The tragic story 4 year old Dominick Calhoun being beaten to death has lit up NBC25's website connectmidmichigan.com with comments. Several say, the person responsible should face the death penalty. NBC25 looked into the possibility of reinstating the death penalty in Michigan.
Comments include statements..."Michigan needs a death penalty ASAP." "We need to have the chair in MI." "Michigan needs to reinstate the death penalty…" "This is why we should have the death penalty in michigan!" "People like this man deserve medieval corporal punishment followed by capitol punishment."
The comments are directed at Brandon Hayes who's accused of beating 4-year-old Dominick Calhoun to death.
The comments supporting a death penalty in Michigan make up nearly 20% of the total comments on the story.
There have been several attempts in recent years to bring the death penalty to michigan.
Jim Bowens tried it back in 2004. His son Matthew Bowens and police partner Jennifer Fettig were shot and killed by Eric Marshall after the officers pulled his car over in Detroit.
Both families of the victims gathered petitions to get the matter on the November ballot, but that effort fell short.
NBC25 spoke with Jim Friday, six years later, and he is still passionate about Michigan getting a death penalty proposal on the ballot.
Bowens says, "Let the people of Michigan decide what they want to do. Why should 50 or 60 people decide for all of us what we want?"
One of the largest groups against the death penalty is the Catholic Church.
It says all life is precious and needs to be preserved.
Father Fredrick Taggart, pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Flint, says "What do you accomplish? It sounds more like people want it because they want revenge. That's not a good motivation."
In the meantime, the man who killed the police officers will spend the rest of his life in prison.
If convicted, so could Brandon Hayes.
Michigan is quite historic when it comes to the death penalty.
It was the first state of the union to abolish capital punishment back in 1847.
There have been several attempts to overturn it, but none have been successful.
