Today is the end of the line for rapist and killer Paul Powell. It’s over. He will have his last meal. He is dead man walking. All the cliches. He dies tonight in the electric chair. It has been a long 11 year process to bring justice for this heinous crime.
Powell was convicted for raping and killing Yorkshire teen Stacie Reed. He also raped her sister and slit her throat. Her mother will attend the execution.
Powell will ‘ride the lightning.’ And after it is over, a mother is still left without a child, and a young woman is left without her sister. And all the riding of the lightning in the world really won’t right the wrong that has been done to this family.
link to the history on this horrific crime.
picture credits above
UPDATE: Paul Powell was pronounced dead at 9:09 pm tonight.
You know, I’ve always been supportive of the death penalty, primarily for the reasons showcased by Moon in this thread with regard to the vicious nature often associated with a particular crime. Back in the day when I was up against those who wanted to kill me either on a battlefield or off the battlefield, I wouldn’t hesitate to fight back lethally. But sometimes I ask myself if I could actually end the life of another human simply by inserting a needle or pulling an electrical switch when that human was in a helpless state before me. I’m not so sure that I could, even if the crime was absolutely and beyond all doubt horrendous. So, like all the rest of us, I let some other person do the job for me, not really knowing what thoughts may go through their mind in the process. I do ask myself at times how they can do it and stay on a stable mental course.
I recently heard a radio discussion with a lawyer from Texas whose entire career was spent defending death row prisoners. It seemed to me that he knew that most of his clients were guilty of terrible things, but he always had trouble accepting that the state could appoint itself as the instrument for putting someone to death. This lawyer did not strike me as someone whom you might call “soft on crime.” He had a genuine crisis of conscience.
A lady called in to defend the death penalty, stating that the citizens should not have to coddle murderers for the rest of their lives as they sat in a prison with good health care, three squares a day, free legal help, libraries, state-of-the-art exercise equipment, and multiple TV channels for entertainment. The lawyer responded by describing death row. The cells are tiny. You get out for exercise only one hour out of 24. You do not have TV. If you have enough money, you can buy a small radio, but that will only get a couple of stations, Most prisoners of this type have never read much in their lives, so the reading doesn’t come much into it. Then he said that, in many of the cases he had handled, the condemned man was so stifled by the conditions on death row that he looked forward to execution. I surmise that the lawyer was describing conditions only witnessed by himself in Texas.
Somehow the question by the caller and the lawyer’s response didn’t quite fit together. Then an actual high security prison guard called in. He corrected things by reminding everyone that a murderer who had been reprieved from a death sentence or who, in the absence of the death penalty, had been sentenced to life without parole was placed not on a death row but in the prison population. According to the guard, the privileges cited by the female caller were the least of his own worries in such a case. The guard pointed out that such a prisoner has absolutely nothing to lose. You have already given him the maximum sentence possible short of the death sentence. He can become a mortal danger to the guards and the other prisoners. If he kills again, what can you do? The sentence he already has is the absolute max. You cannot put him in the old-time “cooler” (solitary confinement) forever without having someone cry cruel and unusual punishment.
So, I thought to myself that, if we truly want to get past the basic idea of executions and especially the fear of executing an innocent person but, at the same time, avoid the danger posed to guards and other prisoners in the prison population, perhaps we ought to take some of the features of the death row and incorporate them into a place where these inmates who may merit but are not given the death sentence are forced to spend the rest of their lives in a solitary existence. What I do not know is whether this kind of punishment would pass legal muster any more than would the old-time “cooler.”
But what I did get from that very informative radio show was a feeling of how hard this question of death penalty or no death penalty is to resolve. There is an abbey out in the Midwest where the religious sisters, following the total opposition of their church to the death penalty, ring the abbey bell at the hour of an execution anywhere in America. Undoubtedly that bell was ringing tonight for Paul Powell. It is their form of protest against executions. Would they listen only to that young lawyer or would they also listen to the warnings from that very concerned prison guard? Someday I might just write a letter and ask.
I’m against the death penalty in most cases because of the many wrongful convictions that have come to light thanks to DNA testing; however, in this case… my only issue is that I don’t get to throw the switch.
Wolverine, living proof that there are no easy answers to complex questions. Thanks for addressing what should be an important component of the death penalty. As a young person fresh out of college I remember one of the worst fights with my to-be husband. I was all for rehabilitating the Boston Strangler and some other social deviant. I can’t recall whom now. At any rate, about a year out of that silly fight I changed my mind and joined the ranks of ‘Hang em High Harry’ and have rarely looked back.
