Daniel Basile was executed Wed. night in Missouri. He was given a 22 hour reprieve to allow a new witness to give new testimony. Hoping that she would help clear his name. She didn’t.
Meanwhile in Texas later this evening, Mexican national Javier Suarez Medina, was also put to death for the killing of a police officer. Medina was executed despite the Mexican ambassador, the Pope, and numerous pleas to stay the execution.
“Court appeals and protests against the execution argued Suarez was not told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his arrest, violating the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations, which the United States has signed.
Dallas authorities have said Suarez, 33, gave conflicting information when asked about his birthplace, identifying both Mexico and Texas. He spent most of his life in the United States and spoke English.”
I’ve already spoken my piece about the death penalty:
“I cannot tolerate the fact that we are allowing the government to murder members of our own society. I do not trust the political, judicial, or any other entity established by our government not to personalize an issue such as this. Hence, this is the real key to the debate on the death penalty. Personalization. No one, in my opinion, can prevent themselves from personalizing decisions made that determine the nature of a punishment as final as the death penalty.
I’ve never heard a death penalty argument (either pro, or con) that is strictly empirical and impersonal. They always start, or end with: “If your (insert relative here) was (insert heinous crime here), what would you want done?” Good god, has anyone thought that that is exactly what jurors are doing? Isn’t anyone else uncomfortable with construct that we have given our government the power to determine the life and death of it’s citizens? Finally, what system other than appeals, have we established to make sure that an innocent person isn’t put to death?
So, it’s impossible to impersonalized these decisions and cases? How about this for personalization:
If I were an innocent man standing accused of a capitol crime, facing death, with my life in the hands of lawyers and career politicians, I would try and find a way to take my own life.”
I still feel this way.