Somehow I hope you know that your suffering has not been in vain. You have given us and the world another big reason why the death penalty should be abolished and why we need to rethink so many elements of our justice system.
I want to apologize, along with millions of my fellow humans who believe the way your execution was carried out, to borrow words from Doreen St. Felix of the New Yorker, government depravity. I read that your case if heard today would not end as a death penalty verdict. Because it was not, you have spent the whole of your life since the age of 18 on death row. Your accomplice who was 17 at the time, was not given death. I strongly oppose the death penalty. Under a more humane system you could have been given the opportunity to contribute to society. Did you ever hear of the mystery writer Anne Perry? At the age of 15 she and her best friend murdered her friend’s mother. She was found guilty and served five years then required under British law. Upon release she changed her name and ended up not only writing over 100 books but winning awards.
The states who persist in executing people have not been able to obtain the most efficient drugs because those providers oppose the use to which they would be put. They are using drugs that not only do not seem to work but which on several occasions have led to what can certainly be called torture. When I read that it was known you had small veins, that there were at least seven attempts, and that your arms were burned, blistered and swollen I think of the word brutality. When I read that some even think of executing you again, that execution would I believe be nothing short of murder. Sen Marsha Blackburn who is running for governor of Tennessee, unequivocally stated that as governor she would execute you again because that would be justice for the victim. No! That would be cruelty, not justice. Your crime I read was horrendous, but how are your lifelong incarceration and your torturous execution an answer? Have they helped anyone or anything?
Leave a Reply