Ruben Cantu - Executed

Heartbreaking, Edgar. Heartbreaking.

Garza and Moreno, not the state of Texas, are guilty of murder in my opinion. If they had told the truth his man would not have been executed.

It is heartbreaking.

This story has been on my mind all evening. To me, it is not just symptomatic of what's wrong with the administering of justice in our country, or why I hate the death penalty. It highlights a basic flaw in the character of modern humans. We are indolent when it comes to the misfortunes of others. Sure, a tsunami or a hurricane triggers the best responses from the majority of us, but, in the mundane affairs in life, we allow bad polititians, bad law, sheepishness before those who control our fortunes. We think we have freedom, but the herd says no to that. We think we are doing the best we can, but we're not.

The state should just have a lottery, when you reach 15 years of age your Social Security number is placed in the bin and a given number are drawn out for execution, there's bound to be some guilty people in the mix.

Dys
It makes as much sense.

It is a heartbreaking story.

I wonder why they denied his last request for bubble gum.

I wonder whether it would be possible to get a law passed that elected and appointed officials -- i.e. the police, the prosecutor, the judge, etc. -- be held liable in the event that a life-and-death judgement for which they were responsible turns out to have been erroneous? Not just the state paying civil suit damages to survivors, but actual jail time for sloppy investigations, biased prosecutions, etc.

Nah. I guess I'm just a cockeyed optimist.

Somebody would have had to go to the store. Too much to ask.

The death penalty has to go.

Until the system can be 100% accurate, the death penalty should NOT be in place.
I dont care how many truly guilty people the death penalty is given too.. the small percentage of innocent people is too great to justify keeping it in play.

The system is run by people. People make mistakes.
The death penalty being one of the biggest.

That is just shocking, edgar. Terrible.

A death penalty is not necessary to remove the worst elements from society. Life without parole is as effective and can be reversed in the event mistakes are made. The eye for an eye faction has an emotional attachment to a form of killing that can no longer be justified. I am not a bleeding heart, where the truly guilty are concerned. I honestly don't care if they die. But, I am willing to keep them alive if that's what it takes to preserve the innocent.

absolutly agree.

honestly, I think giving someone the death penalty ( the guilty ones that is ) is giving them an easy out.
I think it would be a worse punishment for them to spend the rest of their natural life in prison. No freedom. No life.
With that, I believe the opportunity for more psychological studies can be done as well.

I totally agree, edgar.

A true tragedy edgar..............

No bubble gum. Still a child.

And we have similar concerns on the other side of the planet, edgar. This has been a huge campaign here in Oz, but to no avail. This young will almost certainly be killed by hanging in Singapore in a little over a week's time. :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1514448.htm

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/law-council-pleads-for-nguyens-life/2005/11/22/1132421653495.html

Yes, injustices such as these know no borders.

Yes. <sigh>