Yet, Texas already had the death penalty, and two of the killers were sentenced to death, a third received life in prison.
Criminal penalties are important for stopping crime and so are the police, but there are limits.
Obviously, these killers still brutally murdered James Byrd despite the death penalty. And despite research showing that the police are the single most important factor in stopping crime, they simply can't be every place all the time. As in the Byrd case, they virtually always arrive on the crime scene after the crime has been committed. A recent case in Bremerton, a city in western Washington state, during the beginning of February offers an alterative scenario. One of the young men ordered his pit bull to attack.