Texas is on the cusp of it's 400th execution since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, and I say congratulations!Johnny Ray Conner, who shot to death a store clerk in a 1998 hold up, will be sitting down for a piping hot cup of lethal injection instead of afternoon tea, and little can stop it. Not even the stern condemnation of the European Union.
"The European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the State of Texas," the EU's current Portuguese presidency said in a statement. Really? The combined governments of Europe are taking time to curtail Texicutions, a near weekly staple of Lone Star life? How cute!
"While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas," Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, said in a statement. "Two hundred and 30 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes against our crimes."
In other words, "go fuck yourself, EU".
Texas, which is trying to undo the damage of two generations of shitty presidents and legendarily fierce bible-thumping isn't quite making up ground for accounting for over a third of all executions in America, but it's admirable. Yes, over one third of all executions in the last 31 years were in Texas, four times more than the next closest state.
I am a huge fan of the death penalty, which has it's biggest fault in the appeals process and farcically long wait on Death Row. There are some incredibly evil people in this world that have ruined lives and hurt innocent people, and eliminating them from the gene pool is necessary. Many complain it is barbaric to kill, but when I think of all the victims who've been stabbed, bludgeoned, shot, maimed, and murdered, I think a needle full of bad cocktail or a bucket full of foul smelling air is overly kind to these criminals.
If anything, we as a society should be happy that DNA testing and science have helped acquit the innocent, but it is not a call or cause for abolishing capital punishment. The same way advancements medically save lives now that would have been lost 30 years ago, the same should be said for the changes in criminology and reexamination of proof, but in both cases, what's done is done and we must use what tools we have to make things better and just for both now and the future.
But in the meantime, keep killing criminals.
1 comment:
Not I nor any of my loved ones are on death row, so the question of capital punishment doesn't concern me directly. If I go with the "do unto others..." argument, obviously, I don't want to be killed. But on the other hand, if I were a compulsive maniacal killer, knowing that my obsession with destroying civilized society one person at a time does nothing to advance the greater good, I should welcome the end of my life. But would my brother or father or mother understand. They could possibly be so deluded by love that they would think that my "disease" could have been cured, or worse, that I was wrongfully convicted. When someone or something forcefully extinguishes my life, that would not be justice in the eyes of my loving kin. They would rise against the person or thing that caused my death. They would pass on their hatred to their offspring. They would recruit their friends through propaganda. The person or thing that took my life would have to go to great lengths to control/oppress my people and to win back the hearts and minds of others infected by the violence. Knowing this ahead of time, the person or thing that extinguished me would be smart to only execute those of the weaker/poorer class to have the appearance of strength and be able to maintain it. Is all this a biggter headache than keeping a man in prison? I don't know.
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