Tag: execution

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Politics Texas

Texas Just Executed its 531st Inmate

There must be a trophy or something…

Texas on Wednesday executed a 36-year-old man convicted of killing his daughter and two stepdaughters in a mobile home blaze in 2000.

Raphael Holiday was put to death by lethal injection at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m., a prisons official said.

He became the 531st inmate executed by Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

“Yes, I would like to thank all of my supporters and loved ones,” he was quoted by prison officials as saying in his last statement.

“I love you, Love y’all, always going to be with y’all. Thank you Warden,” he said.

Holiday was convicted of killing Tierra Lynch, 7; Jasmine DuPaul, 5; and Justice Holiday, 1, in a rural community about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Houston.

He had been living with Tami Wilkerson, his common law wife at the time, until she secured a restraining order against him for sexually assaulting Tierra, according to the Texas attorney general’s office.

About six months later, Holiday, who had attempted to reconcile with Wilkerson, returned to the house and forced the girls’ grandmother at gunpoint to douse the home with gasoline, which ignited, it said. The grandmother survived.

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News Texas

Texas Executes Second Inmate of 2015

A Texas man convicted of killing a 38-year-old woman nearly two decades ago while he was on parole for a triple slaying years earlier was executed Thursday evening, Dallas News reports.

Robert Ladd, 57, received a lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty. The court also rejected an appeal in which Ladd’s attorney challenged whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in executions is potent enough to not cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.

Ladd was executed for the 1996 slaying of 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner, of Tyler, who was strangled and beaten with a hammer. Her arms and legs were bound, bedding was placed between her legs, and she was set on fire in her apartment.

In his final statement, Ladd addressed the sister of his victim by name, telling her he was “really, really sorry.”

“I really, really hope and pray you don’t have hatred in your heart,” he said, adding that he didn’t think she could have closure but hoped she could find peace. “A revenge death won’t get you anything,” he said.

Then Ladd told the warden: “Let’s ride.”

As the drug took effect, he said: “Stings my arm, man!” He began taking deep breaths, then started snoring. His snores became breaths, each one becoming less pronounced, before he stopped all movement.

He was pronounced dead at 7:02 p.m., 27 minutes after the drug was administered.

Categories
Politics

Now Hear Me Out, I Agree With The Judge on Using The Firing Squad – Here’s Why…

Judge Alex Kozinski

Usually, I disagree with just about everything conservatives say. Their way of thinking is on a level I really cannot stoop to. And believe me, I’ve tried. It has always been my intention to understand their reasoning or lack thereof, but it has finally dawned on me that I simply cannot do it.

That is why I was baffled when I found myself agreeing with a conservative judge who proposed an old fashioned and rather draconian way of executing death row inmates – the firing squad.

Now hold on, hear me out a second. No, I have not figured out a way to understand the conservative way of thinking, like I stated earlier, that’s impossible for me to do. What I think has happened in this case is the conservative judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, has elevated his thinking to my level.

What do I mean by that? Well it’s simple. I’ve always believed that the death penalty and executions, are horrible aways for a civilized society to deal with those who have committed unthinkable crimes. I would like to think that we call ourselves “civilized” for a reason. I have no problems with locking these folks up for the rest of their lives, but putting someone to death, no matter the way we choose to do it, seems rather primitive.

That is why I agree with the judge. Not because I agree with the method he proposed, I don’t. But rather because I agree with the message that method sends – that the death penalty is a “brutal” act.

In his dissent in the Arizona death penalty case of Joseph Rudolph Wood III, Chef Judge Alex Kozinski wrote;

“Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and beautiful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments.

“But executions are, in fact, brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should we. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact that the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf.”

Indeed. Why try to mask the killing of a human being by making the process look like a medical procedure. If you are serious about what you want to do with the inmate and your “civilized” morals are okay with killing that person, then show the execution for what it really is, a brutal Savage event. Maybe then we will see just how barbaric we really are and maybe, just maybe we will change.

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Featured News

Mississippi Could Execute an Innocent Woman on Thursday

Although her son eventually confessed to the crime, her execution is scheduled to happen on Thursday.

If Mississippi executes Michelle Byrom, 57, on Thursday, she would be the first woman executed in the state since 1944. A motion to approve that execution date is pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Jackson attorney David Voisin, a consultant for the defense, said the state is moving “to kill a horribly battered and abused woman who did not do what the state said she did.”

In her capital murder trial, her son, Edward Jr., testified against her, saying she hired his friend, Joey Gillis, as a “hit man” to kill his father, Edward Sr., in 1999 for $15,000 — money she would pay from life insurance proceeds.

Jurors never saw the two letters that Junior wrote his mother in which he detailed how he killed his father and never heard from a psychologist who says Junior described killing his father.

Junior, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit capital murder, is now free on earned supervised release.

