Friday, September 21, 2012

Update: Texas kills again

Thou shalt not kill.
-- Sixth Commandment
There it is. There isn't any grey to it. There's no listing of exceptions to the rule. It is, as we would say in law school, black letter law.

It doesn't say except in the case of war or because someone killed someone else. It doesn't say except in the case that someone worships a different god or espouses a different political ideology. It doesn't say except if someone looks different or speaks differently.It doesn't say except in case of revenge.

And yet the god-fearing Christians who are worried about the gay couple down the street walking down the aisle and who call doctors who perform abortions murderers have absolutely no compunction about the state strapping a person down and injecting them with a lethal dose of drugs.

Robert Harris was the eighth Texas inmate murdered by the state last night. There is no question he did what he was accused of doing. There's no question that his actions caused five families a lot of grief and robbed them of loved ones.

But killing Mr. Harris doesn't undo what he did. It doesn't bring anyone back from the grave. It doesn't heal the pain nor fill the hole.

And so another inmate is dead and the sixth commandment is ignored once again. Praise the Lord and pass the pentobarbital.

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