I'm going to eat my pie after my execution

[WriterDom]

THE DEATH PENALTY: A WAR CRIME AGAINST THE POOR AND OPPRESSED

By Gloria Rubac, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

In 1992 when Clinton was running for president, he made a point of leaving the campaign trail to go back to Arkansas for an execution, sending a strong message to the American people that he was in full support of the death penalty. The victim was a mentally retarded man named Ricky Ray Rector, who told the guards taking him from his cell to the execution chamber that he was going to leave his dessert on the side of his bunk. "I’m going to eat it after my execution," he said.

Clinton has such callous disregard for people in this country that he was proud to preside over the execution of a man with the comprehension of a child—a man who was going the SAVE HIS DESSERT, A PIECE OF CHOCOLATE CAKE, FOR AFTER HIS EXECUTION! Sisters and brothers, the reason that the US government can bomb and destroy and sanction to death and commit war crimes against people around the world is because they do it every day here in the US against the working people and the poor, and particularly to the oppressed communities of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians. Every day, every hour, every minute.

 

[Ambrosious]

Well, did he eat it? If he's not going to eat it, I'll take it.

 

[scylis]

 

[scylis]

Well, did he eat it? If he's not going to eat it, I'll take it.

no no no... it's MINE!!

 

[cymbidia]

While i could not be the one to actually pull the lever or push the button that would result in the death penalty being executed, i maintain that there is a place for this most horrible of punishments within our society. Used sparingly and only on those criminals who have demonstrated utter and chillingly callous disregard for human life, it's an effective way to rid ourselves of those who have, for one reason or another, abandoned the tenants of civilized law that we all must adhere to in order to escape utter anarchy.

In the case you cited, that of the "man with the comprehension of a child", the death penalty seems sad and wrong. However, i have to believe that all efforts were made, all channels scoured, all appeals exhausted BEFORE this man was executed. Therefore, he must have broken laws in a particularly despicable manner, and was subsequently found to be a sociopath so completely without conscience or moral qualms about his lawless deeds, that all the courts that reviewed his case decided against him.

Your assertion that the death penalty in the U.S. results in an inequitable percentage of the population on death row when race is factored in is well founded by cold hard statistical fact. It's the interpretation of *why* this is true which causes the trouble, don't you think?

You're obviously trying to stir the shit with this post, WriterDom. Unlike your usual thought provoking posts, this one smacks of yellow journalism and sleazy tabloids. Ten lashes, good Sir, because you won't like them.

 

[WriterDom]

In the case you cited, that of the "man with the comprehension of a child", the death penalty seems sad and wrong. However, i have to believe that all efforts were made, all channels scoured, all appeals exhausted BEFORE this man was executed. Therefore, he must have broken laws in a particularly despicable manner, and was subsequently found to be a sociopath so completely without conscience or moral qualms about his lawless deeds, that all the courts that reviewed his case decided against him.

.

Perhaps, or perhaps Clinton needed a "killing" to prove he was tough on crime to maintain his political viability.

"The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system. "

 

[morninggirl5]

Perhaps, or perhaps Clinton needed a "killing" to prove he was tough on crime to maintain his political viability.

"The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system. "

Or perhaps he thought the execution would be so widely denounced that it would lead to changes in capital punishment. He could then claim that he had not been acting in accordance with his own beliefs but with the will of the people of the State of Arkansas.

 

[WriterDom]

Or perhaps he thought the execution would be so widely denounced that it would lead to changes in capital punishment. He could then claim that he had not been acting in accordance with his own beliefs but with the will of the people of the State of Arkansas.

You really shouldn't inhale

 

[morninggirl5]

You really shouldn't inhale

Never have.

 

[unusuallyconfused]

Come on people, Clinton used it for political gain. A whole lot of politicians use whatever for political gain. I don't think it is trashy or "tabloid" material. The truth is the truth is the truth. Why is only tabloid material when it involves a liberal? Hmmm?

 

[cymbidia]

Why is only tabloid material when it involves a liberal? Hmmm?

I really think that Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker would object to being called "liberals", don't you?

 

[unusuallyconfused]

I really think that Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker would object to being called "liberals", don't you?

Jim Baker was not a liberal, but I don't believe reporting his failures or hypocritical behavior was trashy or tabloid. It was the truth. Is it tabloid, no. Now pictures of him with his lady in the room, thats tabloid material. Did I mention I have stayed in the hotel that he got caught at? I was single and had lots of fun during that time.

