The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was scheduled to kill George Banks tonight. However, the state Supreme Court has stopped the execution and ordered the county court to hold a mental competency hearing. The Court has ordered the mental competency hearing to assure that Banks understands the execution and the proceedings. To date, Banks has stated that he does not think he will be executed and that this is just a test of his faith in Jesus. At the time of the murders, he fought with his lawyers when they attempted to argue an insanity defense at trial and he claimed that though he had killed some of the victims, police had killed others and also mutilated the bodies to make the crime seem worse. Since his conviction, Banks has attempted suicide at least four times and has staged hunger strikes which ended in him being force fed.
Court halts Banks' execution
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3 comments:
This has been quite a series of reprieves, stays, and smack downs, huh? Banks, Newton, Soffar -- I've not seen a series of executions thwarted like this in my adult lifetime! I want to add "hurrah!", but part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop! We should celebrate while we can, though. Wow.
As a member of the one of the families that George Banks destroyed I will sink to my knees and praise God the day that he is finally executed. He killed 5 people in my family, two of my aunts and three of my cousins. He has completely destroyed my family and we will never fully recover. My mother and grandmother can not even sleep at night due to the torment. It is easy for you to make comments that he should not die not fully knowing the havoc this man has caused. And insanity plea? Give me a break he has never ever showed remorse for what he has done. He even continued threatening my grandmother during his trail somehow sneaking letters out of the prison to be mailed. Here in America we have a justice system and if the judgement that we have handed out is not carried out then what is the point of even having a judgement system?
There is nothing I can say that will ease your pain or the torment that George Banks caused your family and your loved ones. There is no doubt or argument that his crimes and the deaths of your family members were horrific and brutal. I do not question that, and the thought of it makes me filled with sorrow and outrage. I do not question your pain or your right to anger. What I do question is revenge and the statement it makes about society. What I do question is our right as a society to make the same type of decision George Banks did. What I do question is how the loss of more life helps with healing. Perhaps the murder of George Banks will make you rest with more ease. If it doesn't, then it serves no purpose at all but violence and revenge.
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