Having a big mouth just doesn’t pay sometimes. Powell stupidly shot off his mouth in a letter to Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert and confessed to raping and brutally killing Stacie Reed, thinking that he couldn’t be tried twice. It didn’t work out so well for him. He got a stay of execution at the last minute back in July and his case headed for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will not stop his execution. The wheels of justice sometimes grind very slowly.
Hot off the press from Manassas News and Messenger:
The United States Supreme Court will not stop the execution of a man charged with killing a 16-year-old girl at her Yorkshire home in 1999.
Paul Warner Powell was set to be executed for the murder of Stacie Reed in July but the Supreme Court postponed the execution, saying they needed more time to decide if they would review the case.
The Supreme Court decided this week not to intervene.
A new execution date has not yet been set.
Powell was convicted of capital murder for killing and attempting to rape Stacie at the family’s Yorkshire home on Jan. 29, 1999. He was also convicted of raping and attempting to kill Kristie, who survived.
Powell said he killed Stacie because she was dating a black man. He is a self avowed white supremacist.
Now Powell only has 2 things to ponder: Old Sparky or the Big Drip in the Sky. I hope he choses to ride the lightning bolt out of here. It should be painful to be both evil and stupid. The links below include an interview with News and Messenger reporter Uriah Kiser when he thought the Powell execution was a go. The News and Messenger has an excellent timeline.
Links
Background from News and Messenger (U. Kiser)
UPDATE FROM MANASSAS NEWS AND MESSENGER
I’d be happy to throw the switch…
Make no mistake, this man has reached this point because he committed two horrible crimes. I also feel a sense of guilt. Prince William County failed this man. Knowing him as a middle school student, it was obvious there were serious problems. So much in his life was failing him and it seems that he feel through the cracks. So I understand the punishment, but I wonder about how this might have been different if Paul Powell had gotten the help he needed. It might not have made a bit of difference, but I will always wonder.
@Opinion
I’m right there with you. This is long overdue.
Thanks for your thoughtful insight, NokesvilleNeighor.
He certainly isn’t the only one either. When parents don’t cut it sometimes the other adults need to pick up the slack. Difficult at best, nearly impossible at worst.
The person who hits me like that is the killer of Alex Sztanko, Michael George (executed in 1997, I think). He has a long history of brutal behavior that very few people knew about. I had a friend who worked with him at Quantico who said he had been so very nice to the older women before he was incarcerated. He would walk them to their car if it was late at night.
What I will never ever forget is a letter written to the Journal Messenger after he was captured for killing Alex. The writer said that George had ridden his school but and that all the kids teased him. He was younger and the writer didn’t even say why he had been teased and bullied, just that he had. He wondered if that behavior, that he had participated in, had made a kid grow up to be a killer. I will never forget the letter or the questions it raised. What tips a person over the edge?
Human behavior is complicated but we always need to reflect on these questions. Somehow all of these cases can’t be chalked up to someone being just a ‘bad seed.’
Sometimes we just have to accept that some people are evil. I have a cousin, son of a millionaire, who is just a worthless POS of a human being. He had all the advantages growing up and he turned into a drug addict and killed a woman while DUI. He’s had the best defense that money can buy, and all it does is make him more bold. He thinks he can get away with it because he has. Sure, maybe, MAYBE help could have turned this man’s life around. And maybe not.
This man was clearly sick and didn’t get the early intervention he needed. If nothing else, he should have been institutionalized long ago.
“Prince William County failed this man. Knowing him as a middle school student, it was obvious there were serious problems. So much in his life was failing him and it seems that he feel through the cracks. ”
You can look at this from the other direction. What does a sick, evil, worthless person look like as a youngster, when they aren’t yet empowered to rape and kill? Probably like someone falling through cracks and being failed by people.
This guy is the best arguement I’ve seen recently for the death penalty. He raped two girls, to have sex (the white supremacist angle doesn’t wash as a primary motivation for rape), tried to kill them (did kill one) afterwards, then while they bled out sat down and drank some tea, then robbed the house and went off to buy crack. After incarcerated, he attempted to taunt the family.
Some people should be put down ASAP and this is one.
It’s about time, this one has been a long time coming, given that he has shown no remorse and even continued to basically boasting about it in his letter to Ebert when he was stupid enough to think he couldn’t be tried again for the murder.
So now the only questions are when will it happen and which method will he choose?
I don’t disagree that that he needs to be executed. I would pull the switch.
However, Nokeville brings up a good point. Are there kids out there who if things were different, wouldn’t grow into convicts and criminals, rapists and murderers?
Then people who live in the lap of luxury, both parents are around, still turn into deranged POS’s. Geoffrey Damer, Hinkley, all come to mind.
