Alabama set to execute man who did not kill anyone
This is brutal.
“I shouldn’t die for something I haven’t done,” Burton told NBC News in a phone interview Monday from William C. Holman Correctional Facility, the site of the state’s execution chamber, where he has spent more than 30 years on death row.
“Felony murder allows for everybody involved in the underlying offense to be treated by the legal system as if they committed an intentional murder,” says Nazgol Ghandnoosh, director of research at The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group
In 1991, Burton was one of six men involved in the robbery of a AutoZone store in Talladega that ended with the murder of a customer, Doug Battle.
Burton admits to entering the store armed with a gun. He said he stole cash from a safe in the back room, then fled outside to wait by a getaway car.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-set-execute-man-not-kill-anyone-rcna262113
= new reply since forum marked as read
something you should always endeavour to see it through until the end, no matter the cost, no matter the amount of effort needed to complete the task(s).
In terms of legal origins, it used to be said (under the old English debt laws, which were ofttimes quite severe) that 'If you owe a penny, you might as well owe a pound' in regards to the consequences (they were the same, or nearly so).
Another variant (in terms of informal legal idiomatic use in England) is:
'One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb'
But again, it has a different meaning than what you implied about 'in for a penny, in for a pound'.
https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-one3.html
The standard form is one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, though you sometimes come across it as one might as well be hanged for a goat as a lamb. Strictly, it’s a justification or excuse for going on to commit some greater offence once one has perpetrated a minor one. These days it often suggests that once one has become involved in some affair or incident (not necessarily illegal), one may as well commit oneself entirely.
This example is from Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence, of 1913: “It seemed as if she did not like being discovered in her home circumstances... But she might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. She invited him out of the mausoleum of a parlour into the kitchen.”
The origin lies in the brutal history of English law. At one time, a great many crimes automatically attracted the death penalty: you could be hanged, for example, for stealing goods worth more than a shilling. Sheep stealing was among these capital crimes. So if you were going to steal a sheep, you might as well take a full-grown one rather than a lamb, because the penalty was going to be the same either way.
Since the law was reformed in the 1820s to end the death penalty for the crime, the proverb must be older; in fact the earliest example known is from John Ray’s English Proverbs of 1678: “As good be hang’d for an old sheep as a young lamb”.
snip
Hope that all helps.
Cheers,
Cel 
I have learned so much in regards to idiom from my 7 and half plus years here on DU.
One of my all-time favourites is the Aussie expression 'As useful as tits on a bull', although TBH I did know that before I came to DU in mid 2018, but an Aussie DU jogged my memory long ago.
Thanks for the input,
Cel 
In 2024, the ten countries that are known (my add, North Korea and Viet Nam have also executed people extensively, but there is no verified data for either, and adding them in still does not remove the US from the top 10) to have executed the most people were, in descending order, China (1,000+), Iran (972+), Saudi Arabia (345+), Iraq (63+), Yemen (38+), Somalia (34+), The United States (25), Egypt (13), Singapore (9), and Kuwait (6).
What a horrid list for the US to be on!
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/8976/2025/en/
more info:
