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Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

tdcj.state.tx.us

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Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#121

Post by tsotha »

flexie wrote: post #104
thesis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And on the flip side... If you let your emotions get the better of you one time, there's always 2nd chance. Which lesson should be taught to kids?

How about doing like the Norwegians: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18135537 Their kids (have been taught to) kill less than kids in any American state. EDIT: Don't know why I can't reply to any post, but the Norwegians actually have a diversity not that much unlike the US (15 percent immigrants / children of immigrants): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Norway

Norway is 94.4% ethnic Norwegian as of 2014. It just isn't comparable.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#122

Post by aet »

adamio wrote: post #63
rohansingh wrote: post #55

This one really hit me: > The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here - I am. I'm not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I'm not going to shout, use profanity or make idle threats. Understand though that I'm not only upset, but I'm saddened by what is happening here tonight. I'm not only saddened, but disappointe…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Beazley Crime committed age 17, executed at 25

Interesting from Wiki: victim was the father of a Federal Judge, J. Michael Luttig. During his appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, three of the nine justices recused themselves because of their personal ties to Judge Luttig, leaving six justices to review the case. Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself because Luttig had clerked for him, while Justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas recused themselves from the decision because Luttig had led the George H. W. Bush Administration's successful effort to gain U.S. Senate confirmation for them to the Supreme Court

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#123

Post by erik_landerholm »

Execution #492 http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2012-11-02/framing-the-g...

Regardless of the truth, there are a lot of open questions and this man was put to death with all these questions still not answered. This is not who we should be.

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#124

Post by baldfat »

baldfat wrote: post #88
havo wrote: post #21

467 > Yes, Tell my sister Tracey, I love you. Nicole, thank you and I love you. Wanda and all of my friends, I love you and thank you for your support. To the State of Texas, I am an innocent man. Never trust a court-appointed attorney. I am ready Warden. Thank you, Brad, I'm sorry. Check that DNA, check Scott. Here we go. Lord Jesus, Jesus.

I know I shouldn't due to work BUT WOW this guy was clearly should have been a death penalty case! You need a murder with a felony being committed. His felony robbery of a day planner ("found" during the trail) and a missing wallet. Medical Examiner clearly showed the man was innocent. The victim defended herself and was violently beaten and wounded. Defendant had zero wounds and no evidence of crime in his home or h…

Clearly shouldn't be a death penalty case!

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#125

Post by godzilla82 »

josai wrote: post #33
mherdeg wrote: post #5

Note that this text is in some cases censored. See Cameron Todd Willingham's statement: "Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby. [Remaining portion of stateme…

I find it profoundly dissonant that, while reporting the last words of people who were then legally murdered by the state (an inexcusable, brutal injustice, to my mind), the functionaries responsible yet found prissiness enough to cut out the swear words. State-sanctioned murder? No problemo! A couple of swear words in the victim's dying breaths? Woah, hold it right there - there might be children present. Unbelievab…

Reminds me of Apocalypse Now. Kurtz: We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#126

Post by giarc »

yaddayadda wrote: post #64
dmm wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reasonable debate surrounding whether an execution is more expensive than simply incarcerating for life, mostly because of the numerous appeals involved with a death sentence. I have no opinion regarding capital punishment.

A little more than a decade ago, I had to do research on capital punishment for a college ethics class. In the United States, at that time, the cost for a death row inmate was several times greater than it was for an inmate in for life without parole. Additionally, there are the questionable convictions and the legal convictions that are subsequently found to have been innocent but for which innocence is no longer co…

Do those appeals still happen with a life sentence though? Did you compare the yearly cost of housing an inmate vs the cost to execute (including appeals etc)?

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#127

Post by giarc »

mikeash wrote: post #114
giarc wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don’t think the world will be a better or safer place without me." If they aren't executed, they will spend the rest of their life in jail. So by executing them our gains are two fold. 1. save tax dollars over keeping them in jail long term 2. give victims families peace Something to think about.

It doesn't save money. Executing someone costs a ton of money. The common response to this is something like, "Well, make it cheaper. Stop with all the appeals and other nonsense." The trouble is that we already execute far too many innocent people, and streamlining the process will only make it worse. To carry out executions in anything resembling a just manner, it pretty much has to be more expensive than imprisoni…

Ya I was really just responding in context of the parent comment, not necessarily my views. I oppose capital punishment and I don't think someone get's peace/closure from the death penalty.

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#128

Post by arjunnarayan »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #62
arjunnarayan wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My brain is throwing all sorts of parse errors at that quote full of quotes. This is why we have escape characters! (Or, more realistically, two forms of quotation marks for nesting).

Or separate symbols for the beginning and end of a quote, so nesting is unambiguous. You know, something like: (quote Wonder what their victims word cloud would look like? (quote Mercy) (quote Please) (quote I'm begging) (quote I want my Mommy!) (quote Help)) Everyone just needs to learn s-expressions.

A professor collaborator of mine has the habit of saying "that does not parse", or "that does not type-check" to nonsensical sentences uttered by clueless research students (full disclosure, that set includes me). At first I found it somewhat weird, but now I've grown to respect it. It totally makes sense.

I remember in high school (when I was already a proficient programmer, but still within-grade in the other sciecnes), struggling with some hard physics problems, and running to my dad for help: he would always say: "dimensional analysis". If only I had connected the dots: doing "dimensional analysis" in your work is _exactly_ the same as type-checking your manually executed paper algorithm. This lightbulb went off in my head approximately a decade too late...

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#129

Post by JoeAltmaier »

mikeash wrote: post #109
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a uniform culture. Everything gets easier with a common mindset. Folks keep using Norway as a fish-in-the-barrel ideal case of how anything can work. But its probably not transferable to the population of the most diverse nation on earth.

How does diversity necessitate a higher crime rate? I've heard this stated a lot, but the explanation of how it works is always missing.

Folks with very different ideas of personal space, ownership, community, responsibility will naturally have larger friction between members.

Re: Death Row – Last words of every Texas inmate executed since 1982

#130

Post by JoeAltmaier »

josai wrote: post #112
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a uniform culture. Everything gets easier with a common mindset. Folks keep using Norway as a fish-in-the-barrel ideal case of how anything can work. But its probably not transferable to the population of the most diverse nation on earth.

> the most diverse nation on earth Huh? Papua New Guinea? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_ranked_by_eth... The USA is #85, not even close.

And Norway is #146
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