Injection of Reflection
There may be no such thing as a foolproof system for killing people fairly and painlessly. The smallest glitch can make too much of a difference. The last execution before the Supreme Court imposed its moratorium is a case in point. Harris County, Texas—encompassing the city of Houston—has far more executions than most states, so it has had plenty of practice. At 9 a.m. on Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear the Baze case challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. Michael Richard, convicted of rape and murder in 1986, was scheduled for execution that night. His lawyers rushed to file a new motion based on the high court's ruling, but their computer crashed and they missed the 5 p.m. filing deadline. A judge refused to keep open the state court. Richard was executed at 8:22 p.m.
With Stuart Taylor Jr. in Washington, D.C., and Raina Kelley and Roya Wolverson in New York
© 2007
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Member Comments
Posted By: pmksky @ 12/26/2007 8:03:49 PM
Comment: How can one expect civilization to evolve when a government is more worried about an offenders rights instead of the victims justice. The death penality is justified if it is protecting the innocent. For example, repeat offender pedophiles....they rob children of their innocence and take away thier life so to speak. Abusing children is like a drug to them, an addiction. No ammout of rehabilitation can change that. The prisions and jails are overcrowding, releasing dangers back into society, because human life has seem to lost value to many...not every case deserves the death penality, but the death penality does highlight just how softened the system has beome and criminal are taking advatage of it. For all of those who mention God...have you ever read the bible....it is filled with horror stories of atrocious crimes...some even committed via Gods request...with cruel punishments to teach us that their are severe consequences for breaking the law.
Posted By: Phylmore @ 12/14/2007 2:56:48 PM
Comment: The only way I could be in favor of doing away with the death penalty is if we do away with abortion. Until then lethal injection is the way to go.
Posted By: audreyfitz @ 12/07/2007 5:57:38 AM
Comment: Death Penalty is wrong, wrong wrong. No matter what angle you look at it from... we can debate the flawed system of so called justice that sees some people get life in prison while others get the death penalty. We can debate flawed trails that see innocent people being killed in the name of justice. We could discuss power hunger lawyers who won't give an extra 1o minutes over to someone's case and instead authorises the execution!! We could look at the contracting living conditions in the prisons of lifers and compare them to the living conditions on death row - to see the diffrence of our values to these people!! Its a disgrace, we should be ashamed of ourselves to let this happen. If your not doing something about this state authorised murder means you are aligning yourself with it.!! May God have mercy on our souls and strenghten us to fight to STOP IT. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and treat your neighbour as you yourself would want to be treated - and that means regardless, there is no get out clause to this command. Peace
audrey