A jury on Wednesday recommended that a father and his son be sentenced to death for planting a bomb that exploded inside a Woodburn bank two years ago, killing two police officers and maiming a third.
“This is a murderer with no remorse,” prosecutor Matt Kemmy said Tuesday in his closing argument of the penalty phase.
Both men have maintained their innocence. Father and son turned on each other in trial, each pointing the finger at the other for building and planting the bomb, which prosecutors said was part of a plan to rob the bank.
Prosecutors urged jurors to sentence the men to death to prevent them from endangering prison staff or preaching their hatred for authorities to young prisoners who will someday be released. As convicted cop killers, the Turnidges will be popular in prison, they said.
Jail Sgt. Megan Gonzalez said Joshua Turnidge drew a swastika over a U.S. flag on a postcard that shows the jail facility and wrote other things including “pigs for sale!” “human rights?” and “gas chamber” on the card before trying to send it.
With all respect to the various point of views expressed on this thread, this part of the board is supposed to be about "Sovereign Citizen and Redemption Scams." I wish the mods would move the capital punishment debate to Flame Wars or someplace else.
Dr. Caligari wrote:With all respect to the various point of views expressed on this thread, this part of the board is supposed to be about "Sovereign Citizen and Redemption Scams." I wish the mods would move the capital punishment debate to Flame Wars or someplace else.
Good point, and done. For those wishing to continue to the death penalty debate, you can find it here.
When chosen for jury duty, tell the judge "fortune cookie says guilty" - A fortune cookie
Six of the 12 jurors told the Statesman Journal on Wednesday and Thursday that the defendants' lack of remorse and an abundance of evidence against them guided their decisions.
Certain tactics taken by defense lawyers insulted the jurors, they said. Those included efforts to portray Joshua Turnidge as a good father even though he didn't have custody of his daughter, and presenting expert witnesses who said the bomb was not designed to kill people.
(Juror) Deprima said she wanted to sentence the Turnidges to life in prison but saw no signs of remorse or compassion.
"They showed me nothing I thought I could take into the deliberation and fight for them," she said. "I wanted to so badly, but I couldn't."
Bruce Turnidge chose not to testify in his defense, but his son did testify, and it injured his case, jurors said.
Several jurors said Joshua Turnidge seemed arrogant when telling a joke that insulted police officers as part of his testimony.