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Georgia News

Troy Davis Executed In Georgia, While The Real Killer Walks Among Us

In 1991, Troy Davis was convicted of murdering an off duty police officer in a parking lot in the city of  Savannah, Georgia. His conviction was based on nothing more than nine “eyewitnesses.” Since then, seven of those eyewitnesses have came forward and recanted their testimonies, with some even saying that they were coerced into lying. Nevertheless,  he was convicted and after three previous stays of execution, the state of Georgia was determined to make sure Troy Davis would die tonight.

Millions of people had come out in protest, including a former United States President, The Pope and  five Wardens, as well as a former warden at the very prison where Troy Davis was incarcerated.  That former warden, Dr. Allen Ault,  wrote a letter to the Governor and Corrections Officials of Georgia, asking for Troy’s execution to be stopped. Part of the letter said;

We write to you today with the overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia tonight. We know the legal process has exhausted itself in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, and yet, doubt about his guilt remains. This very fact will have an irreversible and damaging impact on your staff. Many people of significant standing share these concerns, including, notably, William Sessions, Director of the FBI under President Ronald Reagan.

Living with the nightmares is something that we know from experience. No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt, and for some of us, shame and guilt. Should our justice system be causing so much harm to so many people when there is an alternative?

We urge you to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider their decision. Should that fail, we urge  you to unburden yourselves and your staff from the pain of participating in such a questionable execution to the extent possible  by allowing any personnel so inclined to opt-out of activities related to the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Further, we urge you to provide appropriate counseling to personnel who do choose to perform their job functions related to the execution. If we may be of assistance to you moving forward, please do not hesitate to call upon any of us.

Scheduled to be killed today at 7PM, Troy’s lawyers filed a last minute request with the United States Supreme Court for a stay of execution, but that effort ended three hours later with the Court returning its decision saying, “application for a stay of execution denied.”

So tonight, Troy Davis was strapped to a gurney and asked if he had any last words, to which he maintained his innocence. He said he was not responsible for the officer’s death, and that he “didn’t have a gun.” He was then injected with enough poison to kill him.

Convicted on nothing more than nine testimonies that were later determined to be false or coerced – tonight – Troy lost his fight to live. The announcement was made that Troy took his last breath and was pronounced dead at 11:08PM.

 

Categories
Black people Politics Texas United States

Rick Perry Saves One Life In Texas

He was supposed to be executed today, but because of the testimony of a prosecution psychologist during his sentencing, Duane Buck – convicted of murdering two people – will live to see another day. The testimony of the psychologist claimed that black people are more likely to commit crimes.

Luckily, former Texas AG turned senator John Cornyn asked, eleven years ago but still, that Buck’s and five other death penalty sentences be reviewed for racial bias, which gave the Supreme Court enough fodder to halt Buck’s execution early this morning.

Governor Rick Perry, the presidential candidate who loves nothing more than personally executing people with his six-shooter, has so far remained mum about the case, possibly because someone else was already executed in Texas this week, temporarily sating his all-consuming bloodlust.

In recent debates, the Teaparty has  applauded Texas presidential candidate Rick Perry for setting the record for the most executions in Texas. They also called for the government to allow people who cannot afford healthcare to die. The knowledge that Duane Buck is still alive will not go over well with Perry’s Teaparty admirers.

Categories
Politics Republican Texas

Did Rick Perry Kill An Innocent Man?

During the recent Republican Presidential debate, Rick Perry was asked if he struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of the 234 death row inmates the state of Texas kills every year,  might have been innocent. Perry answered that the courts in Texas have a great record for quality convictions, so he had no problem ordering 234 executions over his 11 years as Governor.

“No sir, I’ve never struggled with that at all,” he said. “The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place of which — when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, if that’s required.”

“If you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the State of Texas. And that is you will be executed.”

Exactly how sound is this ‘thoughtful and clear’ process in Texas anyway? Apparently, not so clear. In fact, it’s quite foggy.

Over the last 9 years of Perry’s 11 years in power, DNA evidence has exonerated 41 prisoners convicted in that thoughtful, clear Texas system. That’s 41 people who went to prison, and were later found innocent of a crime they had been convicted of.

And what’s even worse, in 2004,  Perry allowed the execution of a death row inmate named Cameron Todd Willingham. Mr Willingham was accused and convicted – using that thoughtful, clear process – of setting a fire that killed his three daughters. He was put to death, although evidence, scientists and forensics experts doubted the prosecution’s case against him. Rick Perry even went as far as shutting down an official investigation into the case and execution.

The fact that Rick Perry stopped the investigation is proof that valid questions about the execution were being asked, which would also suggest that maybe, just maybe an innocent man was killed under Perry’s watch. But why would Perry lose sleep over that? He is after all, a modern day Republican governor and doesn’t believe in all that scientific mumbo-jumbo, forensic-smorensic nonsense.

Hang ’em high! Yee-hah!!

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