On this blog, I’ve previously blogged about how the death penalty deters criminals from committing violent crimes. And in another post, I reported on the findings of famous systematic theologian Wayne Grudem about whether the Bible supports or opposes the death penalty. Well, the actions of Joe Biden, a secular leftist, have provided an occasion for us to look at the death penalty again.

Here’s a very interesting article at the The Federalist written by famous conservative theologian Dr. Robert Gagnon.

He writes:

Two days before Christmas, in the waning days of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal prisoners to a life sentence. Only by hearing what they had done can we begin to grapple with their offense. Many of them were responsible for gruesome murders of multiple persons.

In the rest of the article, he looks at some of the murderers that Joe Biden pardoned.

Here are some:

Jorge Avila-Torrez “sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two girls — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been riding their bicycles in their neighborhood in a suburb north of Chicago in 2005. Four years later, he strangled naval officer Amanda Snell, 20, inside her barrack in Arlington, Virginia.” He subsequently admitted to these crimes. A year after that, he kidnapped, raped, and strangled a woman in a secluded area of northern Virginia, leaving her for dead by the side of a road. She survived and reported the crime to police, finally leading to his arrest and conviction.

[…]Marvin Gabrion murdered 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman before she could testify in a 1997 rape case against him. He handcuffed her, covered her eyes and mouth with duct tape, wrapped her in chains, weighted her down with concrete blocks, and threw her into a lake alive. He also murdered Rachel’s 11-month-old daughter.

[…]Richard Jackson in 1994 kidnapped, raped, and murdered 22-year-old Karen Styles when she was going for a jog in Asheville, North Carolina. A hunter found her partially naked body duct-taped to a tree, with a gunshot wound to the head. Jackson later confessed to the crime.

This one is interesting because it shows the difference that the death penalty makes – it deters people who have life sentences from killing anyone else:

Anthony Battle “murdered an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer in 1994 while serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, a US Marine, in 1987.” Battle confessed that he killed the guard because he was “tired of being bossed around” and wanted to kill the first guard he saw. He showed no remorse. At Battle’s trial, three prison guards from the facility testified that Battle’s actions emboldened other prisoners to threaten staff because “without the death penalty, all prisoners … believe there is nothing that can happen to them.”

Dr. Gagnon says that it’s an injustice when someone who murders escapes the approriate punishment:

Biden’s action in commuting nearly all federal death sentences to life sentences for heinous murderers should generate a sense of moral outrage. This moral outrage emanates not from a bloodthirsty desire for vengeance but from a sense of justice regarding the value and dignity of innocent life. Taking the innocent life of one made in God’s image, especially in particularly heinous murders such as the above, requires the forfeiture of the murderer’s life (see Genesis 9:6).

One question I find myself asking is why should taxpayers get the bill for letting these people live to the end of their natural lives? They should either have to pay for their own upkeep, or family members should pay. Why do taxpayers have to get the bill? If Joe Biden wants to be so generous, then why doesn’t he get the bill for it? It seems like the secular left is always being generous with other people’s money, and being non-judgmental by risking other people’s safety.

Corporate news media is losing viewers, and no wonder – they are very biased in how they cover the news. But sometimes, they go beyond bias, and actually defame other people. Recently, CNN, a former news network, ran a story about a Navy veteran. And they got in big trouble for it. And now they have to pay millions and millions of dollars.

I have to link to the Media Research Center’s Newsbusters blog, because nobody does a better job of covering media bias than Newsbusters.

They write:

On Friday, a jury of six in Florida’s 14th Circuit Court in Bay County has found CNN liable for the defamation of Navy veteran Zachary Young and that he was entitled economic and emotional damages, a ruling that proved CNN was not worthy of their moniker “the most trusted name in news.” They also found that CNN’s reporters had demonstrated expressed malice, actual malice, and outrageous behavior, which opened the door for a massive punitive damages judgement.

The jury also found Young was entitled to $4 million in economic damages and $1 million in emotional damages. They also ruled that CNN should be subject to punitive damages, but the two sides settled Friday afternoon following nearly 90 minutes of discussions.

In another story from the New York Post, they talked about how much the punitive damages might be:

Louis G. Adolfsen, a defamation lawyer and founding member of the Melito & Adolfsen PC law firm in Manhattan, speculated that the settlement could be for as high as $25 million considering Panama City is a “rural or semi-rural” area where the jury pool is likely hostile to CNN.

Back to Newsbusters – this part is interesting. The material was false, and false to the level of defamation:

A ruling of liable meant the jury had determined CNN published the defamatory material, the material was “of and concerning” Young, the materials that was published was false, said false material rose to the level of defamation, CNN was negligent in their news reporting about Young, and that Young had sustained damages as a result of the material.

“False material rose to the level of defamation”. And these are the kinds of people who fact check what you say on social media.

Internal CNN e-mails show what they are really like:

Young’s lead counsel Vel Freedman said in his closing that the Marquardt segment ran on 11 different CNN shows both domestically and on CNN International. And, in addition to Marquardt’s defamatory report, it was accompanied by anchors making their own defamatory statements about Young.

The jury also found CNN had operated with expressed and actual malice. The evidence presented to the jury was clear; Marquardt had messaged colleagues that he was going to “nail this Zachary Young Mfucker” while calling the report was going to be “your funeral bucko.” CNN editors called him a “shit” and “a shitbag” who had a “punchable face.”

They say that journalism is one of the easiest majors to get. And when you read their internal e-mails, you really can see that they’ve never really moved beyond high school. What do people learn in journalism school? Nothing.

Anyway, it’s Saturday, so enjoy some good news.

Trump has selected Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State. I’m not a fan of Marco Rubio – he has a trashy 69% rating from Heritage Action, while Mike Lee has 91% and Ted Cruz has 90%. DeSantis gets to pick someone to replace Rubio in the Senate, and he’s chosen Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. Moody has a LONG track record of conservative battling, so let’s get into it.

First, the news from Daily Wire:

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced on Thursday that he has chosen Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, the likely incoming Secretary of State, in the U.S. Senate.

Moody, 49, has served as Florida’s AG under DeSantis since 2019 and has been at the forefront of multiple issues recently. In November, she sued FEMA over its alleged discrimination against Trump supporters during the disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Milton. She also took on special prosecutor Jack Smith “for his politically motivated persecution of the former president,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Orlando.

Lots of achievements:

“I wanted somebody with a demonstrated record of delivering results on those important issues,” DeSantis said. “Talk is cheap. We need people that have demonstrated fidelity to these principles with their actions.”

Moody won two statewide attorney general elections by large margins. Before she became attorney general, Moody served as a federal prosecutor and was the youngest judge in Florida when she was elected to the Circuit Court in Hillsborough County in 2006.

I did a search on Christian Post, to see what adventures she’s been having that would interest Christians.

Christian Post says that she loves to defund abortion providers:

A federal court has reinstated a 2016 Florida law that allows the state to strip taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood, citing the overturning of Roe v. Wade as justification.

[…]Last month, AG Moody announced that she was going to vacate the 2016 injunction, citing the overturning of Roe last year as a justification.

“Now that the case at the center of the court’s reasoning has been overturned, we are petitioning the court to vacate the court’s injunction and allow the will of our state’s legislative body and the people who elected them to take effect,” stated Moody in February.

Christian Post says that she doesn’t like pro-abortion domestic terrorism:

The law firm First Liberty Institute announced in a post on X Thursday that Heartbeat of Miami, a pro-life pregnancy center in Hialeah, Florida, had finally secured “justice” after it was vandalized by pro-abortion activists in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision which ruled the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.

The post elaborated on what it meant by “justice,” specifically highlighting that “vandals who spray-painted threatening messages on Heartbeat’s property last year will pay for their crimes.” Expressing gratitude for the assistance of Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody for “holding these violent protesters accountable,” First Liberty described the development as a “big win for Florida’s pro-life community.”

And Christian Post also says that she thinks that biological men should stay out of women’s sports:

A lawsuit filed by Florida’s attorney general and three other states warns that the Biden administration’s Title IX rule change will force female athletes to compete against men despite the U.S. Department of Education’s claims that the rule does not apply to participation on athletic teams.

[…]”Biden’s new Title IX rules shred protections for women — that so many fought for over decades,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a Monday statement.

“The idea that young girls can now legally be forced to undress in the same room with males in what is supposed to be a safe space like a locker room, that a young woman could be randomly assigned a roommate that is a biological male with little to no say over the matter, or that biological men would be eligible for women’s scholarships is ludicrous,” the attorney general continued. “To ensure safety and fairness, Florida will aggressively fight Biden who refuses to think through the real-world consequences before overhauling regulations.”

By the way, if you’re paying attention to the federal Attorney General nominee, Pam Bondi, she is also really conservative. I like about half of Trump’s picks, and dislike the other half, but Bondi is definitely one of the better picks. Great record, solid conservative, lots of evidence of being able to fight through adversity to victory.