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Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

tdcj.texas.gov

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Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#261

Post by chaps »

pnf wrote: post #246
dr_dshiv wrote: post #170

“First I would like to say I have been here since September 2005. I had the honor and privilege to know many prison guards and staff. I want to thank all of them. I would like for everyone to write the people on death row as they are all good men and I am very happy I got to know them. All of their lives are worth knowing about. Secondly on February 14th the medical examiner and the chief nurse were engaged in numero…

I read something like this and am reminded that many people in prison for violent crime are sociopaths or psychopaths. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions or even innocent convicts. It's just not the norm. Hard to take anything these guys say at face value.

The comments he made about the medical examiner's office aren't exactly empty comments. It wasn't hard to find this information, so consider googling before being so dismissive with comments like yours.

The FBI ended up raiding the medical examiner's office in 2019: https://www.newschannel10.com/2019/09/24/texas-rangers-fbi-u...

Whistleblower lawsuit: https://www.kcbd.com/story/29837207/lubbock-county-medical-e...

  “We have evidence of tampering with government documents, backdating of autopsy reports, in an apparent attempt to try to make them look as if they were done on a timely basis. We have alteration of Dr. Florez’s reports without her knowledge, and re-signing of those reports by Dr. Natarajan. Dr. Natarajan delegated a large amount of authority to his nurse, his head nurse, and allowed her essentially to practice medicine, to make decisions that only he and the Deputy Medical Examiner were allowed to make, by law,” said Kerensky."
Unlicensed autopsies of children: https://www.kcbd.com/2019/02/20/lawsuit-former-lubbock-medic...

  “He (Matshes) made one comment multiple times that literally made me sick. He said, ‘Oh you should have seen a case I was consulting on as a second opinion not long ago and by the time I was through with that autopsy, you could take what was left of that baby and put it in a cup.' He seemed to enjoy that statement, and it just turned my stomach and everyone else’s that heard it too," Graves said.
Two year backlog of autopsies from 2021: https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/autopsies-...

Investigation into autopsy backlog going back to 2018: https://www.kcbd.com/2018/11/20/kcbd-investigates-exclusive-...

Review of the medical examiner's office, with claims of alcoholism on the job, accepting bribes to change autopsy results, and using government resources to fund his ME's private practice: https://media.everythinglubbock.com/nxsglobal/everythinglubb...

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#262

Post by nobody9999 »

dionidium wrote: post #251
nobody9999 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In reality, the justice system almost always takes causes into account. Just not all causes. The interesting question is why some but not others. Absolutely. Circumstances are usually relevant and should be examined. But GP[0] claimed that "progressives" argue that understanding the causes for the commission of crimes should "excuse" those actions. Which is an unsupported assertion and I reject it because, at least…

There’s a kind of thing that happens in these discussions where somebody makes a complaint about an extremist position and somebody else responds that nobody thinks that and the two are kind of talking past one another. To be clear, I acknowledge that we’re talking about an extreme, broadly unpopular position, but it is one running through certain segments of leftish twitter and academia. (No, I don’t keep a file of…

>To be clear, I acknowledge that we’re talking about an extreme, broadly unpopular position, but it is one running through certain segments of leftish twitter and academia. (No, I don’t keep a file of such utterances, so I can’t produce a list offhand.)

That's as may be, but lots of people say lots of stupid/ridiculous/untrue things all the time.

Who, in a position of power or influence (or reasonably adjacent to such power/influence), advocates such a view?

I can say all sorts of things, ranging from the mundane ("I like coffee.") to the ridiculous ("There is an underground advance alien invasion base under Biscayne Bay."). And while that does mean I will make coffee for myself tomorrow morning, it most certainly doesn't mean that the Army Corps of Engineers will be planting nukes in Biscayne Bay to destroy those evil aliens.

And it doesn't matter how many times I say it or to whom I say it, the Army Corps of Engineers aren't going to nuke Biscayne Bay. And no one should pay any attention to such ramblings.

And so I have to ask, why are you giving credence to (as you readily state) what some unbalanced rando thinks about prosecuting crime. And not just giving such credence, you also claimed that such views were those of "progressives."

You're now walking that back, but you (and that's what I responded to) implied that "excusing" criminal acts was somehow a "progressive" position.

It is not, and never has been.

There are those who claim that certain government officials routinely abduct babies and small children in order to murder them and extract some hormone to make them live longer.

Overwhelmingly, at least in the US, the folks who make (and/or believe -- not the same thing) such claims almost exclusively supported one political party over another.

Does that mean that everyone who supports that political party (or even a a tiny fraction) also believes such things?

By your logic, the answer should be "yes." Is that correct?

I could give a host of other examples of other ridiculous tropes from the extremes. None of which have support from anyone with or near any real power.

The upshot is that I took issue with you (specifically you, dionidium) smearing a broad group of folks (progressives) with a broad brush, claiming that an extreme stance by folks who may or may not consider themselves part of that group is the default belief of a group.

That's a clear example of "othering"[0], in which you are attempting to besmirch folks with beliefs they do not hold.

If you'd instead said something like "some extremist positions claim that people shouldn't be prosecuted for crimes if they had a bad childhood," I would have heartily agreed.

