FL FL - Danny Rolling, Gainesville Ripper, 8 known victims LA/FL 1989-90

[scandi]

Thanks Liz :blowkiss: Scandi

 

[s_finch]

What hymn did he sing?? And am I correct in that I read that Rollings never apologized to the families?? TIA

 

[southcitymom]

What hymn did he sing?? And am I correct in that I read that Rollings never apologized to the families?? TIA

"Moments after the execution, Weinsier filed his report. He said that before the injection, Rolling was asked if he wanted to make a final statement. Rolling did not say anything, but he began to sing a song that Weinsier said lasted fully two minutes. Weinsier said that the chorus of the song was, "None greater than thee, oh Lord, none greater than thee," and that Rolling sang the chorus several times."

Another article I read said he sang it quietly and then more quietly as the medications took effect until he stopped singing and died.

I do not know if Rollings ever apologized to the familes of his victims.

 

[SewingDeb]

No, he did not apologize or even acknowlege the families. He showed no remorse.

 

[concernedperson]

No, he did not apologize or even acknowlege the families. He showed no remorse.

THANK YOU. He was singing songs for his own worthless soul. None the which I hope are answered until he has payed his dues for the lives he took.

We cannot go on about a serial killer's soul and redemption. It is a slap in the face to people who have died under their hand. Yes, I know no one wants to see evil in the face but these kids did.

Please don't redeem him. Let the Good Lord redeem him AND IN THE INTERIM LET SOCIETY HELP THE GOOD LORD WITH HIS WORKS. Sorry for the screaming but we have to buttress up sometimes and not leave everything up to someone else. Remember the phrase it takes a village?

 

[s_finch]

No, he did not apologize or even acknowlege the families. He showed no remorse.

That's sad for the families, I guess. I was just wondering if I was in their place if I would even want an apology from him. I think I'd just want a few hours to scream at him, I think that would make me feel better than anything. I don't find it justice that he died such an easy death, but maybe I'm wrong in feeling that way.

I don't know how, other than with the help of God, that the families of his victims ever find a semblance of peace. I'll have to remember them in my prayers tonight.

 

[Ntegrity]

We cannot go on about a serial killer's soul and redemption.

We can all express our opinions.

 

[southcitymom]

THANK YOU. He was singing songs for his own worthless soul. None the which I hope are answered until he has payed his dues for the lives he took.

We cannot go on about a serial killer's soul and redemption. It is a slap in the face to people who have died under their hand. Yes, I know no one wants to see evil in the face but these kids did.

Please don't redeem him. Let the Good Lord redeem him AND IN THE INTERIM LET SOCIETY HELP THE GOOD LORD WITH HIS WORKS. Sorry for the screaming but we have to buttress up sometimes and not leave everything up to someone else. Remember the phrase it takes a village?

I do not see how it is a slap in the face of anyone to believe in redemption for everyone. The cycle of anger, pain and vengeance must end somewhere, and I believe it ends with the power of love.

Certainly redemption is left in the hands of a higher power - God, if you will. Some people even believe that God sent his son to the world and that His son instructed us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us and harm us. Some people might take to heart what may have been God's son's last words on the cross - Father Forgive.

People like this may believe that part of helping the good Lord with His works is to carry that message.

 

[Ntegrity]

Thank you southcitymom for saying it so well. :blowkiss:

 

[s_finch]

I do not see how it is a slap in the face of anyone to believe in redemption for everyone. The cycle of anger, pain and vengeance must end somewhere, and I believe it ends with the power of love.

Certainly redemption is left in the hands of a higher power - God, if you will. Some people even believe that God sent his son to the world and that His son instructed us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us and harm us. Some people might take to heart what may have been God's son's last words on the cross - Father Forgive.

People like this may believe that part of helping the good Lord with His works is to carry that message.

Just as the Amish have forgiven. I don't know that everyone will be redemned, but it certainly isn't my place to decide who is and isn't. It's not my place to judge, condemn or absolve, that's all left up to the good Lord. "Faith, Hope and Love, the greatest of these is Love"


And you know, if I had been born as Rollings and lived his tortured childhood, I might have turned out even worse than he did. I wonder if in murdering women, he was getting back at him mother for not protecting him.

 

[southcitymom]

Just as the Amish have forgiven. I don't know that everyone will be redemned, but it certainly isn't my place to decide who is and isn't. It's not my place to judge, condemn or absolve, that's all left up to the good Lord. "Faith, Hope and Love, the greatest of these is Love"


And you know, if I had been born as Rollings and lived his tortured childhood, I might have turned out even worse than he did. I wonder if in murdering women, he was getting back at him mother for not protecting him.

I too found the Amish's response to their recent tragedy so powerful and humbling, and I too look at Rollings and think "There but for the grace of God...."

 

[mocity]

I think the singing is disrespectful and distasteful. Thank goodness he is gone

 

[Glow]

Thanks for that link, Liz. It'll be good to hear the reporter's interpretation of the singing. It's impossible for us to know whether it was done in a mocking way, so maybe he'll tell us!

This is what the reporter wrote:

I could see George Paules shake his head. It appeared Dianna Hoyt rolled her eyes.

Rolling’s song stopped, the microphone into the witness chamber was turned off. The witness chamber remained silent.

Did I really just hear that? There were clearly two words missing in Danny Rolling’s final statement … I’M SORRY …but would it have really mattered?



The witness chamber remained silent.


At 6:13 p.m., the microphone came on again. Danny Rolling was officially pronounced dead. The brown curtain closed. The place remained silent. Not a peep.

Those family members are the strongest people I have ever seen. I would have screamed at him, cursed him out, smashed through the glass and choked him. But Danny would have loved the attention.

The family members were escorted out of the witness chamber first. Members of the media remained behind to chat about what we just saw and heard.

Danny Rolling’s final performance was sick. No remorse. No apology. No heart.

http://www.local10.com/news/10166968/detail.html

 

[Sherlockmom]

>And you know, if I had been born as Rollings and lived his tortured childhood, I might have turned out even worse than he did. I wonder if in murdering women, he was getting back at him mother for not protecting him.<


There are millions of people who have tortured pasts and go on to live decent lives. Not everyone who has been molested goes on to molest others, not everyone who has been abused goes on to abuse others. While he may have had a tortured past at some point he made a choice between good and evil. He had the ability to make that choice because others have come to that crossroads with the same past and made a choice for good. This is what he is being punished for. Making the choice for evil.

It IS our job here on earth to judge. I get so sick of hearing "who are we to judge" and some excuse or another for someone to murder. THERE IS NO EXCUSE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR PAST WAS. We judge all of the time. That is why we have a judicial system. What would the alternative be? Would you really want the whole world to live like the Amish and just ignore crime and punish no one? As I said before, one can only live this way if there are others who will make the tough decisions for you and risk their lives so one can live in this la-la land. This kumbaya attitude that everyone is really good at heart and everyone is redeemable is foolish. There seems to be more sympathy for the perpetrator of this crime than his innocent victims. That doesn't seem normal to me.

The judging of one's SOUL is what should be left to God. This is the type of forgiveness that we cannot give but only GOD can give. I think some people get confused and think that Jesus meant we shouldn't punish people for crime and forgive people who do the most heinous crimes against us.

And by the way. Did anyone see this? Rollings admitted before his death to three other murders.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225926,00.html

If he had found redemption at the end of his life and made his peace with God no one knows that except Rollings and God. And it has nothing to do with me and doesn't change one bit the fact that he committed these crimes with free will and he had to pay the price for that. What was left was for him to save his soul. That is not the job of man and I find it appalling that anyone would think it so. We did not create the life he took, we have no business forgiving him for taking that life.

 

[2sisters]

I watched the story about the murders on American justice years ago and I wondered why LA never pursued charges, i know he was on death row at the time but couldn't they have done somethig to close the case for the family.

 

[southcitymom]

>And you know, if I had been born as Rollings and lived his tortured childhood, I might have turned out even worse than he did. I wonder if in murdering women, he was getting back at him mother for not protecting him.<


There are millions of people who have tortured pasts and go on to live decent lives. Not everyone who has been molested goes on to molest others, not everyone who has been abused goes on to abuse others. While he may have had a tortured past at some point he made a choice between good and evil. He had the ability to make that choice because others have come to that crossroads with the same past and made a choice for good. This is what he is being punished for. Making the choice for evil.

