“It’s better that 10 innocent men be executed than 1 guilty go free.”

            That was a comment posted on the Houston Chronicle’s website following coverage of the Cameron Todd Willingham case and a recent report issued by a prominent arson scientist from Maryland that cast serious doubt on Willingham’s guilt. There is compelling evidence, probably more than any other Texas execution case, that Willingham was wrongfully convicted for the 1991 fire that killed his three small children and was wrongfully executed for it.

            Apparently this “OneInTheHerd” bubba did not like the media coverage of experts, like those representing the New York-based Innocence Project, who were quoted in Chronicle articles expressing their belief that Willingham was an innocent man who was wrongfully executed by the State of Texas.

            The fact that the State of Texas has a “herd” of people like good ole “OneInTheHerd” is enough evidence by itself to reasonably assume that innocent people have been put to death in this state. This “herd” bubba is not some isolated, wing-nut voice singing in the East Texas wilderness. He is real, and his warped views are shared by many who also believe it is preferable to execute an innocent person rather than risk the remote possibility that a guilty person may go free.

            This is hate without reason, revenge without logic. There is no way to explain the principles of “due process fairness” to a herd bubba like “OneInTheHerd.” His world is so removed from the basic tenets of human decency that he cannot begin to fathom the concept of fair play.

            And this kind of revenge-nut has a starring role in history. At the turn of the 20^th Century a lynch mob made up of some of “finest citizens” in the State of Georgia broke into a prison, kidnapped Leo Frank, and carried him into the woods where they lynched him. The lynch mob was angry that Frank’s death sentence had been commuted to a life sentence by the governor who was then forced to call out the National Guard to protect his own life from the lynch mob. After the lynch mob strung up Leo Frank and left his body hanging for all to see, a curious mob gathered to stare at the hanging body. Then someone cut the body down and several men began to stomp on it.

            That’s the kind of person “OneInTheHerd” is – a lousy, miserable coward who stomps on a dead body as an expression of his perverse notion of revenge. Vultures prey on dead bodies; depraved human beings stomp on them. And that is precisely what “OneInTheHerd” was doing when he posted his idiotic ramblings on a media website that effectively said Willingham got what he deserved even if he was innocent. He was stomping on Willingham’s dead body.

            I can only hope that as “OneInTheHerd” stands before that final abyss, the last moment before the final breath of life leaves his body, the fear of the dark unknown will bite into his wretched soul and lock his warped sense of hatred around his neck as he disappears into that dark abyss of nothingness.