Thursday, November 14, 2019

Last Words

In Louisiana three people have been given the death penalty from 2000-present. Something I think is interesting to see is their last words. I think this is a good way to see if these people who committed these horrible acts could really be rehabilitated. The way I look at it is they know their going to die no matter what they say so wouldn't they be truthful? I'm not exactly sure on that one but anyways here are the last three criminals who were put to death in Louisiana. I listed their names, execution date, last words, and an extremely brief explanation of why they were put to death. Of course they had other previous crimes counted against them as well. I highly recommend checking out what I linked down below. It's their detailed crime reports and more. Based on their last words, do you think these three criminals could be rehabilitated?

Feltus Taylor: robbed and murdered Donna Ponsano in 1991
Executed on June 6, 2000
"I want to tell you, Keith, and the Ponsano family (the victim's family) , that I've always regretted what I have done. It was my own doing. After this is over with, I hope you can find the peace to move on." For his last meal, Taylor ate onion rings, barbecued ribs and shrimp, corn on the cob and toast and cheesecake, prison officials said. His attorney, Ms Michelle Fournet, attended the execution. After the district court refused to block Taylor's death earlier on Tuesday, she said there were no other appeals left to file. His surviving victim Mr Clark said after the execution: "I felt justice was done. I had gone out on a limb for him and then he shot me."

 Leslie Dale Martin: raped, tortured, and murdered Christina Burgin in 1991
Executed on May 10, 2002

Martin declines to make a final statement before execution.
Gerald Bordelon: murdered, raped, and abducted his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002
Executed on January 7, 2010
"I'm sorry. I don't know if that brings any closure or peace. It should have never happened, but it did, and I'm sorry," he said, choking up and halting to collect himself. His eyes red-rimmed from crying, Bordelon added, "I'd like to apologize to my family and tell them that I love them."

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, I don’t really think that any of these people could have been rehabilitated. There is no going back once a person intentionally takes any human life. I am not saying that I agree with the death penalty or not, but I do think that life in prison is at least necessary. For someone to commit a crime as horrible as these, they have to have something wrong with them and whatever that is, I think it’s unfixable. Some of you may disagree saying that everybody deserves a second chance, but I just think that with a crime as horrible as these, it is too much of a risk to the public to ever release them.

November 16, 2019 at 10:03 PM
Bharat Solanky said...

I agree with the previous comment, as these people were very brutal in their crimes, and it would be hard to justify an attempt at rehabilitating them. When someone takes the life of another, they, even if it was just for one second, saw the positives of killing the other person outweigh the negatives, and took action based upon it. Life is precious, and, in my opinion, it is hard to forgive the taking of it. That being said, I think sentencing them to the death penalty is also extreme and maybe some other form of sentencing would be more appropriate.

November 17, 2019 at 12:10 PM

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