Don’t you think Hamida Djandoubi looks somewhat like
Leo Sayer, who sang “When I Need You”, and “More Than
I Can Say”?? That’s what I always thought. Of course,
Sayer was a very big act around the time Djandoubi was executed, in 1977. His hair looks like Leo Sayer’s.
Anyone think so??

I love oldies and soft rock music. I totally dislike rap and hip hop and songs with cuss language in every 2 seconds of the song.
I don’t see why I need to hear my neighbor blasting rap music
out of his car with booms that make my wall in my room in my house shake!! But anyway, that’s how I know about Leo
Sayer. I know almost every artist from the 1950s to the
1970s.

But, anyway, back to what I was saying…I don’t purposely
act like a 4 year old, I just do without even knowing it.
I write well for someone who is like a 4-5 year old, but
some people who are severely autistic even can write
pretty well (I know someone with an IQ of a 6 year old, and she can write essays, but she has Autism).

I act like a 4 year old because I cannot act like an adult.
Sometimes I think it would been better off if I had stayed the
size of a 4 year old physically, then at least people wouldn’t
look at me strangely when I suddenly behave like a 4 year old.
Because I’m 5 feet 11 inches tall, I get those rude stares.
People expect you to act mature and like an adult if you are
big. People also assume that if you are short (even 4 feet
9 inches) then you must be a child or act like one. This
is unfair on both sides. For example, I’ve known of people
with Aspergers syndrome who are 4 feet 9 inches who get
child menus tossed at them at restaurants. To them, that
seems to be insulting, degrading, and patronizing. Then on the other hand, people like me or people with severe intellectual
disabilities who are 5 feet 11 inches or 5 feet 9 inches
are expected to act like “mature” adults (are adults really
that mature anyways??). So when someone who has
an IQ of a 3 year old but yet looks like a 30 year old, people
are like “Whats wrong with him??”. I don’t think that’s right,
either. In an ideal world, everyone would be the height of
how they acted. So, some dwarfs that are 3 feet 6 inches
that are mature adults that hold jobs and can think like an adult would be 5 feet 9 inches, and people like me or intellectually
disabled people would be 3 feet 4 inches and weigh 39
pounds, instead of being 5 feet 9 inches. Then everyone
would be happy. And no one would judge anyone on that
basis. But unfortunately the world isn’t ideal.

Laura, even if I could act like an adult (which I can’t
because of my autism), I wouldn’t want to. Not if being
an adult is to be judgemental and to be mean and
racist and all that. I would say thanks, but no thanks.
I would rather much be profoundly disabled and have the
body of a 1 year old (at age 33) and bathed, and clothed
by my parents, and yet be kind, sweet and compassionate,
than be “NORMAL” and be 20 years old and be a big
bully and a jerk and a mean intolerant person. No thanks.

I hope I have made my point very clear.

Codi Preston from California

You’ve read this whole book by Jeremy Mercer, and you tell
me that Hamida Djandoubi deserved to be guilottined? I’m
sorry but no one ever deserves to die. I guess you never
lost a leg before, have you?? Did you know that Hamida
lost 2/3rds of his leg?? How would you feel if you lost
most of your leg?? Even Jeremy Mercer wrote that he
injured himself in a accident when he was writing this book,
and he mentions that it gave him only a partial look at what
depression Hamida was feeling. No, it doesn’t excuse him
that he tortured Elizabeth Bosquet and killed her, but it
certainly is at least part of the reason why he snapped?
Are you disabled, Laura?? Do you know that feels like???

After reading this book, it gave me nightmares to say the
very least. Execution by beheading is very brutal, and one
morning I woke up at 4:40 am (by mistake) and I was thinking
about how Hamida must have felt being led to the guilottine
at 4:40 am, and having his head being cut off by a knife
blade that was 70 pounds in weight. Have you ever had
your head chopped off?? Do you have even any idea of
how painful that could possibly be??

I’m anti death penalty and always have been since I was
a little boy. You don’t teach people not to kill by killling
them. That’s as stupid as spanking a child who hits another
child. What is the message you are trying to send to the
child?? Is it “It’s okay to hit, but just be bigger and stronger”??
I am not sinless, you are not sinless, what gives you the
right to judge people.