But "othering" has no place in reasoned discourse. Don't like progressives? I'm sure you can find stuff that's actually true to beat up on them. But just making shit up is low effort and doesn't add to the discussion.

[0] https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-othering-5084425

Edit: Added the missing link.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#264

Post by quasarj »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #212
ALittleLight wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For context, this speaker was convicted of raping, beating, and murdering a pregnant woman and a teenage girl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosendo_Rodriguez

For context, no one thought they were on death row for handing out daisies.

Well, maybe for feeding cats.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#265

Post by mardifoufs »

dotgov wrote: post #137
loeg wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP is talking about Mathis Milton. You're quoting a wikipedia article about Quintin Jones. Obviously, they are not the same person.

Whoops my mistake. I’ll try to make my point with Mathis Milton as well: “Milton dropped out of school after the 8th grade and worked as a cook, mechanic’s helper, and laborer before his arrest. Milton abused alcohol and drugs as a teenager.” In another article he was being referred to as having “low IQ”. Combined with the fact that the murders happened in a crack house, I infer that he probably lived in a similar en…

What does that have to do with the killer not taking any responsibility, accusing other people of lacking humanity and saying to a victim that she was just "at the wrong place at the wrong time" with 0 other admission of guilt? I get that we could maybe, maybe stretch the argument that he had a rough upbringing (though dropping out of school isn't that extreme) to "explain" the circumstances of the crime... but not that he was basically still seemingly remorseless after having decades in death row to reflect on his acts.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#266

Post by mardifoufs »

gonzo41 wrote: post #213
GauntletWizard wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that mental illness is something that can be cured, and that the cure is not equivalent or worse than killing them. Quite frankly, our brains are plastic, but not that plastic. It's possible (and we don't know enough about brain structure to say for certain either way) that someone can get into an antisocial enough state that it's impossible, by ethical means, to retrain them, to get them out of that…

You know the guy that shot Reagan, John Warnock Hinckley Jr. He just got released from a secure psych facility. He shot the president and then got treated for being crazy. As a response, the conservatives in the 80's defunded public psych work and increased funding for prisons. The death penalty is a cruel policy choice. Nothing more than that.

This is almost comical revisionism. It's been weird to watch this narrative take its shape throughout the years though.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#267

Post by mardifoufs »

RajT88 wrote: post #29
watwut wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they? Even if the person was executed unfairly, why would that be focus of the last moment?

One of the first random ones I clicked on did claim innocence: https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/clarktroylast.h... > Thank you I love you all. Sandra, nice meeting you. I Love ya’ll. It’s all good. I’m not the one that killed Christina, so whatever makes ya’ll happy. I love ya’ll. I’ll see you on the other side. Ya’ll be good. OK Warden I’m ready.

>One day in May 1998, Ms Muse came around for a visit and Clark decided to silence her forever. He subdued her with a stun gun, bound her with duct tape and locked her in a wardrobe for several hours while he played video games and sold drugs to a customer.

>Clark later moved Ms Muse to a bathroom where he smashed her over the head with a board and intimidated his girlfriend and co-defendant, Tory Gene Bush, into helping him drown the victim in the bathtub.

>Four months later, Bush helped lead police to Ms Muse's body in the ravine off Texas Highway 64, west of Tyler, on a property owned by Clark's landlady.

>Police also found the body of Tracy Mize floating in a septic tank on the property.

Apparently the physical evidence was also overwhelming, so he probably said that just to fuck with the family or was in some sort of delusional state.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#268

Post by citizenpaul »

pnf wrote: post #258
citizenpaul wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a number of these things and can only come to one conclusion. Most of the people on death row are deeply mentally ill. The state is effectively using prison in place of mental health facilities. For instance the person you are quoting also mentions friends and family in his final words. Yet he writes his final words specifically to the warden. This does not seem congruent with a sound mind. More like he is…

That doesn't sound like someone particularly mentally ill. Just your common dark triad who can't take responsibility for his actions.

That doesn't explain why you would write your final words to the person imprisoning you rather than the supposed family and friends mentioned in the last words. Why not more than one letter, if you have family AND friends.

Seems to me like the warden is the only significant real person in their life and they lack the ability to distinguish relationships. I'm not a psychologist so just an observation.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#269

Post by BarryMilo »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #211
conductr wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's my point. I like the idea of it but most times I'm not even comfortable with agreeing the person is guilty to begin with. In certain cases, say Jeffrey Dahmer, it's pretty clear cut and I see no use to delay the punishment.

What is the harm if they rot in jail? Why is it imperative that they be killed?

Incredible that this needs to be asked, while the is the only western country with the death penalty. It's a remnant of a violent past.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#270

Post by nailer »

jakebasile wrote: post #219
ceejayoz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However murder is considered a mortal sin that separates one's soul from god and that cannot regularly be forgiven. By Catholics, specifically. Evangelical Christians don't typically share this belief.

The only unforgivable sin according to the Church is "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit"[1], which is defined as refusal of God's mercy and forgiveness [2]. [1]: https://ucatholic.com/catechism/1864/ [2]: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/d... (see 46)

Your references seem to say that blasphemy is unforgivable but not that other mortal sins are forgivable. Unless I’m missing something.
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