"We close at 5"

[luckystar112]

So, I don''t know if any of you have heard this story...but it''s been all over the news in TX.

As you probably know, the supreme court is trying to determine if lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment--which has pretty much put the death penalty on hold across the nation.
Well, the day they decided to accept the case just so happened to be the same day a man was scheduled to be executed. His lawyers were trying to get all of the paperwork in order so they could appeal the case before the court closed, when they had a glitch in their computer system. So they call up the court house and request that the court stay open for TWENTY MORE MINUTES so they can fix the problem and send the paperwork over. What does the judge (Sharon Keller) tell the clerk to relay to them?

"We close at 5".

And they did....they closed at 5, and the man was executed. And another man has been executed since. I should probably mention that there were at least TWO other judges at the court house that stayed late specifically to wait for any last minute appeals (including the judge who was assigned the case who WASN''T the judge in question), and she "didn''t think she could get in touch with them".

Regardless of the crime (and believe me, I have little sympathy for convicted rapists and murders, unless the DNA evidence was processed in Houston''s crime lab) it was TWENTY MINUTES!! twenty minutes being the difference between life and death.

It''s just unbelievable to me.

So apparently now a bunch of defense attorneys and other judges are calling for the judge to be fired. This is what she had to say

: "You''re asking me whether something different would have happened if we had stayed open," Keller said, "and I think the question ought to be why didn''t they file something on time? They had all day."

UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE. This woman has no class.

Here''s a link to one article about it:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5189873.htmlhttp://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34315/113/

 

[perry]

While I admit that there may have been a miscarrage of justice here.... I really have to ask why the appeal wasn''t filed earlier by this persons lawyers. Any assignment of blame has to really serisously consider them as the first culprets.

While I am not familiar with the details of the case I am quite confident that this person was on "death row" for years.... and hopefully has had his case reviewed several times. Only now - at the end of the day he is to be executed is there a rush to file a last appeal. Why is that?

The fact that the US Supreme Court was considering accepting the case on review of the cruel and unusual punishment case was well known. Why did the lawyers not have an outline of an appeal ready if the US Supreme Court did indeed accept the case - instead of having to rush up something in the end (the article stated that they had to develope their stratagy and then write the appeal).

The other thing to consider here is... This person was sentanced to be executed. He was. Now the only question that is under consideration by the US Supreme Court is the question on the method used - not the execution itself.

So let''s say that the papers had been filed on time - and the judge reviewing the case issued a stay of execution by lethal injection. What would have prevented Texas from hanging him, or shooting him, or electricuting him, etc instead. Nothing. All they would have had to do was resechedule the execution.

Thus, I am unsure of how severe this "apparent" miscarrage of justice really is - or even if there was a miscarrage of justice at all. Keep in mind that the US Supreme Court may well decide the lethal injection is the most human method of execution (and I believe it to be far more humane than the electric chair).

Perry

 

[cara]

That''s Texas, baby.

Where they kill them as fast as they can.

Where drunk and sleeping lawyers have been ruled competent.

Where DNA evidence of actual innocence (as opposed to technicality) was rejected by the state supreme court as "interfering with the finality of the judicial process"

One could go on and on, but the fundamental appalling action is the state''s desire to kill convicts without high standards of accuracy or fairness in the judicial process.

 

[Pandora II]

Personally I am totally against Capital Punishment - especially when it comes at the end of years of appeals and hanging around on death row.

There have been so many cases of miscarriage of justice, that I really strongly feel that the possibility of killing an innocent person is too high. Far too many people in prison have mental health issues and learning difficulties. It also has zero effect as a deterrent. One of the last hangmen in Britain - Albert Pierrepoint was entirely convinced it did nothing but satisfy certain parts of societies demands for vengeance.

I am by no means a bleeding heart liberal, but I think Prison should reform as well as punish. Obviously there are people who are far too dangerous to release at any point and they should be securely detained indefinitely. But state-licensed murder is just that and says more about the society that concurs with it, than the crime of the person being executed.

That said, I think the judge lacks compassion in the extreme and that is to my mind a very dangerous and worrying quality for someone in that position to lack.

 

[Delster]

My views on capital punishment are very close to Pandora''s and that''s all I''ll say about that.

It is possible that the appeal wasn''t drafted sooner because something had only just come to light etc. -- we don''t know enough to judge on that score. Nonetheless I also wonder about the lawyers -- why they didn''t send someone over to the courthouse to make a emergency motion before one of the duty judges seeking to injunct the execution pending the submission of appeal papers? Did they try this I wonder or was the phone call all they did?