I’m sure you would judge me without a question too. I have
never hurt anyone in my life, never even hurt anything more
than a fly. But, I have a disability and I can’t work because of
it. I have Autism and although I am 33 years old chronologically, in many ways, emotionally and socially
I am like a 4 1/2 to 5 year old. I even watch children’s TV shows like Teletubbies, Barney, and Care Bears. I love children’s toys too. Many people in their 20s and 30s (not everyone, but a lot) have been very very judgmental to me, calling me all sorts of names and bullying me. I was bullied
all the way from 5th through 10th grade, and bullied in
college too. I don’t purposely act like a 4 year old (thats
more like infantilism), a lot of times I act like a 4 year old
because I really have no control over it…I unconsciously
act like a 4 year old. And since a lot of 20 year olds and
30 year olds have been nasty to me, I have found that
the people that I want to mostly be around are mostly
toddlers and preschoolers from ages 2-8. And also with
elderly adults who are 50+ years old. I find them much less
judgemental and they accept for who I am. That is all that
is important. Children are not born and raised to become
criminals. It’s society that does that. We teach children how
to be mean and how to be a bully and how to be racist,
hate each other, etc. This is not bleeding hearted liberalism
(I’m actually Conservative); this is a FACT that 95% of all
people in the state prison who are sentenced to death
have had horrible childhoods where they have been beaten,
kicked, abused in every possible way. If people cared more
about children, this world wouldn’t be in such a horrible
mess right now. You are only creating more problems, by
returning back violence with more violence. It’s just a cycle
that goes round and round….this is how wars get started.
The end of the world will happen because of this.
If some country like Pakistan has a nuclear weapon and wants to kill some people here in the USA, if it kills a lot of people,
we will retailiate. And then we’ll throw a nuclear bomb at
them, and they will throw a nuclear bomb back. And very
soon, the whole world will be destroyed because of
nuclear waste. Even those that weren’t destroyed by
bombs will be destroyed by nuclear winter…no more sunlight= no more plants=no more oxygen=end of humankind.

We would be a whole lot better off if just everyone was
turned into a 4 year old. Because at least 4 year olds aren’t
racist (when was the last time you heard a 4 year old say
“I’m not playing with him because he’s Black??”), and they
don’t hate for long (they fight for 5 minutes, but everyone
is playing and chatting again after that point, in comparison
to adults, who hold grudges for 10 years, 20 years, 40
years, a lifetime??). And they are full of love and kindness.

I have no control about my life. I cannot grow up. But realistically, who the heck wants to grow up anyway??
If they all grow up to be hateful and judgemental like you
Laura, then I’d rather have everyone stay like a 4 year old.
I bet you are probably in your 20s or 30s, and your
attitude is making it even more feasible for me to be around
toddlers and preschoolers even more. You’re not helping
me grow up; you are actually making me become even more
like a child. I look at simple things in life. I collect vintage
1970s, 1980s, 1990s toddler English sandal double buckle
T-strap shoes, Mary Janes, single buckle T-strap shoes, etc.
I also collect pretty little toddler longalls and jon jons as a hobby
as well. I have 105 pairs of shoes and 55 longalls in my
collection. I always have loved children’s shoes since I
was a little boy when I was 4 years old and I would have started collecting them at age 3 if I had the money (I never
wore T-strap shoes or Mary Janes as a little boy, nor now).
Some people with high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome
or some normal people in their 20s and 30s have gotten a
big kick out of calling me a pedophile because I collect
such things and like Teletubbies and Barney and Care
Bears. I just see the shoes and longalls as being beautiful
and cute and being an art form (my grandmother made
children’s dresses in China in the 1960s). So go on, call
me a pedophile, and I will want to be around toddlers
even more. Since you are so judgemental, just go right
ahead, I know I am not one, so I could care less. It’s
strange I sometimes get called that by some liberals
(Conservatives in the South never EVER call me that!!)
on the West Coast, because by calling me that, they are
actually making me want to be around kids even more,
because it just so happens that toddlers and preschoolers
are less judgemental than a lot of adults and at least, they
accept for who I am. As well as some older adults who
are in their 50s, 60s and 70s (and 80s).

And no, I don’t have a job. I have a BA degree in
Geography, but like I said I have moderate Autism (I don’t
know how I got a degree!), and I am virtually unemployable, but I get Social Security and I live with my parents, so I could
care less right now. It’s not my fault, after all, that I’m
unemployable. I did apply for many many jobs but no one
ever gives me a job, not even at McDonald’s. I have even
volunteered at places like AAA (American Automobile Association) and libraries.

My point of all this is, how would you feel if you suddenly
lost your leg?? I know that I would feel very depressed and
my personality would change. No, most people wouldn’t
kill someone, but obviously, your state of mind would be
very altered. I have Autism and my life is already very
hard, made even worse by people who try to get a kick
and get enjoyment from insulting me and hating me.

I sincerely hope that you never have any children, because
you are going to teach them all the wrong things about
life. And, if you already have children, I feel very very
sorry for them.

Codi Preston from somewhere in central California

The 130 exonerated in the US is a scam, easily uncoverable by fact checking.

Make you wonder if he fact checked his book as well. He needs to fact check the racial issues, the cost issues, as well.

Reading Mercer’s belief that life is a tougher sentence than the death penalty, .why don’t we look at those folks who know best.

What percentage of capital murderers seek a plea bargain to a death sentence? Zero or close to it. They prefer long term imprisonment.
 
What percentage of convicted capital murderers argue for execution in the penalty phase of their capital trial? Zero or close to it. They prefer long term imprisonment.
 
What percentage of death row inmates waive their appeals and speed up the execution process? Nearly zero. They prefer long term imprisonment.
 
This is not, even remotely, in dispute.
 
Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life.