It IS our job here on earth to judge. I get so sick of hearing "who are we to judge" and some excuse or another for someone to murder. THERE IS NO EXCUSE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR PAST WAS. We judge all of the time. That is why we have a judicial system. What would the alternative be? Would you really want the whole world to live like the Amish and just ignore crime and punish no one? As I said before, one can only live this way if there are others who will make the tough decisions for you and risk their lives so one can live in this la-la land. This kumbaya attitude that everyone is really good at heart and everyone is redeemable is foolish. There seems to be more sympathy for the perpetrator of this crime than his innocent victims. That doesn't seem normal to me.

The judging of one's SOUL is what should be left to God. This is the type of forgiveness that we cannot give but only GOD can give. I think some people get confused and think that Jesus meant we shouldn't punish people for crime and forgive people who do the most heinous crimes against us.

And by the way. Did anyone see this? Rollings admitted before his death to three other murders.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225926,00.html

If he had found redemption at the end of his life and made his peace with God no one knows that except Rollings and God. And it has nothing to do with me and doesn't change one bit the fact that he committed these crimes with free will and he had to pay the price for that. What was left was for him to save his soul. That is not the job of man and I find it appalling that anyone would think it so. We did not create the life he took, we have no business forgiving him for taking that life.

It is very tue that not everyone who experiences abuse as a child goes on to abuse. It is equally true that almost everyone who goes on to abuse was abused as a child. Both facts are interesting and worth noting. Neither outweighs the other.

Maybe I've missed it, but I've read nothing on this thread opining that Rollings should not have been or be judged and that it is not the providence of human beings, via our judicial system, to render such justice. Certainly if you want to take a Christrian look at it, Christ seemed to say as much with the "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" passage.

I have read a number of articles, editorials and opinions regarding Rollings crimes and his execution, to include all of the posts in this thread. Perhaps I am not looking in the right places, but nowhere have I found there to be more sympathy for the perpatrator of these crimes than for the victims. Quite the opposite. Please direct me to the place where I can find this overwhelming abnormal outpouring of sympathy for Rollings at the expense of his victims. I am entirely intrigued.

As to the opinion that we have no business forgiving others, this seems to be in direct contradiction to the Christian tradition, as well as a number of the eastern spiritual traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, etc..)

Christ mentions this innumberable times (just two examples - The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18 and "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matthew 6:14)) in the New Testament.

The law of karma also clearly teaches that the attachment must be released (forgiveness) in order for all parties to be freed and that we only harm and burden ourselves by not releasing (forgiving).

So if we have the responsibility of judgment, surely we also have the responsibility of forgiveness. The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you cannot have one without the other.

Kumbaya from La-La Land, home of the free and the foolish!

 

[Ntegrity]

There seems to be more sympathy for the perpetrator of this crime than his innocent victims.

Please show me one thing that implied there was more sympathy for the murderer than for his victims. I sure as heck don't feel that way at all and I haven't seen anyone else say that either. IMHO Danny Rolling deserved the death penalty and that's what he got. It's over and done, but I refuse to wish him or anyone else eternal damnation. While you may not agree with my way of thinking (your prerogative!), I can care about his soul without absolving him of responsibility for the crimes he committed on earth.

 

[Becba]

Danny confessed to the killings in Shreveport LA and expressed his wish he had not done it. He expressed remorse for the Gainsville victims long ago. I don't see what it matters. An apology for the murder of my child would mean nothing to me. He killed 8 people. Saying in hindsight it was wrong is an understatement.

Danny has been filmed singing long ago. It is one of the things he enjoyed and did not mind performing for people. I am sure his singing was to soothe himself and kind of mourn his own death.

 

[Sherlockmom]

>It is very tue that not everyone who experiences abuse as a child goes on to abuse. It is equally true that almost everyone who goes on to abuse was abused as a child. Both facts are interesting and worth noting. Neither outweighs the other.<

I disagree with you. One far outweighs the other as those that go on to abuse are harming others. And it further outweighs when that person uses their past abuse as an excuse to rape and murder someone don't you think? Furthermore, the number of people who were abused who go on to rape & murder is significantly small when compared to the number of those abused don't you think? That would make those who use their past as an excuse to do harm to others rather the exception to the rule. It seems that everyone who has been arrested for murder lately claims some kind of abuse excuse. It's getting old.

