Thursday, October 10, 2013

Update: Dr. Lovloi and the Texas killing machine keep on keeping on

Chalk up another one for the Texas death machine and Dr. Jasper Lovloi III as the state murdered its 14th inmate last night.

Michael Yowell is the latest victim of Rick Perry and the killing machine. Mr. Yowell was convicted of a particularly brutal and heinous crime. He was no angel. What he did was inexcusable. But killing him doesn't solve anything. It doesn't bring anyone back. It doesn't fill any holes. It's nothing but an act of cold blooded revenge.

More troubling, however, is the mode in which Mr. Yowell was murdered last night. As you know, the drugs used to kill Mr. Yowell were acquired from Dr. Jasper Lovloi III and The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy. Since the drugs were produced in a compounding pharmacy they weren't subject to testing by the FDA. No one tested the drugs to see if they did what they were supposed to do. We have no way of knowing whether or not the drugs caused unnecessary pain and suffering.

I'm sure some of y'all couldn't care less if the condemned man felt any pain. I'm sure some of y'all think it's a travesty that we're so concerned with whether or not the condemned man suffered. I get it. Mr. Yowell didn't care that his victims suffered horribly in their deaths.

That's not the point, however.

What does our continued insistence on killing those we dislike because of what they did? What does it say about us that the US Supreme Court couldn't even be bothered to consider the argument that using an untested drug to kill an inmate should be considered unconstitutional?

In our rush to kill we have completely disregarded the law. We have completely disregarded the reason our founding fathers insisted on a government with limited powers. Worse yet we have allowed emotion to take over for our judgment when it comes to how we punish those who break society's rules.

We have created a system in which we systematically eliminate those who question state-sponsored murder while guaranteeing juries full of men and women who haven't the slightest qualm about the state exercising its most invasive power. We have become so enamored of results that we have forgotten that justice lives in the process.

1 comment:

Lee said...

My diagnosis for State of TX:

psychosis - a mental disorder characterized by symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinations, that indicate impaired contact with reality.

GAF - 40