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    MaineIdeasHamilton Nolan
    5/05/14 4:32pm

    What a horrible use of internet space.

    He ended the life of an innocent 38 year old woman. He should know that he is dying quietly, with a whimper. Shame on you, Hamilton, for trying to dredge up sympathy for this monster.

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      Hamilton NolanMaineIdeas
      5/05/14 4:35pm

      I say this every time we publish one of these letters, so I will just say it here: the purpose of this series is to give a voice to people that are not often heard from, not to render a verdict on anyone's guilt or innocence or relative moral worth.

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      MaineIdeasHamilton Nolan
      5/05/14 4:37pm

      If that was true you would have letters from Conservative Christian Philanthropists that donate their time, sweat, and money to matters of the public good. And you could even give the same disclaimer about them.

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    EmotionalFriendHamilton Nolan
    5/05/14 5:03pm

    I'm not a frequent reader of these letters (although I did find the ones that I've read pretty compelling) so can you tell me if anyone has ever sort of accepted their punishment and acknowledged that they belong where they are? The ones that I've read all seem to follow the same template. The inmate spends like 80% of the letter explaining why they're definitely innocent, 15% on sociopolitical commentary, and then the last 5% on shameless self-promotion.

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      pussygalore134EmotionalFriend
      5/05/14 5:28pm

      None that I have read have followed any other pattern than this. I was actually reading it with the expectation of having the person admit to the crime and describe his reconciliation with both himself and the victim he murdered. Nope, this guy just dabbled in Islam before stopping at Christianity (a religion that promotes the forgiveness of any crime under the eyes of an anthropomorphic sky god as long as the culprit is sorry), insists our country has "lost it's flavor" and wants Hamilton to arrange a meeting with the pope in jail when he visits America. So that's that.

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      MrsAmyEmotionalFriend
      5/05/14 5:42pm

      Sometimes they acknowledge their guilt but completely gloss over the crime. One guy who did that then went on for the whole rest of the letter letter asking people to send him shit like expensive magazines and LSD of all things. Sometimes they'll gloss over their guilt then spend the rest of the letter ranting about how unfair the system/their lives were leading up to the conviction. I feel like a lot of these people are either sociopaths or mentally ill to the point of absolute inability to form coherent thoughts. This letter today is the most coherent one in a while. I want to quit reading them, and every time Hamilton Nolan posts one, I tell myself I'm not going to read it, then I end up reading it anyway. -sigh-

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    amgarreHamilton Nolan
    5/05/14 4:56pm

    Well, he's right on one thing. "To liberate you must educate." After reading this I feel like he's more a prisoner of his inability to form coherent thoughts. I seriously don't think many of our prison population could even exist outside a setting where every choice was made for them.

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      Left Handshakeamgarre
      5/05/14 5:13pm

      Yeah, it's so fucked. It's almost as though most of the people who wind up on death row are uniformly poor, uneducated, and very possibly borderline mentally disabled. Ah well, flip the switch anyway.

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      amgarreLeft Handshake
      5/05/14 5:44pm

      I am against the death penalty actually. But damn, what do you do with people who are so far from a clue? Seriously. What do you do? You can't make up now for 40 years of ignorance.

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    Over-the-RiverHamilton Nolan
    5/05/14 4:32pm

    No one who is on "death row", has ever been on "death row", or will ever be on "death row" is guilty. Just ask them, they'll let you know.

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      BigSteveOver-the-River
      5/05/14 4:36pm

      Why don't you start with these 144 people that were on death row and then exonerated?

      http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list…

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      sweetpeachbbqBigSteve
      5/05/14 4:52pm

      +1

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    ObliteratiHamilton Nolan
    5/05/14 5:03pm

    Ah yes, I love these posts. They give the death fetishists a chance to stroke their throbbing cocks of justice all over the comments.

    Come brethren, and tell us how Tough On Crime you are, and howl for vengeance and blood like the barbarians of old.

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      filmgirlHamilton Nolan
      5/05/14 5:30pm

      1. Even on death row they watch Fox News, are you kidding me.

      2. I want to see one person who writes a letter to you guys that doesn't believe in God because they are sitting on death row, instead take responsibility for their actions.

      3. This doesn't mean that I am for the death penalty.

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        PsyramicsHamilton Nolan
        5/05/14 4:33pm

        Last time I read one of these, he sounded really sympathetic. Than we heard the other side of the story and find out he did something really horrible, and was twisting facts to make himself seem less culpable. So I will withhold all thoughts until I find the other side of this.

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          CapitalistWarMachinePsyramics
          5/05/14 4:39pm

          It's pretty much the same case here. The "harmless error" he talked about was the fact that the charge didn't make clear that he was the prime mover in the murder. He was, the prosecution proved it in front of the jury, and he was sentenced on that basis. Harmless error is a legal concept that acknowledges an error but says that it changes nothing important.

          Kinda like the last guy, the harping on how his trial was faulty, instead of his actual guilt or innocence, sticks out as "yeah I did it, but there's a technicality so let me go." And he doesn't mention that the witnesses against him were a jailhouse snitch and his sister.

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        DickFromageHamilton Nolan
        5/05/14 5:16pm

        TL;DR

        I'm gonna go take a walk in the park on my way home to my girlfriend (who will be cooking dinner) 'cause I have never murdered a person for money.

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          JiubreynDickFromage
          5/05/14 5:21pm

          What's the point of your comment? Look at me, I came to comment on an article I claim to have no interest in.

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          DickFromageJiubreyn
          5/05/14 5:30pm

          I was trying to show everyone how cool I am. In actuality, for all my braggadocio, I'm quite sad inside and only strive to be accepted. Ironic, considering I push people away with my "too cool for school" attitude.

          :(

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        Left HandshakeHamilton Nolan
        5/05/14 4:48pm

        According to the article, his sister and cellmate testified that he confessed the murder to them, and that a second store clerk described the murderer with features different than Esparza. But still... witness testimony; as it goes, ask 10 people what happened at the scene of a crime and you'll easily get 10 differing accounts.

        I can be ambivalent about crime and punishment, but I think that whatever 'side' you take in the debate over what to do with the worst of our society, you can at least agree that we don't execute people unless even the shadow of a doubt has been dispelled. This entire case is exceedingly murky, and this man should not suffer death for it.

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          LtCmndHipsterLeft Handshake
          5/05/14 4:54pm

          Yeah witness testimony is notoriously horrible, especially cross-racial identification. To get a conviction, you generally need a lot more. A case could be absolutely open-and-shut, and you would still have inconsistencies with eye-witnesses. Courts are very skeptical of convictions based solely on witness testimony (rightfully so), but any crime in public is going to have inconsistent witness testimony.

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        LtCmndHipsterHamilton Nolan
        5/05/14 4:31pm

        "Some choose to change. Some are stuck on stupid." - That's actually a pretty good line.

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