G*D Damnit! Just got back online tonight, they executed her!

[The Straight Story]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12646397.htm

Woman executed for Texas family slayings

MICHAEL GRACZYK

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Frances Newton was executed Wednesday for the fatal shootings of her husband and two children 18 years ago, becoming the third woman, and first black woman, to be put to death in the state since executions resumed in 1982.

Strapped to the death chamber gurney and with her parents among the people watching, she declined to make a final statement, quietly saying "no" and shaking her head when the warden asked if she would like to speak.

Newton, 40, briefly turned her head to look at her family as the drugs began flowing. She appeared to try to mouth something to her relatives, but the drugs took effect. She coughed once and gasped as her eyes closed. She was pronounced dead eight minutes later.

One of her sisters stood against a wall at the rear of the death house, her head buried in her arms. Her parents held hands and her mother brushed away a tear before they walked to the back of the chamber to console their other daughter.


---------------------------

Fucking sick and sad. This is not a * related thing to me - this is a people and government related thing to me. I OPPOSE the death penalty in general because I DO NOT trust the government or other people in general in cases like this. She may have been guilty as hell, maybe she was not, I don't know. Why not just lock people up and let them have their shots at retrial as needed? Why kill someone?

I can see killing someone in a rage when they kill a loved one, I sure as hell would given the chance if I knew who did it. Someone messes with my daughter I have no qualms in toasting them, with no guilt.

But that is an INDIVIDUAL decision I would be making. Letting the slack ass government kill someone based on 'evidence' they have gathered (and we know how shoddy they can be on that - from WMD to everything else) is just plain scary.

Fuck them.

[Wickerman]

1. This case cried out for a new trial

Clearly her poverty was what sent her to her grave - she couldn't afford competent representation the first time around and because she was a no one they just killed her without seeking a new trial.

[funflower]

2. NO ONE should even be jailed based on a Texas indigent defense.

It's shameful.

[samdogmom]

3. I am so sorry! n/t

[Deja Q]

4. She's lucky. She got a quaint, painless, quick injection.

Think of all the people out of work for years, draining those they live with.

Think of those who lost all to Katrina; now piling up credit card bills just so they can survive another day in this madhouse.

Just wait until December when the bankruptcy bill's aftermaths combined with the doubling of interest payments takes effect.

How do they die? They don't. Some suffer alone. Others beat the shit out of their 'loved ones'. Some go to prison. Others mental hospitals.

Oh, by some time in 2006 we'll have LOTS of Americans wishing that China calls in the debt. Or we're attacking another country and all of those destitute people need to find a way to pay back what they owe. Recall that old song, "We're in the army now."

[Kagemusha]

5. In all honesty... no one is executed because they are guilty.

They are executed because society fears the consequences of not executing them to make a proper point, after having satisfied itself that the process was fair and just. The execution is an exclamation point that society will not tolerate crime. It is not that we are absolutely sure the person being executed is guilty; it is that we are sure enough to pass judgment as a society, because that is what society must be feared as capable of doing.

Honestly it's the same for imprisonment in general. It is not that members of society despise forgivenees; they merely fear the practical consequences of engaging in it.

[slay]

11. Excellent point

Jail and punishment are also about instilling fear. You do as those in power say or else you might end up in jail.

People love nothing more than to judge others while ignoring their own flaws. :(

[sendero]

6. I'm not always against the death penalty..

.... but I'm certainly against it when there is even the slightest glimmer of a doubt as to the guilt of the convicted.

It seems like there was plenty of doubt here. It's sad.

[The Straight Story]

7. I will walk a mile with you on that one

I can see executing the bundies of this world really, but I honestly think the goverment has show gross inability to judge things rationally at many levels.

The safest bet is lock them up where they cannot do harm again. If we were wrong in convicting them, then they have a whole lifetime to show we were wrong. If we were right - they still die in custody.

[gumby]

8. The "Culture Of Life"

It is a * thing to me. How could governor Good Hair be seen less manly that The Shrub? And has the board changed? You know, the board that really never met to review these cases while * was "Governor"?

Maybe has an Alberto Gonzales to not review the cases and give them to Good Hair a few hours before the execution.

The Culture Of Death rose like a stinking, black cloud out of Austin and has since overtaken the world.

Yeah, it certainly is a * thing with me.

[peacetalksforall]

9. As a young adult I was taught that an offender should be allowed to live

so that they could find peace and be reconciled with their God before they died a natural death as it may take a lifetime to seek forgiveness. I'm not presenting it the way I learned it, but it was a Catholic Church teaching. I value and treasure that teaching because it always felt so right, so just, so perfect, in a world that isn't perfect. In my own interpretation, we shouldn't play God.

The death penalty is not Christian in my belief system.

[The Straight Story]

10. And THAT is the distinction between the OT and NT (and anti-semitism)

One which Jesus and the apostles were probably not well liked for.

Jesus brought about a change of things - and in that way too we have roots of anti-semitism (ie, the OT condoned things the NT did not. So Jews, who hold the OT as law, are seen as condoning the acts done in those days whereas christians are seen to be opposed to them in a rebelish-Jesus sense).

I don't know all the answers, and I sure as hell don't think others do. If I SAW someone commit and act like this on my family I would not bat an eye when shooting them in a rage honestly. Justice, to me, is left to those affected and god, not government (in relation to death penalty). Too often we see people railroaded and convicted on public opinion or the use of poor attorneys.

If I did not see who committed the crime I would not go off in a blind rage and shoot the person I thought was responsible - as I would not want to kill someone in my anger that may have had nothing to do with it.

I dunno, guess I am ranting in anger, forgive my incoherent posting.