Texas executes 400th inmate

[Crvena zvezda]

Texas executes 400th inmate23 August 2007 | 16:04 | Source: AFP HUNTSVILLE -- The state of Texas executed a convicted murderer by lethal injection on Wednesday.

The execution is the 400th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Johnny Conner was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., eight minutes after he was injected with the lethal concoction.

"What is happening to me now is unjust and the system is broken," said the 32-year-old African-American as he lay strapped to the execution gurney.

"Please forgive me," he said in his three-minute long final statement, addressing his victim's sister who sat among the sobbing witnesses on both sides of the chamber. Members of Conner's own family were also present.

"I bear witness there is no God but Allah and the Prophet Mohammed. Unto Allah, I belong, unto Allah I return. I love you," were his last words.

Conner was sentenced to die for killing Kathy Ann Nguyen, 49, by shooting her in the face at the counter at a gasoline station and grocery store where she worked, in a holdup on May 17, 1998. He never confessed to the crime.

Around 14 protestors with signs, candles and Catholic rosaries, gathered outside the Huntsville "Walls" unit where the execution took place to protest the death penalty.

According to a 2007 Texas crime survey, three quarters of Texans are in favor of capital punishment.

In 2005, a federal judge annulled Conner's death sentence because of shortcomings by his defense lawyers, who failed to summon any witnesses in his favor. But the ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court in January.

Earlier this month, the European Union had urged Texas Governor Rick Perry to consider a moratorium for all executions scheduled by his state. Perry rejected the appeal.

"While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas," Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, said in a statement.

"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes against our citizens."

Many U.S. states have put a moratorium on executions, citing faulty court trials and verdicts and persistent problems in the lethal injection method most common across the country: but Texas continues to push ahead with almost weekly executions.

Since the 1976 reinstatement, Texas has accounted for more than one-third of the total 1,091 executions carried out country-wide. This year, with other states now reticent, it will account for nearly two-thirds.

Ahead of Conner's execution, the southern state had carried out 20 of the 34 U.S. judicial killings in 2007.

By comparison, 12 of the 50 states refused to restore capital punishment in 1976; four did but have not since executed anyone; and 14 have had five or fewer executions.

Three more executions are scheduled here for next week.

[Franze]

I am not against the death penalty, I wouldn´t put in Spain but I am not against.

[Kernunnos]

American law system is primitive but certain people unquestionably deserve death.

Society has the right to protect itself, no questions must be made about this: what is questionable is any system administering death or any other sentence without the necessary caution and without a well made, deeply researched trial.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Breha

American law system is primitive but certain people unquestionably deserve death.

Society has the right to protect itself, no questions must be made about this: what is questionable is any system administering death or any other sentence without the necessary caution and without a well made, deeply researched trial.

Yes, maybe death penalty for murder isn't a bad idea, but these American methods of execution look quite monstruous and morbid to me (electric chair, injection, gas chamber). If there has to be death penalty, I'm rather in favour of the good old rope or firing squad.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Plethon

If there has to be death penalty, I'm rather in favour of the good old rope or firing squad.

Do you think it's less morbid ?

[svin]

Yes, maybe death penalty for murder isn't a bad idea, but these American methods of execution look quite monstruous and morbid to me (electric chair, injection, gas chamber). If there has to be death penalty, I'm rather in favour of the good old rope or firing squad.

The only "humanistic" death penalty is guillotine, imo.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Do you think it's less morbid ?

Definitely.

Originally Posted by svin

The only "humanistic" death penalty is guillotine, imo.

Yes, even guillotine and its predecessor axe are better.

However, I think that death penalty should be punishment only for deliberate murder.

Any attempt to expand it to other kinds of crimes should be stopped in the very beginning.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by svin

The only "humanistic" death penalty is guillotine, imo.

I've heard that the garrote, if well applied.

[kimm]

I find the electric chair particularly macabre. Leathal injection isn't a bad idea. I'll vote for the noose though, a long drop - Quick and efficient when done correctly.

Or - Crushing by elephant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Strengthandhonour]

Out of all the methods mentioned so far, to me the most humane one is the lethal injection. The person barely feels anything.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Plethon

I'm rather in favour of the good old rope or firing squad.

Originally Posted by svin

The only "humanistic" death penalty is guillotine, imo.

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I've heard that the garrote, if well applied.

Originally Posted by kimm

Leathal injection isn't a bad idea. I'll vote for the noose though, a long drop - Quick and efficient when done correctly.

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Out of all the methods mentioned so far, to me the most humane one is the lethal injection. The person barely feels anything.

It seems that opinions differ widely : you should make a poll thread to decide about the question.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Plethon

However, I think that death penalty should be punishment only for deliberate murder.

Any attempt to expand it to other kinds of crimes should be stopped in the very beginning.

I've been following this thread for a few days but have hesitated to post as my own feelings on the subject are ambivalent. The following kind of situation is fairly common in the USA: a carload of negroes (often high on some chemical substance) goes to a petrol station or grocery shop, and ends up in a killing spree. Usually this is not premeditated but depends on mood and opportunity. What to do with such people other than simply kill them? Keeping them in prison costs about $37,000 a year per person. Why should the taxpayer pay for their upkeep when there's zero chance of their rehabilitation? I feel the same about rapists.

My ambivalence comes from two sources. The first is that innocent people often end up getting killed by the state (as I think Amnesty reports on the US indicate). The second is that this kind of punitive measure -- though deserved in my opinion -- doesn't tackle the festering problems of a multi-racial USA. The response of the US authorities to a negro underclass has simply been to build a miniature gulag system. Close to one in a hundred people in the US are imprisoned, which is four or five times higher than any other industrialised country. One in three blacks has either been imprisoned, is imprisoned, or will end up in prison.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

It seems that opinions differ widely : you should make a poll thread to decide about the question.

We should do some testing first.

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Plethon

Yes, even guillotine and its predecessor axe are better.

Not when the bourreau is drunk as in Mary Stuart's case.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by Franze

I am not against the death penalty, I wouldn´t put in Spain but I am not against.

I am against it also. I'd rather that all people committed of crimes be forced to work in jobs that usually go to illegal immigrants without pay for all serious crimes and for all people sentenced to life in prison.