Donald Trump has been forthright about his intention to bring about a death-penalty renaissance, and now his efforts are coming to fruition. This year has been a particularly lethal one for America’s death-row prisoners. Together, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have executed a total of 40 people in the past 10 months by injection, nitrogen hypoxia, and firing squad, surpassing 2024’s total of 25—a significant spike in an otherwise-downward long-term trend. Trump’s return to power—and the Republican Party’s resurgence more generally—is driving a heavy push for more death sentences and more executions. He has restored the federal death penalty following the prior administration’s moratorium, and Republican state legislatures have sought to expand the list of crimes punishable by death and to allow new execution methods.
Firstly, I just want to clarify that these are genuine questions. I'm confused about some of y'all's beliefs.
1. If y'all don't believe in an afterlife, if you belief we go into literally nothing, why are you afraid to die? It can't be because you're scared to leave people behind, because you don't exist anymore. You can't have regrets or miss people if you don't exist. Why be afraid to stop existing if you wouldn't even remember existing in the first place?
2. If you're an Atheist and support the death penalty, why? Non-existence is not a punishment. You're freeing the person from punishment by allowing them to die, based on the atheistic understanding of death. Death cannot be a punishment if death is non-existence.
Idk if these questions make sense, but I just figured I'd ask.
"I come to ask, not the gods, but legislators…to erase from the code of the French the blood laws that command judicial murders" (Robespierre, 6). These impassioned words, spoken by Maximilien Robespierre before France's National Constituent Assembly on 22 June 1791, urged the abolition of the death penalty, which Robespierre referred to as barbaric, pointless, and an antithesis to justice.
Cartoon Showing Robespierre Guillotining the Executioner After Having Guillotined Everyone Else
Joe Arridy had an IQ of 46 and is known as the “happiest prisoner on death row.” He went into the gas chamber with a smile. It turned out he was innocent. #FACT
From Tinder Date to Murder Case: The Killing of Sydney Loofe
In November 2017, 24 year old Sydney Loofe was excited to meet up with a woman she described as her “dream girl”. After matching with 25 year old Bailey Boswell on Tinder, Sydney set off to meet her in Lincoln, Nebraska, for a date, but sadly she never returned home.
When Sydney failed to turn up to work, her family reported her missing. Knowing that she had recently met a young woman via an online dating app, police made efforts to trace Sydney’s digital footprint. After accessing her Tinder account, it was found that over 100 messages had been exchanged between Loofe and Boswell over a 4 day period - from 11th to 15th November - and she was reported missing on 16th November. It looked likely that Boswell may have been her last contact. The very last message came from Boswell at around 6:45pm on November 15th, in which she informed Sydney that she had just arrived at their meeting point. This shows that, at the time of their last correspondence, they were together.
After tracking Sydney’s mobile phone, police were also able to determine that it had last connected to a tower in a town named Wilber; non-coincidentally, this is where Bailey Boswell had been renting an apartment with a 51 year old man named Aubrey Trail. With Wilber being a 45 minute car journey away from Lincoln, and with a population of under 2,000 people, there is no other logical reason for why Sydney would be in that area unless accompanied by Bailey Boswell.
Investigators questioned Boswell and Trail’s landlord, Alan Koll, who also happened to live on the same premises. He told police that there was a very strong smell of bleach emitting from Boswell and Trail’s apartment during November 16th, which lingered for a few days. Jennifer Koll, Alan’s wife, also reported seeing a blonde woman at the residence on multiple different occasions around this date. However, the Koll family did not hear any unusual sounds on the evening of the 15th November, despite their home sharing two walls with Boswell and Trail’s apartment.
When authorities searched the suspects’ rented property, they found a generous stash of Viagra and a collection of 17 sex toys. Although this showed that the couple may have had an adventurous sex life, it did not prove them to be murderers. However, upon closer inspection, police noticed used bottles of bleach and smears on the apartment walls, which indicated that the property had been rigorously and recently cleaned.
On this basis, police officially named Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail as persons of interest in late November, and they immediately took to social media to proclaim their innocence. In a video posted on Facebook, Trail stated:
“I’ve never killed anyone in my life and I’ve never hurt a female in my life, so take that for whatever the hell that’s worth... [I’m] not saying I’m a nice guy. I’m a crook. I’m a thief. Have been all my life. OK? But I’m not what you’re trying to make me out to be.”
In this same footage, Boswell spoke about her date with Sydney but maintained she had last seen her safe and well on November 15th:
“I went to take her home, and she asked me to drop her off at a friend’s house... And I did so. I gave her my number ... I haven’t heard from her since.”
The video concluded with a more sinister twist, with Boswell gesturing profanities to the camera as Trail said “fuck you”, aimed at the investigating police department. On November 30th, they were both arrested.
Just 4 days after the detainment of Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail, Sydney’s dismembered remains were found in numerous bin bags strewn across a field 90 miles outside of Lincoln. Investigators were led to this area after data from Boswell’s phone indicated she was around this site near to the date she disappeared. Police had also uncovered CCTV footage from the morning of November 15th, which showed Boswell and Trail purchasing tools and supplies which could have plausibly been used in the murder, dismemberment and disposal of Sydney Loofe. Notably, she was also last seen on that same day. This was enough for the police to believe that the murder of Sydney Loofe was entirely premeditated.
In July 2018, both Boswell and Trail pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder. However, since then, Trail has acknowledged that Sydney’s death was a “sex game gone wrong”, during which he accidentally strangled her to death with an extension cord during consensual intercourse. While on trial, Trail put on a dramatic show of commitment to his accomplice by yelling “Bailey is innocent and I curse you all!” in the courtroom, after which he slashed his throat multiple times and fell to the ground. Medics rushed to his aid, and Trail was hospitalised temporarily while he recovered.
In July 2021, Aubrey Trail was sentenced to death for the crime of first-degree murder. Bailey Boswell was also eligible to receive the death penalty, but in November 2021 was instead sentenced to life imprisonment.
Speaking of his intentions behind the murder, Trail confessed he had attempted to recruit Sydney into his sex cult, in which the members would engage in witchcraft, group sex and also commit fraud. Sydney had not reacted well to this proposal, and Trail had murdered her to ensure she did not tell anybody. Addressing Sydney’s family in court, Trail stated:
"I won't say I'm sorry, as that would be an insult to you after what I've put you through... And I won't ask for forgiveness, as I don't believe there is such a thing...
I have done some terrible things in my life but this is the only thing I have ever done that I feel real regret about...
To be quite frank and no disrespect to intended to the court, I couldn’t care less what you do here to me today."