Please don’t misinterpret my words as in any way wanting to not execute this toad.
I feel as if sufficient revenge, if that’s what society wants, could come with life in prison, and time to contemplate what he had done. I feel very uncomfortable about taxpayer funded executions, same as I feel uncomfortable about taxpayer funded abortions.
Witness too, there are no line item vetos on how taxpayer money is spent. Others feel that way about war. Executions have been around since the birth of this country, rightly or wrongly. This POS has shown no remorse. Read the 2 referenced links to see the history of this case. This is one worthless person.
M-H’s right, Powell’s shown no remorse what so ever. He mocked our justice system, and now he will fry for it. And rightfully so. This execution has been drug out long enough all avenues for appeals has be exhausted. The date can not be soon enough.
In this case, Powell’s death can be viewed as a suicide, with his idiotic taunting letter. I don’t have a huge problem with this one.
“and time to contemplate what he had done”, and we think he will? Some people are just not you and me who would think about what evil they have done.
I thought there was a law about no federal money going for abortions? I thought it was pretty widely accepted, maybe not as a line item. You’re right about war though. Some would prefer federal money not be spent for war. I guess huge deficits and putting the country into unprecedented debt is okay if the money goes toward creating wars. But if 1/10 of that money goes toward saving the country from the George W. Bush Economic Crisis, it’s time to go bananas. So how government money is spent depends on your views on how you feel about such things.
As for the person being a POS and having no remorse, well I can say that yes he is a horrible person. But for something as permanent as death, I’d prefer the Lord be the judge, not me and not society.
He (the Lord) will get to do that real soon I am happy to say. Society has every right to judge people who violently break its rules.
If Emma agrees to snuffing this POS, then he has passed the POS test for sure.
I think that’s an excellent point. All he would do is spend more time taunting the family and the prosecutors with more letters, most likely. He doesn’t appear to be the type of person who is capable either of remorse, or of even contemplating that what he did was evil.
I struggle with the death penalty as a judicial sanctioned response. However, I have a little girl, and if her final moments had been at the hands of this sick person, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t want to witness his death.
The point Nokesville makes is important. How, as a civilized society, do we identify and prevent these types of horrific events. I do not believe in evil but I do believe in mental illness and brain dysfuntion.
He does think about what he’s done. While he pleasures himself. He’s twisted.
Whether it’s evil or mental illness, either way I have no problem seeing him put down, and only hope he suffers. I’m a big believer in “do the crime, do the time”. I strongly support, for example, applying the death penalty to the retarded – or to that 10-year old kid who shot his dad.
Unfortunately, there are certain types of murders out there who just are evil. John Allen Muhammad – the DC sniper, is one of them. From what I’ve read on Powell – and I don’t think I’ve followed this as closely as others here have – he seems to be another. These people just are evil, and don’t really have any redeeming features from what I can tell. Both of these people are part of the very small piece of society that does unfortunately make a good case for the death penalty.
There’s absolutely no way to prevent every one of these types of crimes. And, when crimes similar to what occurred in these two cases do happen, I think the death penalty is appropriate. Although, some people would say let them contemplate the jail cell for the rest of their life. Maybe so, but these people seem to feel the did no wrong, and would just spend the rest of their life feeling they are wrongly incarcerated/victims of the system, etc.
That’s my opinion on it. I just think Powell and Muhammad are two people that make an excellent argument for the death penalty – in their two specific cases.
As an eleven year old boy, Paul Powell was not evil. He was an angry, lonely, abused, and neglected little boy. And when I say little, I mean small in stature. He was constantly looking for ways to get attention. I am sure that his lack of feeling and remorse comes from not knowing what they are. He is a shell, empty. More than likely this was all he knew in his own life.
The thing is, they are many people in the world like that, who suffered abuse, or bullying, as children. They did not become murderers/rapists.
If everyone who was severely bullied or abused as a child turned bad, we would have a much worse world to live in than we do now.
March 18, 2010 is the execution date. Then it will time to fire up good ole sparky.
http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/manassas/article/march_execution_date_set_for_powell/51168/
I believe some people are evil. Some are mentally ill and some people have brain dysfunction. Some people just don’t care about others enough. The ends justify the means. I am ready to snuff any of them who kill or rape.I don’t care if they are young or if they are not fully functioning. I see no point in saving them. The only way to make absolutely certain these criminal types don’t harm society is to execute them.
I agree, some people are just plain evil. This person is one of them. Good to see they set the execution date.
