Demario Atwater: The Plea Deal That Should Have Been DENIED

We here at Outlier Magazine have routinely stated that Judge Allen Baddour is no friend of the bruthas. His rulings are stark in their consistent disregard of due process in cases involving defendants and other litigants of color.

So in reviewing the Eve Carson case, we couldn't understand why Demario Atwater did not receive the death penalty. From the evidence, it appears that very few people in our lifetimes deserved it more.

Consider the strikes against Atwater: His victim, Eve Carson was a beautiful (people always say that, but she actually was) blond college student and student body president of UNC Chapel Hill, which just happens to be the university that Judge Baddour attended and where his father, Dick Baddour was the athletic director, before his scandal-fueled ouster. Already not looking good for Atwater...

Eve Carson wasn't some simple honey-dip walking through life and school, having a good ole partying time either. By all accounts, she was widely known and beloved by faculty, students and her community. She was a star ladies and gentlemen.

Atwater and his co-defendant, Lawrence Lovette, who at 17, was too young at the time to get the death penalty, kidnapped Carson, got grabby with her in the back seat, used her ATM card to get $1,400; and then killed her.

And they didn't just kill her. They shot her first in the face with a .25cal pistol...still alive and talking...they shot her again in the right shoulder...still alive and talking...they shot her in her right upper arm...still alive and talking...they shot her in right side of her buttocks...and after all that torture, she was still alive and still able to speak. In fact Atwater confirmed that she was still able to speak and in pain and fear, she put her hand over her head as they shot her in the temple with a sawed off shotgun. After that, she was dead...not able to speak.

We searched and searched the news accounts looking for a justification for not imposing the death penalty and as far as we can tell, the only reason was that Carson's family are against the death penalty...and there in lies the problem with the death penalty. Although, the family is in mourning and we should really want their input, the family shouldn't get to decide the punishment. Hell, if the family gets to decide, I want the state to execute the creep that broke into my house and stole my Beretta all those years ago. (Not really, but you get my point!) It was my favorite!

Many conservatives believe we are all bleeding heart liberals and want to save all the criminals from the death penalty. What they don't realize is that the death penalty, AS APPLIED is the problem. The poor and minorities are more likely to get the death penalty and innocent people are executed even when there is evidence of their innocence or a question to their guilt.

There should be no death penalty until they work out those issues, but someone that could torture someone by shooting them here and there a few times and then shooting them in the face with a sawed off shotgun, is quite simply sick on so many levels; and should be put down.

This isn't a black-white thing or a rich-poor thing. This is predator-prey thing. We are the prey to these kinds of predators and when they are brought to justice, they should face the ultimate penalty.

I'm not sure why the prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty in this case or why Baddour agreed to the plea deal, but if Atwater doesn't deserve to be executed, then nobody does!