How often I have said, since my ‘enlightenment,’ that I would gladly volunteer to pull the switch on some of the most heinous of these toads. That, however, is just mouth-flashing. How many people could actually, without hesitation, pull the switch or start the drip on someone in a helpless position? It might be easy to stop the person on the spot in the act of committing the crime. But to activate the process of killing a passive person? That one is a bit harder to call. Perhaps ‘pulling the switch’ isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. I, too, am glad someone else does the job for me.
I don’t think I could really do it (pull the switch) either. I think the idea of personally being responsible for ending someone’s life – would probably eventually drive me crazy or at least give me many sleepless nights afterwards. Even though their life deserves to be ended, in my opinion. I wonder how the executioners can find it within themselves to do that job, actually. It’s not a job I’d want.
Still, I’m glad that Powell’s day is finally coming. If anyone deserves the death penalty, he does.
I’ve always liked corporal punishment. Every morning, the murderer is awakened by being beaten with rubber hoses. Every morning for the rest of his life. He gets to go to bed knowing that tomorrow morning will bring pain.
Then fry him a year or two later when we get bored.
I see where Wolferine is coming from as I don’t think it’s entirely appropriate for the State to have the power to kill a citizen. But, the system is well balanced in that it’s not really the State having the power to do it as much as requesting from a representative sample of the citizenry (the jury) the power to kill a peer. Any one person within that jury can derail the State. I have to trust that my fellow citizens (yes, even the Obama supporters) are intelligent and diligent enough in that duty to remove any doubt that the crime was committed and that the ultimate penalty must be paid – to cull one of our own from the herd as unsuitable to exist.
That leads me to the personal belief that the State can kill its own citizens through due process. The only proposed change that I would have to our current system is that the State should send a bill to the family for the power used and cost of a last meal.
I have to trust my fellow citizens. I have to trust you with my life.
Thank you marin. And I do think you make a good point. There is a representative sample who has made the decision in the first place.
In Powell’s case, he shot himself in the foot. He is living proff that it should be painful to be stupid. The very idea of taunting Paul Ebert and then confessing to the crime, thinking he was safe. A big round of DUH. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
The link up in the post is pretty interesting. It is an interactive history of this case. Not your average news story. I think it was a special send from GR.
http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/powell_execution
Perhaps reading the Green Mile should be a prerequisite for anyone advocating the death penalty. I am satisfied with DNA, personally. I am sure in the past, innocent people were executed. Often the innocent people were poor and/or minority because they could not afford the end end lawyers. DNA puts many of those questionable executions in the past.
Yes, I did send you that link yesterday – and I thought it was interesting. I like the interactive presentation format too.
Well, I guess at this point it’s finally going to happen (his execution). There’s been so many appeals, delays, postponements – it’s a little hard to believe the day has actually come.
I am for the death penalty for really heinous murders – and I think this is one of those cases where it is really deserved. I also think it was deserved for the DC sniper, and for someone like Timothy McVeigh. All 3 of those cases just seemed really heinous, and in all 3, the murderer seems to have had no remorse. In Powell’s case, he really almost murdered two young people. I know the mother and the daughter who survived, are going to be witnessing Powell’s execution tonight. I hope it brings them some sense of closure or such, as of course nothing can bring back their family member, and they’ve been through an awful time of it especially with how Powell acted during his first trial, and then sending mocking letters to the Ebert, etc. Powell is a person who actually openly celebrated the fact he was the murderer, when he thought he couldn’t be retried again! Just for that, (and also in a way for just being plain stupid) I’m not sorry to see him being executed.
I’m hesitant on insisting that DNA needs to be a factor in any capital case as it then introduces problems and unintended consequences.
1. What if no DNA was recovered?
2. What if multiple sources of DNA was recovered?
3. What if DNA was recovered but the quality of the sample was low and/or not enough exists for an appeal?
Granted, thanks to Bush Jr. every baby born in the US now has it’s DNA collected and stored in a cushy governement database for future use……………..
I think the current system works well enough. It won’t be perfect nor will we ever have a perfect system (you would be shocked to know how much case law exists because people just do stupid things).
And many do-gooder (I mean that in a positive way) organizations exist to keep a check on the system. But, ultimately it falls onto those 12 people in the jury box.
Reminds me of the saying.. There are 4 boxes useful for the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo. 🙂
Odd way of looking at things, Marin. re boxes.
I am not ready to say all capital punishment must be based on DNA proof. You are right, there are some cases where it won’t apply. I want it used where appropriate.
Today I am deeply saddened for a life that was lost long, long ago. What Paul Powell did was horrific and he should be punished for his crime. However, having said that I am not a supporter of the death penalty for a variety of reasons that are too numerous to list here. I feel deeply sorry for the Reed family and the Powell family as well. I knew Paul Powell many years ago when he was a youngster. He was a very troubled child and unfortunately the system failed him, leaving him an angry and hostile person. I do not understand why his anger played out the way it did with a beautiful young lady losing her life and another coming close. Paul Powell will physically die tonight but in reality he died many, many years ago when he was just a youngster.
