ANOTHER POSTER BOY FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

Here is a damn good reason not to repeal the death penalty!

KILLER GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR SHOOTING DEAD THREE POLICE OFFICERS
For Pittsburgh cops he was ‘the face of evil’

By Lee Moran

Mail Online
June 29, 2011

A gunman who lay in wait and murdered three police officers responding to a domestic violence call at his house has been sentenced to death.

Richard Poplawski, wearing a bulletproof vest, met the officers at his doorway and shot two of them in the head - gunning down a third who later came to their aid.

His mother called out the police when an argument about his puppies urinating on the floor escalated out of control.

The killer only surrendered because he was bleeding from a leg wound inflicted by one of the officers during the horrific four-hour gun battle on his quiet Pittsburgh street.

A Pittsburgh jury convicted the 24-year-old on Saturday of three counts of first-degree murder, and 25 lesser crimes, for his actions on April 4, 2009.

The three slain officers were Eric Kelly, 41, Stephen Mayhle, 29, and Paul Sciullo II, 37.

Kelly had been on the force for 14 years, while Mayhle and Sciullo had been officers for two years each.

Another officer, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.

A mass of rank-and-file officers congregated outside the courtroom during the gunman's sentencing on Tuesday.

'This was an opportunity for them to see the face of Richard Poplawski which, for us, was the face of evil,' said Assistant Chief Paul Donaldson.

The jury spent just 90 minutes deliberating whether to sentence Poplawski to death or life in prison.

The jury rejected attorney for the penalty phase of the trial William Brennan's defence that he had no previous criminal record and had been raised in a dysfunctional home.

Reports at the time of the incident, when he peppered officers with fire from his 12-gauge shotgun, .357 Magnum and AK-47 assault rifle, said more than 100 rounds were fired by elite police teams and Poplawski.

Poplawski will be sentenced for the remainder of his charges, including nine counts each of attempted murder and assault on a law officer, on September 6.