Posted by
Billy on Monday, June 29, 2009 1:18:35 PM
This is a new one.
An Omaha man convicted of strangling an 8-year-old boy is challenging his life sentence.
Challenging it, that is, by asking to be executed.
In a motion filed this week in Douglas County District Court, Patrick Ronald Russell, who was 17 at the time of the November 1973 killing of young Joseph Edmonds, asked a judge to order him to be executed “at the earliest possible date.”
Russell writes that in April 2008, he “was forced into protective custody unit which constitutes disciplinary islouation after being assaulted by two gang members with the approval of Warden Francis (sic) Britten and has been denied all requests fro transfer to another prison facility so that he may reside in general population.”
He says he is not allowed to exercise because “it is unsafe for defendant to cross the main prison yard, according to Warden Britten.”
Britten said he could not comment specifically on Russell's disciplinary record.
However, he said, inmates are placed in protective custody because of “concerns for their safety,” not as a form of punishment. And, he said, those inmates are allowed to exercise and have access to medical care, visitors and religious services.
(I am not sure about this. On the one hand I don't think a killer should be able to pick his punishment. Some might say this a way for this killer to get his punishment over quick. As a person of faith I believe if this man doesn't repent to God and come to faith in Jesus he will face ever-lasting punishment. Read more of the above story
Boy's killer seeks execution .)