Marie, thanks for bringing that component to the table for consideration. And it is good to see you.
What is it that tips the scale one way or the other? Why does one person recover from a horrible childhood and someone else turn into a Paul Powell? What makes a person a Manson, a Dahmer, or any of the other names that have become famous because of horrendous acts.
And can our system prop up so many people? How many youngsters share similar circumstances to Pauls?
This gets back to how environment affects some people differently. I understand that Paul Powell was bullied when he was growing up. The question is, why do some people who are bullied turn into murderers, or mass murderers (such as the VA Tech shooter) and others don’t?
And of course there’s the far bigger question of what role environment plays on shaping someone like a Manson, a Dahmer, etc.
It seems like almost any murderer you can pick has had some difficulties in their childhood. However, I bet you can find many many other people who have had similar difficulties and turned out OK into what people would call “normal”.
Maybe these people had a rougher childhood than others, and maybe it was a combination of things that lead to them becoming the way they were. Or, maybe they weren’t well equipped to handle those problems, and maybe didn’t have a good support system.
However, knowing a fair amount about bullying – I can say that there are some people who had a rough time of it in their childhood, didn’t have a strong support system, but still turned out normal – or at least didn’t turn into murderers, rapists, etc.
I didn’t realize that Powell had been bullied. Interesting. I always thought he had been the bulliER rather than the Bullyee. I guess those 2 concepts go hand in hand.
George Michael, the killer of Alex Sztanko had been bullied horribly. Another sad Prince William County murder from a decade before.
Maybe I’m speaking incorrectly about that – so don’t take my word for it. I seem to remember reading something somewhere that he had been bullied – but maybe I’m mistaken.
Leaving Powell aside, the VA Tech killer is an example of someone who was bullied who turned into a mass murderer. And, supposedly the Columbine killers were made fun of too. None of that excuses their behavior in killing mass numbers of people, as far as I’m concerned.
I guess that goes to show – in some cases someone who is the “bullyee” can turn into the bad guy. But it doesn’t always happen that way.
And I’m sure not all “bullyers” grow up and become bad people as adults. Although, I bet a fair number do. I can think of a few from my school growing up – that I have no doubt odds are at least one of them (if not more) are probably behind bars now. They just appeared to have no real future, given their dismal grades, and their general behavior – then as criminals, from what I could tell.
Thank you Marie, what a very thoughtful post. I am with you and Woverine on this one, but there is a part of me, that wonders, if this were my little girl, brutalized and raped, would I feel the same way or would I feel like El Guapo, disapointed I didn’t get to pull the switch? I don’t know, I pray to G-d I will NEVER have to find out.
For me, we invest so much money into prisons, we have a capitalist economy built on crime. But what if, just what if, we invested our money on the front end instead, intervening in troubled families, really combating what brings people to commit crime to begin with. There will always be the outliers, just born bad to the bone, I believe that, however, I think most criminals probably have similar stories. The question for any civilized society, is how do we help change those stories, before they get cemented in painful outcomes.
It would start with people who are too young and ill-equipped to simply postponing having children, if i had anything to do with it.
It’s nice to read such thoughts on someone facing the death penalty. However, I have NOT one ounce of sympathy for Powell. I’m pro-death penalty. This guy so deserves to die, and the paper said he’s visited with his family today and made his last meal request. He did not want his last meal made public. Stacie sure wasn’t given the opportunity to meet with her family one last time. Glad my tax dollars will not longer be wasted on this piss poor excuse of a human’s food, shelter and health care. .
oops..health CARE.
Moon, would you mind fixing this?
I don’t feel sorry for him either. I think that people are making the point if there had been early intervention Paul wouldn’t have turned in to a killer. I am not sure if interventions are possible. There is a certain ownership people have with children. I am assuming his parents were inadequate parents from what has been said here and in the media.
Kids slip through the cracks in the system all the time, and they do not all turn out to “hometown murderers” always. I understand the point being made, but I can’t blame the system, parents and society for his behavior. The simple fact is there are just evil people walking the earth, and Powell is one of them. Luckily, he’s literally a “dead man walking”. We are responsible for our OWN actions and should be held accountable. Tonight Powell will long at last be held accountable. Long overdue.
That probably is indeed a very big piece of the problem right there. How you solve that part of the problem though – is another story – some people are not going to be convinced they are too young to start a family, no matter what you tell them.
That I think is a very valid point. Some kids even if not taken care of well by their parents, will somehow find it within themselves to turn out well. Again, it is a bunch of complex factors that seem to determine who will turn out to be very bad later in life, and who won’t.
