Justice Served!

[runco]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/12/man-who-raped-killed-florida-boy-to-be-executed/?intcmp=latestnews

 

STARKE, Fla. –  A man was executed Wednesday night in Florida for raping and killing a 9-year-old boy 18 years ago, a death that spurred the victim's parents to press nationwide for stronger sexual predator confinement laws and better handling of child abduction cases.

Juan Carlos Chavez, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m. Wednesday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, according to Gov. Rick Scott's office.

 

Chavez made no final statement in the death chamber, though prison officials said he had submitted something in writing. He moved his feet frequently after the injection began at 8:02 p.m. but two minutes later stopped moving.

Chavez abducted Jimmy Ryce at gunpoint after the boy got off a school bus on Sept. 11, 1995, in rural Miami-Dade County. Testimony showed Chavez raped the boy, shot him when he tried to escape, then dismembered his body and hid the parts in concrete-covered planters.

Ryce's parents turned the tragedy's pain into a push for stronger U.S. laws regarding confinement of sexual predators and improved police procedures in missing child cases. Their foundation provided hundreds of free canines to law enforcement agencies to aid in searches for children.

 

Despite an intensive search in 1995 by police and volunteers, regular appeals for help through the media and distribution of flyers about Jimmy, it wasn't until three months later that Chavez's landlady discovered the boy's book bag and the murder weapon — a revolver Chavez had stolen from her house — in the trailer where Chavez lived. Chavez later confessed to police and led them to Jimmy's remains.

He was tried and found guilty of murder, sexual battery and kidnapping.

Chavez's most recent state and federal court appeals have focused on claims that Florida's lethal injection procedure is unconstitutional, that he didn't get due process during clemency hearings and that he should have an execution stay to pursue additional appeals in the federal courts.

 

The Florida Supreme Court, however, refused Wednesday morning to stay the execution to allow Chavez time to pursue those challenges, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit hours later. The appeals prompted a more than two-hour delay in Chavez's execution.

Don Ryce, Jimmy's father said recently that he and his wife had become determined to turn their son's horrific slaying into something positive, in part because they felt they owed something to all the people who tried to help find him. They also refused to wallow in misery.

"You've got to do something or you do nothing. That was just not the way we wanted to live the rest of our lives," he said.

The Ryces created the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction, a nonprofit organization based in Vero Beach that works to increase public awareness and education about sexual predators. It also provides counseling for parents of victims and helps train law enforcement agencies in ways to respond to missing children cases.

 

The organization has also provided, free of charge, more than 400 bloodhounds to police departments around the country and abroad. Ryce said if police searching for Jimmy had bloodhounds they might have found him in time.

The Ryces also helped persuade then-President Bill Clinton to sign an executive order allowing missing-child flyers to be posted in federal buildings, which they had been prevented from doing for their own son.

Another accomplishment was 1998 passage in Florida of the Jimmy Ryce Act, versions of which have also been adopted in other states. Under the law, sexual predators found to be still highly dangerous can be detained through civil commitment even after they have served their prison sentences. Such people must prove they have been rehabilitated before they can be released. Chavez had no criminal record, so the law would not have affected him.

 

Chavez's only visitor Wednesday was his spiritual adviser, prison officials said.

 

[Woody]

Too bad we the taxpayers kept him in 3 hots & a cot for 18 years before the execution. 

[rugerla1]

Too bad we the taxpayers kept him in 3 hots & a cot for 18 years before the execution. 

Amen to that! A little projectile or a little rope and a tree would have been better!

[KKing]

[quote name="Woody" post="1110168" timestamp="1392264973"]Too bad we the taxpayers kept him in 3 hots & a cot for 18 years before the execution. [/quote] I will NEVER understand this.

[Mark@Sea]

That wasn't justice, that was simply consequence.

 

Justice would have seen that creep hung and buried within a year of the guilty verdict.  I personally lean toward (in cases where there can be no doubt) marching them out of the courtroom to the back of the courthouse. 

[TMF]

I remember when this happened.  It sucks they're just getting around to killing this POS.  Wish they still used ol' sparky down there.  It think that struck greater fear into these scumbags than a needle.

[bersaguy]

i have always thought that when there is refutable proof beyond any shadow of a doubt of guilt and or a confession of guilt and the said person is sentenced to death it should be carried out within 48 hours of the trial and I think all 50 states should still use the gallows and hang mans noose. The criminal should be placed in a cell where he can stare at only the gallows for his last 48 hours and be able to picture himself hanging at the end of the rope. I think anyone that wishes to attend should be allowed to. This humanity our country began using back in the early 70's and called it rehabilitation is nothing but a joke and has done nothing more than pack our prisons with dead beats because they are treated better inside than they had it on the outside. It is no longer a punishment that fits the crime but a vacation resort at taxpayer expense. Bring back chain gangs and jobs within the penal system and make the prisons self supportive once again. If the want to eat they better grow their own food and raise their own livestock for meat and milk. It they want electricity they better operate a power house that supplies their own electricity. If they want sheets for their beds and towels for their showers they better operate their own textile mills and make their own. if they want bread they better operate the grist mills that make the flour and meal to make the bread. They better have cooks and bakers that do the cooking and prepare the meals. No cable TV's and air conditioning,  no wearing of free world clothing but striped uniforms. Only the bare minimum in health care by free world doctors within the confines of the prison walls. No outside trips to free world hospitals at tax payers expense. Prisons should be prisons like they were 80 + years ago. You can bet there would not be any over crowding of people in our prison systems and people committing petty crimes to get in for medical care just to be released in a year which a lot of that is going on right now. Have mandatory sentencing for each crime  and if you go back a second time you do twice as much time as first trip automatically.   I think the test of rehabilitation has been given a good test and proven it failed

miserably . Time to make prisons truly prisons again......................jmho

[RobertNashville]

I'm not a proponent of the death penalty and I generally try not to celebrate anyone's death but when someone so obviously deserves it it's difficult not to be pleased and it's a shame it took this long to finally see justice done.

[BigK]

hard to call it justice after waiting this long

[bersaguy]

hard to call it justice after waiting this long

 

Yep, that 9 year old boy would be 27 now and probably have a family. I can't really call it justice just thinking about that and knowing how he lived 18 years longer than his young victim..................jmho