Thursday, June 13, 2013

Update: Texas kills again

Elroy Chester is dead.

Willie Ryman III is still dead. So are John Henry Sepeda, Etta Mae Stallings, Cheryl DeLeon and Albert Bolden, Jr.

Mr. Chester wasn't a good person. He killed five people. He ripped apart five families. But killing him did nothing to repair the damage his acts caused.

The only drama yesterday was what would happen at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals who heard a last-minute request for a reprieve. Judge Edith Jones, the subject of a disciplinary complaint due to statements made at a speech given at the University of Pennsylvania, was removed from the panel considering the request for a stay.

Not that it mattered.

There was nothing special about Mr. Chester's case. There weren't any claims of innocence. There weren't claims of mitigating factors or circumstances. He murdered a firefighter.

But that doesn't making killing him any more right.  Strapping Mr. Chester down to a gurney and pumping a lethal dose of a sedative solves nothing.

It's just one more dead man.

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