Death Penalty Update

The Death Penalty continues to demonstrate it’s a really bad idea. More and more states have halted executions due to questions related to lethal injection procedures and more and more editorials and legal experts are calling for its abolishment.

The latest newspaper to add its voice to the call for abolishment is the Sentinel of central Pennsylvania which noted that capital punishment has failed to deter crime, has lost favor with the public, risks innocent lives, and prolongs the suffering of victims' family members.

In the meantime there have been 12 executions so far this year, eleven of which have been in Texas. Will somebody PLEASE test the water in Texas? The only possible explanation for a state that feels it’s necessary to carry out executions at its current rate AND produced George W. Bush is contaminated water which affects brain cells! The other execution was in Oklahoma.

Cathy Henderson, the lady convicted in Texas of murdering a 3 month old baby that she was babysitting for, has had her execution date pushed back until June. An Austin judge granted a 60 day stay in “the interest of justice” although he said he was unsure of the legal correctness of Henderson’s lawyer’s intended appeal. The appeal is to be based upon the claim that new head trauma technology can show that the death of the child was in fact caused by a fall. Henderson has always claimed that she dropped the child by accident and then panicked. Medical examiners testifying at her trial said that the baby’s injuries were inconsistent with a fall. Why do I smell another conviction based upon voodoo science? We’re talking about a death sentence whose foundation is simply someone’s opinion. That’s more evidence that the term “Texas Justice” is an oxymoron.

South Dakota’s first execution since 1976, delayed last year due to Governor Rounds’ directive to hold all executions until the states lethal injection law could be investigated, has been rescheduled for July of this year. Apparently the South Dakota legislature corrected the issues with the Death Penalty statute. It seems to me that the legislature of South Dakota, based upon its Death Penalty and abortion activities may be out of touch with the South Dakota electorate based upon its activities. Allow me to suggest that the good people of South Dakota might want to do something about that.

If the South Dakota execution proceeds it will reduce the number of states with Death Penalty statutes that have never used them to four, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey and Kansas.

There are approximately 22 executions scheduled around the country, fully half of which are scheduled in Texas. Unfortunately that’s only through September.

Boy that was a depressing update. What the hell is with New Jersey anyway? I would have thought by now, given the commission’s 12-1 recommendation, that some movement toward abolition would be evident.