Elena,
Yes, there should be more money put into prevention. As one who worked in a system that tried to care for troubled youth, I know the money is not there for early intervention or prevention because prevention is not measurable. Check the stats in any prison system and you will see that a disproportionate number of inmates were products of the foster care system. They were children that had been abandoned, felt no love or connection. Unfortunately many become hardened and heartless. It is sad to me that so many youth die emotionally and never recover.
I don’t feel sorry for Powell at all either. For one thing, what he did was terrible. Then, he was fortunate enough to escape the capital murder conviction the first time around. What does he do? He turns around and writes that stupid, nasty letter to Ebert – handing Ebert just exactly what he needs to secure a capital murder conviction against Powell. All because Powell was too stupid, too full of himself, etc. and thought he would have some fun taunting his former prosecutor – not realizing that he was actually writing a letter to his future prosecutor! What a fool! And, that letter kind of convinces me he has no redeeming value to society. He practically boasted about what he did, and seemed proud of it! What a nice person….
I agree, and for those really evil people, the death penalty is appropriate – as far as I’m concerned.
And we can argue nurture vs nature forever and never come up with an answer.
What make one person born into horrible circumstances with deviant parents strive to escape and to go on and make something of themselves nd yet another end up like Powell?
I certainly don’t know.
The execution is scheduled to take place at 9 pm.
What ever happened to that jury forewoman who claimed to have fallen in love with Powell?
I agree – and I think no one can answer those questions. I suppose if someone had the answer to those questions, we might have a lot less evil/bad people in the world.
When I read that interactive article – I had forgotten all about the jury forewoman from the first trial. But reading it – I wondered the same thing! I wonder what is going through her mind tonight regarding Powell! Is she still in love with him? I guess we may never know. Talk about crazy stuff though – who would ever have thought the jury forewoman would develop romantic feelings for the person she is supposedly impartially deciding upon whether he is guilty or not guilty!
I guess then – T minus about 39 minutes right now – until they fire up the chair! I figure it’s a bit like lighting up a rocket engine – so the “t minus countdown” is a bit appropriate!
Old Sparky was working tonight.
http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/crime/article/paul_powell_dies_in_electric_chair/54200/
Well, that should put an end to rape and murder once and for all.
If only. At least it put an end to one person who rapes and murders. What a strange twisted story.
One can only wish the death penalty would be a real deterrent to those thinking about committing rape or murder. Somehow, those people don’t care – or figure they won’t get caught, or whatever. Well, who knows what goes on in the minds of those kinds of people. I think most normal people cannot really fathom how those people’s minds work. Quite frankly, I don’t even want to know how their brains work – it must be a really twisted form of thinking where the normal rules of logic and common sense fly out the window, and there are some really deep dark thought processes involved.
However, one hopes that the death penalty has served as a deterrent in a few cases and prevented a rape or murder from happening.
MH is right though – Powell’s story was a strange and twisted one – as presented in that facscinating interactive piece on the insidenova.com website – that was posted at the very top of this thread. I for one had no memory of the fact that the woman who headed up the jury as foreperson in the first trial, fell in love with Powell. Yet another crazy twist on this totally bizarre story! And, while I’m sure there are other cases – I don’t know of another case where the bad guy, after not getting the death penalty in his first trial – was stupid and arrogant enough to write a crazy letter to the prosecutor handing him the evidence he needed to gain a capital murder conviction! I’m sure this isn’t the first time it has happened, but it is pretty unique, nevertheless! Altogether, a really strange and twisted story, as MH says!
It certainly has quite a history behind it. These days though, I think most people choose the lethal injection method. I wonder what made Powell choose Old Sparky, but I guess we’ll never know.
I am a bit disappointed that Powell asked that his choice of last meal not be disclosed. I kind of find it interesting to see what the bad guys request for their last meal. There was once an interesting article by some jail warden who worked on death row – about the choices of last meals, and how he worked hard to fulfill them, even though his budget was limited.
FOIA the information. I expect the state would have to tell you. It was paid for by the taxpayer.
Can you find the warden link? I would like to read it also.
I tried, but I sure couldn’t find it. All I found was some page that showed a bunch of meal requests from death row prisoners in Texas! I really wish I could find that article.
I’ve never done an FOIA – and really have no idea how to do one, and actually – it’s kind of very very very low on my list of things for me to do in my spare time. I’ve got bigger fish to fry right now in my spare time (going after my builder after yesterday’s waste of time visit by them to my house to fix things – they either didn’t fix the major issues – or the fixes of minor issues in some cases left them looking worse than they were before the fix!).
I guess while I’m curious about Powell’s last meal – I’m not that curious that I want to make time to put in an FOIA request about it! If someone else does, be my guest! However, at this point Powell’s dead, and that’s the most important thing. What he had to eat before he died is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things!