I certainly see both sides of this argument! The post conviction DNA submissions have solved many a cold case, but I see Scalia's point, where to we draw the line! I also can also wrap my head around the stance that DNA is like photos and fingerprints....Not exactly sure where I fall on this one! Glad the scum is in prison though!


http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-says-police-dna-upon-arrest-210911486.html

By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a major victory for law enforcement agencies, a divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled that police can take a DNA sample from someone who has been arrested and charged but not convicted of a serious crime.
In a narrow 5-4 vote, the court handed a victory to the state of Maryland by saying that taking DNA samples from arrestees was similar to taking fingerprints. Of the 50 states, 29 have laws that allow DNA samples prior to conviction in certain instances, as does the federal government. All 49 other states backed Maryland in the case.
The Supreme Court reversed a decision made last April by Maryland's highest court that overturned the 2010 conviction and life sentence of Alonzo Jay King for a rape committed seven years earlier.
In a majority opinion, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said DNA samples can be taken if police have probable cause to detain a suspect facing charges relating to a "serious offense."
Taking a sample using a swab inside the cheek is "like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure," he wrote.
King's right under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment to be free from unreasonable search and seizure had therefore not been violated, Kennedy added.
The ruling sparked vigorous dissent from conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who accused the majority of undermining the protections enshrined by the Fourth Amendment. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, all from the liberal wing of the court, sided with Scalia.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler welcomed the decision, calling it a "resounding victory for law enforcement." He said laws like the one in Maryland helped close "unsolvable cold cases" and could help exonerate those wrongly accused.
King's attorneys at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender did not respond to requests seeking comment.
A sample King gave after a 2009 arrest on assault charges linked him to a 2003 rape and he was sentenced to life in prison. However, the Maryland appeals court concluded that his were violated by being required to provide a DNA sample.
One of the key questions before the Supreme Court was whether police could take his DNA sample when, at the time of the test, they had no evidence linking him with the rape.
SMOKEY BEAR
It remains unclear if Monday's ruling could open the floodgates to broader DNA collection efforts.
Kennedy said the court's decision was limited to those arrested for a "serious offense." That is a phrase from the Maryland DNA law, which defines a serious offense as a crime of violence or burglary.
However, the National Association of Federal Defenders says federal law could allow DNA samples to be taken for various misdemeanors - even including unauthorized use of Smokey Bear, a cartoon character used by the U.S. Forest Service to warn people about the dangers of fires.
William Jay, a lawyer at the Goodwin Procter law firm who filed the group's brief supporting King, said the ruling left open a significant question as to how it would apply to people not arrested for serious violent crimes.
Scalia dismissed Kennedy's claim that the ruling was limited, saying that in practice he thought that under the court's rationale, DNA could be taken after any arrest.
The states that have DNA collection laws limit the application to those arrested for certain felonies, according to a brief filed by the 49 other states in support of Maryland.
Nevada passed its own law just last week. Jayann Sepich, who runs a nonprofit organization "DNA Saves," which advocates DNA collection laws, said she was hoping legislation would be enacted in next Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Monday's ruling was "incredibly important," she said, because DNA collection laws can solve crimes and prevent repeat offenders from committing further offenses.
DNA has already been collected from 1.3 million arrested suspects and 10 million convicted people nationwide, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case is Maryland v. King, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 207.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and David Brunnstrom)

I know.  Don't get me wrong it is justified, and you should feel relief that you are safe, but still know the gravity of what just happened.  Its not like pushing the plunger on an obviously guilty rapist or murderer.

No doubt, in the aftermath, there would be major guilt, we are not sociopaths, as you said earlier, however, armed or unarmed, it is a justifiable homicide...self defense!

I'm with your buddy, some asshole sneeks into my house he/she is going to meet the business end of a .45! 

Hutch

I prefer shotgun, you are nervous when this happens, so less easier to miss, unarmed, F*** it, you have no business in my house!

I think we call shooting a home invader "Taking out the Trash" LOL! You have a right to defend your home!

Welcome to the site! 

Sorry, I missed you in chat, but I was at the Phillies vs. Boston...WHOO HOO Phils won 4-3.

Rest in Peace Christine, justice was served for you and your loved ones. 

Not a Death Penalty case but it SHOULD BE!!! 
My heart goes out to that poor 16 year old boy who will have to live with this memory his entire life, let us pray that he did not contract HIV and possibly his own death sentence from it because of the horrible actions of that crazy, sick bastard!

He WILL be okay, the post exposure prophylaxis is very effective...But I agree, this is death penalty worthy! 