 

[christo]

Not quite accurate, but still

Ricky Ray Rector was not mentally retarded. Rector shot and killed a police officer who was trying to arrest him (I believe at Rector's mother's house) for another crime. The cop had known him for a long time and didn't expect any kind of trouble. After killing the officer Rector went out to his back yard and shot himself in the head. Instead of killing himself, Rector pretty much gave himself a frontal lobotomy. His IQ was reduced to 50, he spent most of his time barking and talking to unseen people. He did save his dessert every night for the next day, right up to the day of his execution. But he lacked the language skills to say, "I'm going to eat it after my execution". He wasn't able to comprehend that he was going to die.

He shouldn't have been executed, but Clinton, not wanting to appear soft on crime, refused to commute the sentence. One can imagine what Bush #1 would have made of Clinton pardoning a cop killer. So Bill signed the order and Rector was strapped to the gurney and pumped full of chemicals and died not knowing what was going around him. It was an atrocity, a travesty.

Not that Bush #2 is any better. Today in Spain he was quoted as saying that mentally retarded people should not be executed. He said this although he signed off on a number of executions for people who were considered clinically retarded. Bush's excuse for this is that, hey, if the jury decided that the inmate should die, they must have decided he wasn't retarded, since retarded people aren't subjected to capital punishment. A neat way of avoiding responsibility for killing a human being.

The whole McVeigh thing has hardened my opposition to the death penalty. He commited a crime of almost incomprehensible cruelty and cowardice. He was an utterly contemptible creature. That still doesn't mean that we as a society should sink to his level and kill him. I don't want that in common with him.

McVeigh's one attorney had a good line, something along the lines of, "Why is killing someone part of the healing process?" I have enormous sympathy for those who died or lost loved ones in the explosion. But executing McVeigh isn't going to bring back those who died. And killing him coarsens our society so much, it stains us all.

Quite a few of the victims who watched the execution wanted to hear McVeigh apologize, or show remorse. He didn't. But who's to say that, years from now, he might have seen the error of his ways, might have said he was sorry, that he was terribly wrong and wished he hadn't done it? Would that have made the survivors and family members feel better than they do now, with McVeigh dead and his ashes scattered to the wind?

And don't even get me started about all those people on death row who have been found innocent after years in prison. There should be a nationwide moratorium on executions until the states figure out just what the hell they're doing. And hopefully, in the meantime, our country will wake up and abolish the death penalty once and for all.

 

[unusuallyconfused]

Re: Not quite accurate, but still

[B

Quite a few of the victims who watched the execution wanted to hear McVeigh apologize, or show remorse. He didn't. But who's to say that, years from now, he might have seen the error of his ways, might have said he was sorry, that he was terribly wrong and wished he hadn't done it? Would that have made the survivors and family members feel better than they do now, with McVeigh dead and his ashes scattered to the wind?

And don't even get me started about all those people on death row who have been found innocent after years in prison. There should be a nationwide moratorium on executions until the states figure out just what the hell they're doing. And hopefully, in the meantime, our country will wake up and abolish the death penalty once and for all.

[/B]

I believe that the death penalty should only be used in 100% absolute certainty that the person did the crime. However, I can tell you that I was wronged by a person who did unspeakable things and he died without remorse or apology. I don't think that people who become or are evil, feel remorse. It is very complicated and confusing. I just don't know.

 

[Texan]

hello cristo

Everyone has a right to opinions and yours are stated clearly.

Just one clarification. In Texas, the Governor does not have the right to commute a death sentence. He can not stop an execution, only delay it for 30 days. Only the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles can commute a death sentence in the great state of Texas. Like it or not, it's the law.

 

[christo]

I think I did read that before & forgot it, that the guv can't commute sentences in Texas. Kind of takes some of the fun out of the job.

Unusuallyconfused wrote that the death penalty should only be used when the person's guilt is 100% established. And certainly McVeigh was guilty, since he admitted he planted the bomb and then went so far as to say that he didn't feel remorse that babies were killed in the explosion. He's the ultimate guy who deserved the needle.

But incarceration would be a severe punishment, it would remove him as a threat to society, and it wouldn't force us to commit the same act that we abhor in him, the taking of human life. It's hard to get justice when one man kill 168. But executing the killer is too high a price to pay in a futile attempt to even up the score. It can't be done.

One bit of good news today-- violent crime was way down in 2000. That might have happened because our prisons are full to bursting, but less is still less. It's a disgrace that our country jails such a high percentage of the population, and so many are in for drug crimes where no one was harmed except the user. But violent criminals, them you throw the book at.