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Dec. 7th, 2004 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingA man accused of murdering two children and attacking their mother has asked a judge to let him plead guilty and to sentence him to death.
"I only wish the judge to sentence me to death so no one can feel responsible for another's death, including mine," Marco Chapman wrote in a letter to Circuit Judge Tony Frohlich read in court in October. Chapman, 32, is due back in court Tuesday, when a doctor is expected to testify about his mental state and whether he understands what a guilty plea and death sentence would mean.
Neither lawyers nor death penalty activists and researchers could provide statistics on how often someone pleads guilty to a capital crime and seeks a death sentence. But lawyers and activists agree it is rare.
"I only wish the judge to sentence me to death so no one can feel responsible for another's death, including mine," Marco Chapman wrote in a letter to Circuit Judge Tony Frohlich read in court in October. Chapman, 32, is due back in court Tuesday, when a doctor is expected to testify about his mental state and whether he understands what a guilty plea and death sentence would mean.
Neither lawyers nor death penalty activists and researchers could provide statistics on how often someone pleads guilty to a capital crime and seeks a death sentence. But lawyers and activists agree it is rare.