Donnie Lee Roberts became the 12th person murdered by the State of Texas this year and the 250th under the watchful gaze of Rick Perry.
Mr. Roberts was a drug addict who met up with Vicki Bowen in Livingston. Their relationship soured because he was abusing drugs and not working. He shot and killed Ms. Bowen when she refused to give him any more money.
The gig was up when the police found one of Ms. Bowen's trucks parked outside a crack house in Livingston. Mr. Roberts subsequently confessed to the murder of Ms. Bowen as well as a murder years earlier in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
At the time he killed Ms. Bowen he was wanted for a parole violation in Louisiana.
By his actions, Mr. Roberts created a hole in the Bowen family that can never be repaired.
Strapping him down and pumping a lethal dose of pentobarbital into his veins doesn't repair that hole. The murder of Mr. Roberts didn't magically bring Ms. Bowen back from the grave. Her father will always live with the memory of burying his child - something that no parent should ever have to do. Killing a man does nothing to change that.
The State of Texas killed Donnie Roberts solely for the sake of killing him. There was no larger purpose. No interest was served. His death did not make the world a better place.
We like to think of ourselves as being a highly advanced society. We like to think others around the world are savages. What could be more savage than adhering to the idea of an eye for an eye?
And at the same time Rick Perry is puffing out his chest at how manly it is to preside over yet another execution, he is cutting off access to preventative health care for millions of women because he refuses to allow Planned Parenthood or any doctor associated with abortion from participating in the state's health program.
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