Defense attorneys grapple with suspects who WANT to die

About 12 percent of the people executed in the U.S. since 1977 basically cooperated with the process. They dropped their appeals or asked for the punishment to be carried out. The AP has a piece here about their lawyers -- and how they deal with trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved.

Comments

[Rosie]

As someone who has seen a great deal of tragedy, has had to decide to take a dying husband off life support (with the consensus of other family), and now is involved in lay ministry & grief counseling, I understand much about death. A person who has accepted the fate of impending death is usually at peace, and in the case of convicted persons, I would encourage attorneys (and family, friends) to take comfort in that. It doesn't matter their opinion on the death penalty, it doesn't cast any reflection on how good a job they have done, it doesn't mean they might have done something to influence the person to fight for life. The decision to stop fighting and go gently into that good night is a deeply personal and often spiritual decision that is sometimes impossible to understand, by those of us for whom life means everything. It's a complex and very emotional topic for most people, and too huge to discuss here. I understand both sides. Neither is easy to be on.

[The Golfer]

Rosie - I know how you feel, had to make that decision on my wife too. Not an easy one to make.

[Moral City USA]

Yea, when the convicted want to die, that really throws prosecutors off balance. They cant give him what he wants so they have to start trying to keep him alive.

[Mike]

It all makes perfect sense to me. Life is only worth living if you can be at least a little happy some of the time. Something to look forward to. If I was locked in one of those tiny cells for whatever reason, life may very well be no longer worth living.

[thinker]

Let them. Don't hold them back. That goes for everyone, not just convicted murderers and serial rapists. Their life belongs to them, and to no one else; not you, not society, not the moores of religion. If they choose to let it go, it is their decision to make.

Life may well be *a* value, but only if the individual chooses to hold it *as* valued.

[Michelle]

Let em die. Save the taxpayers some money on housing and feeding, not to mention healthcare costs in prison.

[John Boy]

Let then die - - thats dumb. Prosecutors WANT them to die. Defense attorneys want to save them. I think you have your roles reversed.

Oh the HEARTLESS !!!

life in prison is actually cheaper on the state than the death penalty