The Killing FieldsTexas executes more people than any other U.S. state.
I remember when that ne’er-do-well Bush kid named George was governor, he refused to spend the $600 per inmate to DNA test the people waiting to meet their maker at the Huntsville facility just to be certain they had the correct person sitting on death row. Governor Bush drawled some hubris-filled crapola about, “Ah refuse to secun’ gess the jury.”
Hey, when you put to death so many, a few mistakes won’t even be noticed. Especially, if the “mistake” happens to be a person of color, with little access to decent legal representation.
Of course, the voters ate it up. After all, Texans are tough on crime and they don’t tolerate any Yankees telling them how to merit out punishment for people convicted of a Capital offense.
Whether you’re for or against the death penalty is your business. All I tell people who embrace it is this: be very, very certain you have the correct person behind bars because if you don’t and the state executes the wrong man or woman (yep, they execute women in Texas too), there’s no correcting the mistake ipso facto.

“Texas executes more people than any other U.S. state.”Part of this post will not sit well with most people here but…
The problem isn’t that Texas executes a lot of people. Its a populous state with a lot of crime.  Translated: in principle I have no problem with the concept of the death penalty.  There are indeed people who commit crimes worthy of having their lives snuffed by the state.
The problems are:
(1) how it is assessed and who the sentence is passed against (the system is rigged against the poor and the non-white – two words: Henry Wade), which, by itself de-legitimizes the death sentence; and
(2) the fact – proven again and again – that the state doesn’t give a damn about whether or not those who it kills are actually guilty.  Why?  Because the elite of the state know that no matter what they do, in the unlikely event that any among them ever get charged with capital murder, they have the resources to buy their way out of ever getting to the point where a jury gets to decide whether or not to impose the death sentence.  The ‘C Street’-ish mentality that, in practicality, informs how the system operates doesn’t think that that killing the non-guilty is a problem because they’re not really ‘innocent’; they’re all of a class that ghod has shined upon negatively by not making them rich and powerful – and, if somehow the rich and powerful do something that improperly impacts their lives (you know, like killing them for crimes they didn’t commit) then is still part of the divine order.  And, after all, if there was truly a mistake ghod will make up for it in the afterlife.

When It Comes to Justice in TexasIt’s 2009 going on 1009.

Little problem?I hope it’s more than that, but I truly don’t know.  Of course, there has been a ton of media coverage of this scandal, but I haven’t seen any outrage from conservatives over the fact that their governor is cravenly avoiding any acknowledgment of (much less responsibility for) this wrongful execution.  To me, it should be obvious that his actions are morally bankrupt, and you just can’t vote for a person who would do this.  But I don’t trust the majority of my fellow citizens to see that.  You know it’s bad when most of the Democrats I know are planning to cross over and vote in the Republican primary so we can possibly elect Kay Bailey Hutchison instead of this a**hole.

Conservatives have no problem with killing other peopleHe was convicted, therefore he is guilty. Being guilty, he deserved to die.
Facts and morals are irrelevant.

I’m glad Rick Perry won’t come out of the closetI wouldn’t want to have to admit he was part of the LGBT family.  He is a coward.

Maybe Willingham’s bones won’t have to wait a century to be clearedI just saw an item about this on MSNBC, but here is an AP report:

Two great-uncles of syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, sent to the electric chair for the 1913 murder of a Confederate Army veteran, were unanimously pardoned Wednesday by South Carolina.
Officials believe the men are the first in the state to be posthumously pardoned in a capital murder case.
Black landowners Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed 94 years ago after a jury convicted them of killing 73-year-old John Lewis, a wealthy white veteran living in Blackstock, a Chester County town 40 miles north of Columbia. Two other black men were also put to death for the crime.
“This won’t bring them back, but this will bring closure. I hope now that they rest in peace,” Joyner said. “This is a good day.”
…
John “Monk” Stevenson, who was known to be a small-time thief, testified against the others in exchange for a life sentence. According to sworn statements, he later told fellow inmates and a detective the four men had nothing to do with the crime, but he pointed his finger at them to save himself.
Stevenson told at least one inmate he chose the Griffin brothers because he thought they were wealthy and could afford a lawyer.
The Griffins had to sell their land to pay for their defense. After the execution, Joyner’s grandmother fled to Florida, but did not say why. Joyner said even his father knew nothing of his uncles until Gates uncovered the family secret.
The case was about class and economics as much as race, Gates said.
“They were framed because they were the richest black people in the county,” he said. “I as a historian am honored to see something rectified in the present.”

President Perry emulating President Mugabein his soon to be Free Republic of Texas…

YesCullen Davis managed to buy an acquittal for murder in 1978. He was rich at the time and hired Richard “Racehorse” Haynes. Haynes successfully managed to put Cullen’s second wife, Priscilla, on trial, despite the fact one of the victims of the murders at Cullen’s house was Priscilla’s younger daughter, Andrea Wilborn.