. Lethal injection was too kind for someone like Moeller. Moeller should have been burned alive or tied to the back of a truck and dragged down the highway. The going figure is that it cost us $1.2 million to house Moeller in the state prison. Our society needs a lot of other things for that $1.2 million – teachers, doctors, scientists, cures to diseases. Donald Moeller could have been taken care of for a lot less than that.
xd, it is suicide by state. He gave up his appeals and asked the judge to just end his life for him because he could not stand being in his own skin any longer.
Mug, there should be no state sponsored suicides. Do you understand the number of NOT guilty persons who have been released once the evidence has been properly analyzed? The death of one not guilty person is not worth the death of all the guilty.
I think it has been clearly determined that Don was no peach. That is not the point here. By sentencing someone to death, we have given them more rights and opportunities to challenge their conviction. It is stupid. Sentence them to life and they can sit in their cell and plot their own appeal w/o taking it money from taxpayers.