Last night the State of Texas murdered Martin Robles. There were no members of Mr. Robles' family to bid him farewell. There were no members of the victims' families to witness an act of cold-blooded murder.
Mr. Robles was convicted of murdering two young men who were members of a rival gang in Corpus Christi. He didn't act alone. Joe David Padron was also convicted of murder. The only difference is that Mr. Padron received a life sentence while Mr. Robles was given the needle.
So, two men walk into a house with guns. They shoot two men multiple times and kill them both. Yet one is sent to prison for life and the other is strapped to a gurney and killed. That's the capricious nature of the death penalty. Two men convicted of the same heinous crime yet the punishments couldn't be more different.
As I've written in other cases in which a man is killed for his crimes, Mr. Robles' death did nothing to bring back the two young men who died. His death did nothing to ease the ongoing pain of the families of the victims. The only thing his death does is confirm the reality that the State of Texas can exact revenge upon a man who did wrong.
Let's not kid ourselves that it means anything else.
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