[speaker001:] okay Jim um can you tell me a little bit about your opinions on capital punishment
[speaker002:] uh the bottom line that I after four years of working with the state prison system I've come to the conclusion if you're going to give the man the death sentence go ahead and fulfill the sentence understandably the Supreme Court says any time you hand down a death sentence to somebody they get a one appeal once that appeal fails within thirty days execute sentence if you're going to give the man the death sentence don't keep the guy on death row for eight nine ten years and make him worry about it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] plus costing the taxpayers twenty five thousand dollars a year just to keep the guy locked up
[speaker001:] well you've you've got a point there but um do you think one appeal is is too stringent
[speaker002:] no I do not think one appeal is everybody's entitled to one appeal
[speaker001:] okay now um what do you think about about the death penalty itself do you think that we should have a death penalty
[speaker002:] absolutely and I wish they would exercise it more thoroughly let the punishment fit the crime in this state we've got a very weird situation going on we're under federal supervision and I agree to a point I agree with how the system works in some respects in other ways I don't for first time offenders everybody's entitled to screw up once we'll give them the early release credits we'll give them the good time credits we'll give them the early parole second trip down whether it's for the same crime or totally separate one you serve your sentence day for day third trip down this is where my views on it goes way far beyond what the law states third trip down if it's for the same offense or for a totally different one this individual has proven that he does not want to conform to the rules of society so you kill him period end of story
[speaker001:] yeah well I kind of think we're too lenient number one now I work in Massachusetts but I live in Rhode Island so the the legislature just come out and said that because of what with treating the prisoners so-called brutally because uh the state prison's overcrowded we have to release them so they took the offenders with the the minor crimes and they let them go they didn't have to serve the rest of their term and which is absolutely incredible um I think number one my opinion is that the judges are too lenient but yet you get some of the jury trials and and it comes down to the nitty gritty when people are ready to condemn a person they always kind of forgive him a little bit nobody wants to put the finger on somebody and say well that's it you know we're going to kill you so it's got to be up to the judges I think we need we have to put into place judges that are stricter than the ones that are in there now and the other thing is I'm not sure about Texas but like in Rhode Island if someone breaks into your home you have to do your utmost to leave so you can't cause a confrontation with that person you can't shoot him you can't do anything with him I'm not sure what Texas is
[speaker002:] uh Texas has got it rigged to where I can't shoot the guy can enter my property and I can't shoot him but once he's physically inside my house uh the law reads to where you can defend yourself if you feel your life is being threatened yeah at two o'clock in the morning if somebody's in my living room I feel real threatened so I'm going to come out with guns blazing
[speaker001:] yeah it's yeah and ours yeah and see in our case it's you have to you have to exit you have to leave and if you have to leave your home to get away from this individual that's what you should do so what choice have you got you know as far as as far as our laws go up here
[speaker002:] well the the legal system in this country has gone to such extreme measures they've swung so far away from
[speaker001:] yeah you're fading
[speaker002:] there there is no such thing as justice in this
[speaker001:] you're fading away Jim
[speaker002:] country anymore we only have situation ethics I said yeah the guy robs the liquor store and yeah he shot the owner but he was under the influence of narcotics
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] that that should make absolute zero difference you shot the guy you get the death penalty period
[speaker001:] that doesn't make any right right and so he was under the influence of narcotics at that time when when the act was was performed but he knows he's going to go back and do the same thing over again you know when he's straight so so-called so people like that any one I believe you if you murder someone I believe in an eye for an eye and I think probably uh uh maybe the majority of the people do at least the people that uh that I talk to you go out there and you kill somebody you rob a gas station or a drug store and you shoot somebody you deserve to be killed also
[speaker002:] that should be automatic death penalty no if ands or buts
[speaker001:] right right um you're subject to one appeal I I kind of don't agree with you on that I think probably you should have at least two appeals
[speaker002:] but that's what's got our system bogged down so bad now they've appealed everything to where if they've got one typographical error where in their in one line instead of spelling they've got one word misspelled I mean it's a very minor clerical error they couldn't tell they they'll appeal the hell out of that and that just throws another wrench and it takes two years to work an appeal
[speaker001:] yeah that's yeah right common sense has to has to set in some place it's just like uh uh organized crime now they know all these people they know that the the leaders of organized crime and all that sort of stuff why can't they do something about it because they can't if they if they tape something they can't they can't bring it into the court as as evidence and they know they just had this uh I don't know if it's been in your newspapers but um the guy that got out of prison here to go to a mafia um swearing in ceremony and they got uh uh somebody and I'm not sure who who it was what organization what law enforcement agency they got a movable bug a a a court order for a movable bug which means that you can take it any place and put it any where
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and now they're contesting that movable bug because they didn't state that they were going to put it in this particular home where this meeting took place so there's a technicality there but they know outright that these people are murderers and whatever else you got and yet they're not going to let that evidence in you know as admissible evidence in court so that has to be looked at too um I don't know who they're protecting they're not protecting the innocent that's for sure
[speaker002:] since so people that came up with the laws that made all these loopholes and technicalities take a look at your congressmen and senators you'll find that the vast majority of them are practicing lawyers
[speaker001:] that's true that's true um self-preservation of the species I guess right
[speaker002:] that's it what they don't realize the time is coming and I see it coming over the horizon that the majority of American people people are getting fed up with their BS and are demanding are going to demand real justice instead of this
[speaker001:] well the
[speaker002:] in Texas in Texas we're getting to a point where a guy gets a fifteen year sentence he's going to serve fifteen months and he's out
[speaker001:] you're kidding
[speaker002:] one month for one year actually assigned
[speaker001:] because of because of what because of overcrowding or
[speaker002:] overcrowding overcrowding
[speaker001:] huh now the pendulum's going to swing more and more people
[speaker002:] we've gone too far to the left it's fixing to come back hard right
[speaker001:] yeah because you look at the statistics now and I'm sure it's in your your newspapers just like it is in ours that every major city now the increase of crime is is escalating I mean there are more look at the look at the people there are being shot now I mean every day there's there's dozens of dozens of people across the nation they just get blown away for no reason you know stray bullets or California they were going out there and they were shooting and they get these guys and they don't do anything with them so I kind of I kind of agree with you I'm kind of you still in the in the uh prison system
[speaker002:] yeah I've been with them for about four years now
[speaker001:] how do you like it well
[speaker002:] all things considered I'd rather be a cop on the street because once I walk inside the gates the inmates have more rights than I do say an inmate swings at me or he's raised his fist threateningly toward me I've got to let him hit me before I can hit him bac k to be justified have it called what they call a justified use of force
[speaker001:] that's incredible
[speaker002:] thank uh federal judge named William Wayne Justice
[speaker001:] do you uh you carry a firearm in when you're in there
[speaker002:] no in inside the gate I do not carry any weapon at all
[speaker001:] nothing
[speaker002:] nothing
[speaker001:] not even a uh uh billy club or huh what's the purpose of that so they can't take it
[speaker002:] so they can't take it away from you
[speaker001:] yeah well I don't know so you going to make a career out of it
[speaker002:] I seriously doubt it oh it it it all boiled down to when the opening for this came up it was the best deal going it was paying so much more money than what I was making before I couldn't turn it down
[speaker001:] oh okay is it uh was it uh civil service
[speaker002:] uh actually really really