>Maybe I've missed it, but I've read nothing on this thread opining that Rollings should not have been or be judged and that it is not the providence of human beings, via our judicial system, to render such justice. <

Here is one of the statements that you missed:

>
Originally Posted by s_finch

Just as the Amish have forgiven. I don't know that everyone will be redemned, but it certainly isn't my place to decide who is and isn't. It's not my place to judge, condemn or absolve, that's all left up to the good Lord. "Faith, Hope and Love, the greatest of these is Love" <

I agree that redemption is left to God however we do indeed have the responsibility in these cases to judge, condemn, punish. I do not believe that we have a right to absolve someone who has committed murder.

>Perhaps I am not looking in the right places, but nowhere have I found there to be more sympathy for the perpatrator of these crimes than for the victims. Quite the opposite. Please direct me to the place where I can find this overwhelming abnormal outpouring of sympathy for Rollings at the expense of his victims. I am entirely intrigued.<

Re-read pages one and two of this thread. Here are a few examples:

"Certainly the father's brutality was a factor in the warped devlopment of this person. He's not evil. He's just another unloved, unwanted child."


"They aren't 100% bad people, though they do bad things. I mean - if they were so horrible, we'd know it before they killed anyone. As it is, we can't identify a serial killer before he does anything because he's mostly normal. Just like bipoloar people, depressed people (of which I was one) etc."

"To me, signing a death warrent is no different from a contract killing. You want someone dead because you think they deserve it, you hire someone. Gov. Bush is doing the same thing. Wish I could execute him for his crimes."



"I'm not trying to start any debate - I know no one will (or should) change their mind on how they feel based on another's opinion. I'm just saying what's on my mind after the execution last night. The one last night - a crime committed in 1985 - a lifetime ago. Since then, Rutheford has helped his children grow up loved by him, loved his grandbabies and has been a wonderful family member (I have seen him with his family when I go visit my pen pal) and I see no good it does anyone to kill him now. It certainly doesn't make me any safer, and it cost MILLIONS of dollars more, than it would have just to keep him for a life sentence without parole. Millions - for just one guy."



"Thanks for your post, Glitchwizard. I really appreciate it. I too am sad when someone is executed - whether it's by the state or by their neighbor. We have a lot to learn."

>As to the opinion that we have no business forgiving others, this seems to be in direct contradiction to the Christian tradition, as well as a number of the eastern spiritual traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, etc..) <

I didn't say that. I said that we had not created life so we had no business forgivining someone who took that life thru murder. I believe in forgiving people who have wronged us personally for small things. I may forgive someone for robbing me but do you have the right to forgive them? I may forgive someone who has spoken ill of me but I surely wouldn't forgive someone who murdered a family member or any one else for that matter. Since the one murdered cannot give forgiveness since they are dead do you have the right to forgive the murderer in their stead?

As far as Buddhism and other religions go what they believe is irrelevant to me since I do not subscribe to their beliefs.

>So if we have the responsibility of judgment, surely we also have the responsibility of forgiveness. The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you cannot have one without the other.<<
I completely disagree with that statement. Our judicial system is not about forgiveness. You are either guilty or not guilty. The judicial system in our country is set up as a punitive system meant to punish and incarcerate wrongdoers. It is not supposed to be offering forgiveness. When a governor offers a stay of execution he doesn't forgive. He allows the person to live in exchange for a prison sentence. I believe that offering forgiveness in the form of Presidential pardons is wrong. It is overturning the will of the people who have judged and sentenced a criminal via the judicial system, our laws and a panel of juries. And yes, you can have one without the other. It happens everyday in our court system when people are punished and sent to jail. The responsibility of our judicial system is not forgiveness. This may sound really nice in Kumbaya Land but it isn't how our system operates.

When I read statements such as wishes for Rollings to "rest in peace" it turns my stomach. Why would anyone wish for him to rest in peace?

 

[Ntegrity]

Sherlockmom, you have a right to your opinion (which I do understand). I think the death sentence is as severe a punishment as anyone can be expected to pay. It's possible to have compassion for the sinner while hating the sin. That's what I believe people were trying to express. It doesn't minimize the horror of the crimes or the victims.