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4:45 p.m. The first of the protestors have arrived.
About a dozen or so members of Amnesty International and Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty held signs begging for leniency. Regardless of Rolling’s crimes, killing should not be punished with more killing, they said.
“The first thing I noticed about death row was 90 percent of people on death row couldn’t afford a lawyer,” said Mark Elliott, the spokesman for FADP and the Florida death penalty abolitionist for Amnesty, “That, to me, is not the American I love and where I was born.”
In the entire history of Florida, since before it was a state, Elliott said, no white person has ever been executed for killing a black person.
Asked what he would say to the families of Rolling’s victims - those who have waited for 16 years for this day - Elliott thought quietly.
He said he has had a loved one who was murdered, although he declined to discuss the specifics.
“Everyone grieves differently,” he said. “I wouldn’t choose to tell anyone how they should grieve.”
Across a grassy field and past a thatch of small trees, about 30 people came to support Rolling’s execution.
Johnnie Fellabaum, a slight 74-year-old woman wearing a blue and orange University of Florida jogging suit, drove to the prison with her daughter. Both are Florida Gator fans and remember Rolling’s crimes.
“We wanted to be sure he gets his reward today,” Fellabaum said. “We hope he is executed at 6 p.m. today so his victims can get some rest, finally.”
Why are people protesting not to have the death penalty? All you care about is that it looks as if we’re hypocrites because we’re killing someone who killed. But you shouldn’t look at it like that. This sick freak deserves more than lethal injection. His vicitms and their families suffered so much and all he got was an awesome meal and a painless death. Now you’re tellinng me that’s justice? Yea he’s off the streets but I beleive he should have died in the electric chair or maybe even we should stab and behead him as he did to others. 16 years in prison and a painless death = NO JUSTICE
So all you protestors are crazy defendig the non death penalty because it’s not even harmful.
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Posted by Marsha Cross, Appleton, WI on 01/24 at 05:44 PM
People that oppose the death penalty are not crazy. However, people that believe that stabbing and beheading a person for “justice” are crazy.
What you are saying makes you absolutely no better than Danny Rolling. You are filled with hate, anger and violence.
The taking of any human life is a horrid act—whether it be by a serial killer or an executioner of the State.