Gee, I wonder why he didn't ask for DNA to be tested  From his 2002 appeal

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Elmer+Leon+Carroll&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=2%2C31

BACKGROUND

Carroll was convicted for first-degree murder and sexual battery on a child under twelve years of age. The facts in this case are set forth in greater detail in Carroll v. State, 636 So.2d 1316 (Fla.1994). The relevant facts are as follows:

On October 30, 1990, at about 6 a.m., Robert Rank went to awaken his ten-year-old stepdaughter, Christine McGowan, at their home in Apopka. When she did not respond to his calls, Rank went into her bedroom and found her dead. Shortly thereafter, Rank noticed that his front door was slightly ajar and that his pickup truck he had parked in the yard with the keys in it the night before was missing. When the police arrived, they determined that Christine had been raped and strangled. A BOLO was issued for the missing truck, which was a white construction truck bearing the logo ATC on the side.
Id. at 1317. Shortly thereafter, the truck was seen parked on the side of a highway and Carroll was observed walking about one mile down the road from the truck. Carroll was subsequently stopped and searched, and the keys to the truck were found on Carroll. Two witnesses had also observed Carroll driving the truck earlier that morning. Blood was found on Carroll's sweatshirt and genitalia, and semen, saliva, and pubic hair recovered from the victim were consistent with that of Carroll.

The jury convicted Carroll of both charges and recommended death for the first-degree murder conviction by a vote of twelve to zero. See id. at 1317. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Carroll to death.[1] We affirmed Carroll's conviction and sentence on 608*608 direct appeal. See id. at 1321. The United States Supreme Court denied Carroll's petition for writ of certiorari on October 31, 1994. See Carroll v. Florida, 513 U.S. 973, 115 S.Ct. 447, 130 L.Ed.2d 357 (1994).

Carroll timely filed his initial 3.850 motion on February 1, 1996. Thereafter, Carroll filed an amended 3.850 motion raising twenty-four claims.[2] Following a Huff[3] hearing, the trial court ordered that an evidentiary hearing be held as to five of the twenty-four claims raised in Carroll's amended motion.[4] The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on August 4-5, 1997. Subsequent to this hearing, the trial court entered an order denying relief on all of Carroll's claims. This appeal follows.

He also said the state doesn’t have the drugs in place to carry out an execution by lethal injection, and that many states and nations are repealing the death penalty.

That's why I like the firing squad option, the government will never run out of bullets, its fast, clean, and effective. A little bloody but hey..

Go Ali!

Yep, pull the car away, before you get your kids...never bought the innocent story on this one!

LOL! I just wish we needed it more often!

Checked with ScoopD and the chat is now up again.....

If there are any anti's out there that don't believe she should receive the DP for what she did to Travis, I have a link for you to see the actual crime scene photos and see just how heinous her attack on Travis was. Chelsea Hoffman has blogged them.

WARNING - These photo's are extremely graphic and are not suitable for ANYONE of ANY AGE but were shared for educational purposes pertaining to the trial. Proceed with Caution.

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4097182-travis-alexander-crime-scene-photos

I will not attach the image URL's to this thread because some of the photo's are so graphic, everyone has a choice to follow the above link and see them or not.

Yikes! I did not follow the trial, did she drug him, or shoot him before inflicting all of that pain...Wow, what a mess she is!

Life without parole....no appeals!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/14/convicted-pennsylvania-abortion-doctor-gets-life-in-prison/

Convicted Pennsylvania abortion doctor gets life in prison

Published May 14, 2013
| Associated Press
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PHILADELPHIA –  A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his grimy clinic agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal and faces life in prison but will be spared a death sentence.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors.
In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation's abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by "snipping" their spines, as he referred to it.
Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell's own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.
Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon said before the sentencing deal that his client's bid for acquittal was a battle.
"The media has been overwhelmingly against him," McMahon said. "But I think the jury listened to the evidence ... and they found what they found."
The gruesome details of Gosnell's operation came out more than two years ago during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell's clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.
Prosecution experts said one of the babies was nearly 30 weeks along when the abortion took place, and was so big that Gosnell allegedly joked the baby could "walk to the bus." A second baby was said to be alive for about 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped the neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee severed the spinal cord, according to testimony.
A fourth baby let out a whimper before Gosnell cut the neck, prosecutors alleged. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby's death, the only one of the four in which no one testified to seeing the baby killed.
Gosnell's attorney argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms.
Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell's facility was raided. In the scandal's aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.
Partisans on both sides of the nation's polarized abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate the disturbing reality of abortion.
"This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about," said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion "once the unborn child can feel pain."
Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.
"Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let's make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care," said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
During the trial, Gosnell proved a solitary figure from beginning to end, with no friends or relatives in the courtroom, despite the fact he's been married three times and has six children, nearly all of them adults.
Gosnell did not testify, and called no witnesses in his defense. But McMahon branded prosecutors "elitist" and "racist" for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.
"I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community," Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. "I believe in the long term I will be vindicated."
Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania's abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.
The defense also contended that the 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications and did not amount to murder, as prosecutors charged.
Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the woman's family, said he now hopes to bring "some sense of justice and quiet to this family that's been through so much."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/14/convicted-pennsylvania-abortion-doctor-gets-life-in-prison/print#ixzz2TIpOVR3Y

I say...why bother with the DP here, a waste of money..I agree this creature deserves it, but he will die in prison before the needle gets anywhere near him!

This is Pennsylvania, last DP applied was in 1999!