NokesvilleNeighbor has a good point, as do some others here. Even if you are a stranger, there are times when an adult has to step in and lend a helping hand to someone who is being bullied and may possibly become very bitter in later life because of it. During my Neighborhood Watch foot patrols, I have occasionally seen kids on the way home from school being followed and bullied by other, usually bigger kids. Rather than going after the bullies directly, I usually walk up to the kid being bullied and greet him like I know him well, ask him how things are going at school, how his mama is getting along, all kinds of little things which make the others believe the boy has a close friend in the older guy in Neighborhood Watch. Works every time. The bullies leave the area with their eyes wide open and their chins hanging down, and Neighborhood Watch makes sure the younger kid gets home without further harassment simply by watching him as he goes. I have noticed these kids subsequently getting home much more frequently without having to run for it when the coast is clear. Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot turn away from that kind of stuff.
I don’t deny the problems with bullying. I speak from personal experience having had a very rough childhood with bullying. I don’t want to get into details – other than it was a physical defect later corrected by plastic surgery when I was a teenager, but I did not escape the bullying until I got to college. I really got little help in terms of how to handle it growing up, but it did not make me into a criminal.
No question though, bullying is very bad. As I said, I speak from personal experience enduring it all the years I grew up until I got into college and away from the crowd I grew up with. Even though my physical deformity was corrected when I was in 7th grade, that did not stop the bullying from continuing through 12th grade.
And it did not help that physically, I was always small and thin in stature, therefore at a very large disadvantage to the bigger bullies. I am slightly below average in height, and always have been so was growing up too.
Dude, if it’s one less car on 66 in the morning, spark him up!!
Now that got me laughing this morning!!
Lafayette, I am going to ask you to be our chief chimer and remind us when Powell is about ready to go for that last lighning bolt ride.
GR, as you pointed out, many kids have problems growing up. But being bullied didn’t turn you into a killer. I think we probably know more about putting man on the moon that we know about the human psyche and what makes one person lead a normal productive life and what turns another into some freak of nature.
I agree 100% with what you say above. The human brain is a very complex thing, and indeed, it is not quantifiable why one person can handle a certain environment effectively and another person cannot.
That said, I still suffer lingering effects from my childhood, and it was only upon graduating from college really that I began to realize that and sought professional help. It has gotten me to the point of understanding a lot of psychology. It is for reasons like that – for example in another thread I said one reason I did not see the 9500 Liberty film and am waiting for it on cable/DVD – is I really have an aversion to movie theaters or large crowded places. It is rare that I will go to the movie theater, and I’m usually uncomfortable the whole time. That is my primary reason for not taking up one of the recent opportunities to see the film.
Anyway, gives you a small taste of after-effects of bullying. I don’t deny they can be huge, and they have had an effect to various aspects of my life. It is a lifelong struggle to overcome it, at least for me. Then again on an average day I was bullied at least twice if not more. I used to mentally keep track of “average bullying incidents a day” as I was always into statistics. My parents used to want me to tell them about it – I never let on to them how bad it was – I let them think it was maybe one or two incidents a week. That’s because they’d always want to get the school involved, and I found it just created more problems – the bullies did not like being tattled on, as I found out! So, through all my school year until graduating from high school, starting early on probably in 2nd or 3rd grade as I remember, i endured it on a daily basis. It is a no-brainer that this sort of thing, would lead to lifelong after-effects, no matter how much professional help one gets. Still, it did not make me a murderer/rapist/criminal – and at times I’m tired of hearing that excuse for people such as the Virginia Tech killer, or for someone like Powell. They may have (and probably did) have an even worse childhood than me (although I might debate it about the Virginia Tech killer) – but I still have a problem with giving them much sympathy for how they turned out. I have sympathy for what they went through, but not for the actions they did later on in life.
Now, my father grew up near the large prison in the city of Trenton, NJ, where they had the electric chair. He and his friends used to like to hang outside the prison when they knew there was going to be an execution. Their reason: they hoped to see the street lights dim when the electric chair went off. Unfortunately, they were disappointed – obviously it doesn’t quite work that way.
I like that Lafayette is the official watcher as the time of execution draws close – to remind us how many minutes it is to go, or whatever!
Does anyone know how many volts the chair operates at, or how much current it passes? Curious as to the total power that will be applied to him on March 18. Kind of in the same way my father was curious to see if the streetlights outside the prison would dim when they threw the big switch! I know, it’s a bit morbid….
Gainesville Resident — I recall seeing a video on this business of watching all the lights dim when Old Sparky was doing his designed duty. Turns out it is naught but an urban legend created by Hollywood. If I recall correctly, Old Sparky was always on a separate and special power grid from that for the rest of the prison buildings.
That’s exactly what I figured Wolverine. My father eventually figured that out too – something like Old Sparky would require its own dedicated circuit obviously. I never thought about the legend being created in Hollywood though! Makes sense, that some Hollywood movies must have shown the lights dim when they pulled the big switch on some movie villain!