TEXAS EXECUTES 459TH INMATE
Categories: Essays
Written By: Billy Sinclair
On Thursday, July 1, 2010, Michael James Perry became the 459th person put to death by the State of Texas since the state resumed executions in 1982. Two days before, June 30, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a last minute stay of execution to Jonathan Marcus Green. The state’s highest court of criminal appeals said more time was needed to determine whether Green was competent enough to be executed.
That’s a contradiction I have a real problem with about the death penalty. Perry, who was considered competent enough to understand his execution, was put to death while Green, who was incompetent to the extent that he could not understand his execution, was spared an appointment with death. What difference does it truly make that an individual is “too crazy” to understand the ramifications of the execution protocol that kills him? It’s rewarding mental instability (craziness) while penalizing mental stability (sanity)?
The death penalty is wrong no matter how it is imposed. I don’t think a society can boast of being more humane because it does not execute crazy people. And if Green is determined by mental health experts to be too crazy to execute, he will then remain on death row in a state of perpetual insanity, although medicated, until some point in the future when he understands the procedure the State will use to zap his ass. Talk about crazy! The State of Texas is about as crazy as Norman Bates!
There’s another question that caught my attention about the Perry execution. He maintained his innocence to the last gasp. His innocence claim was based upon some confusion surrounding the time of the victim’s death. The victim disappeared from her home near Lake Conroe on October 24, 2001. Her body was found in the lake on October 27. Perry was arrested on October 26 while driving the victim’s car. He used the victim’s son’s identification to post bail. A medical examiner pinpointed the victim’s death sometime around October 26. The slain bodies of the victim’s son and his best friend were also discovered on October 27.
Perry’s attorneys hinged his claim of innocence on an affidavit they received from a jail inmate who claimed Perry’s co-defendant, Jason Burkett (who is serving a life sentence for his role in the three murders), bragged that he had killed all three of the victims with a shotgun.
Death penalty opponents and attorneys who represent condemned inmates loathe “jailhouse snitches.” These opponents claim these inmates are unreliable; that more often than not, they fabricate stories at the instigation of prosecutors and police to help convict defendants charged with capital crimes. And these concerns have frequently proved true.
But the opponents can’t have it both ways. If affidavits by jailhouse snitches are inherently unreliable, then the same evidentiary rule must be applied to jailhouse inmates giving favorable affidavits to condemned inmates.
So, the only real issue of innocence Perry had was the confusion surrounding the victim’s time of death. The fact that he was driving the victim’s vehicle when arrested on October 26 and the fact that he had the identification of the victim’s slain son in his possession dwarfs the confusion surrounding the time of the victim’s death issue. I don’t think the State executed an innocent man when it put Michael James Perry to death.
July 4th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
“What difference does it truly make that an individual is “too crazy” to understand the ramifications of the execution protocol that kills him? It’s rewarding mental instability (craziness) while penalizing mental stability (sanity)?”
I think it has to do with premeditation, understanding the difference between right and wrong, and being able to make rational decisions.
I think the issue is very difficult when dealing with borderline mental retardation. From what I know about the case, I think Jonathan Marcus Green should be executed. However, I would never want to see the ultimate penalty applied when the perpetrator clearly is not aware of evil of his actions, for example a schizophrenic suffering from paranoid delusions.
July 4th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
“What difference does it truly make that an individual is “too crazy” to understand the ramifications of the execution protocol that kills him? It’s rewarding mental instability (craziness) while penalizing mental stability (sanity)?”
I just noticed that your statement referrers to the mental state of the individual at the time of execution rather than at the time of the crime was committed.
Obviously the law and even most death penalty supporters do not support executing people who did not understand the difference between right and wrong when they committed the crime.
Although I support the death penalty, I would not want a person to be executed if they were insane at the time of the execution (i.e., they were sane at the time of the crime but became subsequently sane).
One of the reasons I support the death penalty is because it forces the perpetrator to deal with their evil deed and its consequences (having an execution date tends to make the condemned do that). If they repent and express their repentance to the family and friends of the victims, then the execution will have some positive effect. Obviously someone who does not comprehend that their actions are wrong due to insanity is by definition unable to repent.
July 4th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
“What difference does it truly make that an individual is “too crazy” to understand the ramifications of the execution protocol that kills him? It’s rewarding mental instability (craziness) while penalizing mental stability (sanity)?”
I just noticed that your statement referrers to the mental state of the individual at the time of execution rather than at the time of the crime was committed.
Obviously the law and even most death penalty supporters do not support executing people who did not understand the difference between right and wrong when they committed the crime.
Although I support the death penalty, I would not want a person to be executed if they were insane at the time of the execution (i.e., they were sane at the time of the crime but became subsequently insane).
One of the reasons I support the death penalty is because it forces the perpetrator to deal with their evil deed and its consequences (having an execution date tends to make the condemned do that). If they repent and express their repentance to the family and friends of the victims, then the execution will have some positive effect. Obviously someone who does not comprehend that their actions are wrong due to insanity is by definition unable to repent.
July 14th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
July 14th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Well the problem with the death penality since it has been emplement from the early 1800’s is that, according to statistics he has largely targeted African Americans starting aroung 1850’s. If it were it fair and targeted all races then society may not be as divided. But I think we are divided because it does not actually execute true offenders. It targets the under represented in the court system and charges them with a murder that meets the capital murder requirements. All murder including 1st degree murder is not punishable by death in the state of Texas as well as other states. If you want to know what murders considered for capital punishment for the state of Texas, just go to the Texas department of criminal justice site and it will tell you there. But the real question is does Jesus believe in the death penalty. You know he was sentenced to death, becaused he was convicted of a crime against what the jewish law at that time, of heresy. By the jewish law this act is punishible by death if found quilty. Man found Jesus guilty. Here’s what Jesus has to say about it. Then Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.