Texas death row inmate plucks out eye, eats it

[mox 298]

When you realize that the death penalty is nothing but state-sanctioned murder...

Under your standards? No, that dawg don't hunt.

These individuals are killed, but they are not murdered. They get due process under the law in open public court and judged by a jury of their peers.

Comparing that to a drive by shooting is patently absurd.

Murder is murder. It is the taking of a life. Whether you do it under the formalities of "due process" or you do it on the street, you are taking a life. It IS murder.

[peejay 327]

When you realize that the death penalty is nothing but state-sanctioned murder...

Under your standards? No, that dawg don't hunt.

These individuals are killed, but they are not murdered. They get due process under the law in open public court and judged by a jury of their peers.

Comparing that to a drive by shooting is patently absurd.

Murder is murder. It is the taking of a life. Whether you do it under the formalities of "due process" or you do it on the street, you are taking a life. It IS murder.

Then go arrest the governor of Texas and charge him with murder. And don't stop with TX. Arrest anyone anywhere in the USA that ever had a hand in an execution and charge them with murder. That includes SCotUS too.

Otherwise...that dawg still don't hunt. It's just posturing.

[mox 298]

Then go arrest the governor of Texas and charge him with murder. And don't stop with TX. Arrest anyone anywhere in the USA that ever had a hand in an execution and charge them with murder. That includes SCotUS too.

Otherwise...that dawg still don't hunt. It's just posturing.

So your argument is that my inability to arrest the governor of Texas (and friends) proves the righteousness of the death penalty. That is also a dog incapable of hunting. Governments, both State and Federal, have often been wrong in the past. The fact that the death penalty is state sanctioned does not make it right. It just makes it law.

[peejay 327]

Then go arrest the governor of Texas and charge him with murder. And don't stop with TX. Arrest anyone anywhere in the USA that ever had a hand in an execution and charge them with murder. That includes SCotUS too.

Otherwise...that dawg still don't hunt. It's just posturing.

So your argument is that my inability to arrest the governor of Texas (and friends) proves the righteousness of the death penalty. That is also a dog incapable of hunting. Governments, both State and Federal, have often been wrong in the past. The fact that the death penalty is state sanctioned does not make it right. It just makes it law.

It just makes it something other than murder. Your outrage doesn't make it wrong either. The criminal justice system is not based on executing innocents or incarcerating them wrongfully.

Personally I'm not so gung ho about executing people right and left on a whim, but in some cases it is definitely appropriate. It should only be used in limited cases. My only beef is that it isn't uniformly applied. Some people that should get it don't and some that do get it are not as heinous murderers as those that are spared with life sentences.

[mox 298]

It just makes it something other than murder. Your outrage doesn't make it wrong either. The criminal justice system is not based on executing innocents or incarcerating them wrongfully.

You're right, it's not my outrage that makes it wrong. It's the merits of the function that makes it wrong. We as a society believe murder to be wrong, therefore murder IS wrong, no matter who does it, and no matter what their crime. The death penalty is not a punishment, it is revenge, which our criminal justice system (and we as a society) need to be above. We teach our children that revenge is wrong. We need to start holding our government to those same ideals that we teach our children.

Personally I'm not so gung ho about executing people right and left on a whim, but in some cases it is definitely appropriate. It should only be used in limited cases. My only beef is that it isn't uniformly applied. Some people that should get it don't and some that do get it are not as heinous murderers as those that are spared with life sentences.

Certainly, and while I think it's yet another good argument against the death penalty, I don't think it's necessary because the argument that the death penalty is morally wrong should be enough.

[Danno 1,228]

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

I for one would love to implement a "fast track" with the death penalty.

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

I for one would love to implement a "fast track" with the death penalty.

[zqt3344 21]

He was hungry. He gots to eat man, you know man what eyes mean man, I is hungry! AHAHAH

Texas death row inmate plucks out eye, eats it

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press

Jan. 9, 2009, 11:27AM

A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said today.

Andre Thomas told officers he ate it.

Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary.

""Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said today.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.

"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."

At his trial, defense lawyers also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.

Thomas does not have an execution date.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, 4-year-old Andre Lee.

Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest.

Thomas told police how he put his victims' hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash.

Court documents described the three victims as having "large, gaping wounds to their chests."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6202701.html

[mox 298]

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

Because there are a set of conditions that define a kidnapping that are very different than the conditions that apply to incarceration.

I know that if you support the death penalty you could also say that "there are a set of conditions that define murder that are very different than the conditions that apply to the death penalty," but I don't buy it. Statistically, everybody in society can agree that state-sponsored kidnapping (incarceration) is an acceptable way to remove law-breakers from the rest of society. The same cannot be said of state sponsored murder. Furthermore, the pro's of incarceration vastly outweigh the con's of incarceration. The same cannot be said of the death penalty. The death penalty is better than incarceration for life in only one respect: it makes a small group of people feel a little bit better for a short amount of time. In every other way it is a net loss.

[Scott & Lai 12]

Murder is murder. It is the taking of a life. Whether you do it under the formalities of "due process" or you do it on the street, you are taking a life. It IS murder.

According to whom? Upon what do you base the claim that all killing is murder?

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

I for one would love to implement a "fast track" with the death penalty.

Excellent point. If all killing is murder without distinction, then wouldn't all holding someone against their will be kidnapping and therefore immoral?

[mox 298]

According to whom? Upon what do you base the claim that all killing is murder?

Ummm...killing is murder by definition.

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

See my response to Danno, above.

[john & jean 37]

This sick ####### killed an cut the heart from a infant, and an adult. What is all the discussion...

THROW THE SWITCH ALREADY

[zqt3344 21]

An eye for an eye! AHHAHAHA

Murder is murder. It is the taking of a life. Whether you do it under the formalities of "due process" or you do it on the street, you are taking a life. It IS murder.

According to whom? Upon what do you base the claim that all killing is murder?

If the Death penalty is Murder

Why is not, incarceration ....kidnapping?

I for one would love to implement a "fast track" with the death penalty.

Excellent point. If all killing is murder without distinction, then wouldn't all holding someone against their will be kidnapping and therefore immoral?

[jundp 191]

Wow.

[zqt3344 21]

Kill them all and let God sort them out later!

Wow.