Posted on 03/17/2015 9:02:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Missouri cop killer Cecil Clayton was executed Tuesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments he should be spared because he was missing a piece of his brain.
Clayton, who at 74 was the state's oldest death-row prisoner, was pronounced dead at 9:21 pm CT, eight minutes after his lethal injection was administered, prison officials said in a statement.
"They brought me up here to execute me," he said in his final statement.
Clayton was convicted of murdering sheriff's deputy Chris Castetter after a domestic disturbance in 1996. His case drew extra attention because of his brain injury, the result of a 1972 sawmill accident that forced doctors to remove one-fifth of his frontal lobe. His lawyers contended the damage not only sparked a massive personality change that may have turned him into a killer, but also rendered him mentally incompetent and therefore ineligible for capital punishment.
"Cecil Clayton had — literally — a hole in his head," his attorney, Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, said in a statement after the execution. "Executing him without a hearing violated the Constitution, Missouri law and basic human dignity.
"He suffered from severe mental illness and dementia related to his age and multiple brain injuries," she added. "The world will not be a safer place because Mr. Clayton has been executed."
Missouri had argued that medical experts found Clayton understood why he was being executed and that meant he was competent to face the needle. They argued that his intellectual deficits had to be present before he turned 18 to let him escape execution and that he waited too long to raise his claim.
Castetter's brother said in a statement that he had no doubt Clayton was in his right mind.
"We know this execution isn't going to bring Chris back," he said. "But it destroys an evil person that would otherwise be walking this earth."
Clayton's 11th-hour appeals delayed his execution for several hours. But ultimately, none of the U.S. Supreme Court justices accepted his claims arguments for a stay based on his brain injury.
Four justices from the liberal wing did say they would have granted a stay based on his claim that Missouri's secrecy-shrouded process for obtaining the lethal dose of pentobarbital could lead to an unconstitutional death.
Gov. Jay Nixon also denied him clemency in the final minutes, saying he agreed with the state's assessment that Clayton was competent.
"This crime was brutal and there exists no question of Clayton's guilt," he said in a statement.
Thank you, Grace! I am going to remember your very eloquent description! ;-)
Except, of course, what Jesus said to the capital criminal and the legalists who wanted Jesus to her condemn to death (John 8:11).
Please, go back and read my posts on this thread. Fair amount of explanation there about what I am saying and what reasonable and effective alternatives I suggest.
You seem to think that "incarceration" is the proper punishment for all crimes. And that the Biblical mandate for the death penalty for the crime of murder was somehow voided at the cross and that because of the cross, the proper "punishment" is "incarceration".
Show me anywhere in the Bible where it authorizes "incarceration" as a punishment for any crime, much less that it mandates it for murder.
You mean like ABORTION and GAY MARRIAGE?
No. Those are pretty well-examined and found wanting.
The death penalty is more of a knee-jerk issue that remains unexamined by many because of what I said about challenged beliefs. People like Galileo and Isaac Newton are threatened with death for blasphemy when they uncover what is eventually recognized as true, but initially threatens long-held but unexamined beliefs. More like that.
(Forgot to copy you from P-Marlow’s list...)
No. Those are pretty well-examined and found wanting.
The death penalty is more of a knee-jerk issue that remains unexamined by many because of what I said about challenged beliefs. People like Galileo and Isaac Newton are threatened with death for blasphemy when they uncover what is eventually recognized as true, but initially threatens long-held but unexamined beliefs. More like that.
Out of the ball park on so many counts.
Thanks. I do hit a few home-runs now and then.
By whom? Those are now societal norms. Do you think it is coincidental that the anti death penalty movement started up at the same time that the pro abortion, pro homosexual, anti school prayer movements started attempting to change our culture for the worse?
Did she commit a cold blooded premeditated murder? No, she didn’t.
As I said your understanding of Scripture is deeply flawed.
L
The issue is how Jesus feels about the death penalty. John 8:11 is contrary to your assertion about Jesus never saying anything about punishment for crimes.
So far, Pal, looks like your the one with the flawed understanding of Scripture.
This is a prime example of my point that you do not present a rationale, but rather provide the assertion as self-evident. Your statement that others' beliefs are long-held but unexamined or unquestioned is an attempt to cast the opposing opinion as uninformed, which consequently means that yours is the only informed opinion.
The example you cited has long been taught as Christ's repudiation of the legalistic punishment meted out by the church, as opposed to the government. It is, further, unrelated to the crime of murder.
It is not that I disagree with your answer, but rather that your answer is insufficient to the question, and the envelope in which you deliver your answer is made of unsupported assertions about other people's state of mind, including my own.
Please take your social justice crap somewhere else.
Your response rambles and you are unclear about what reason or rationale you are looking for that I haven’t already provided
As Reagan said, “I paid for this microphone.” If you don’t like it pound sand and take a hike.
And your response is another exercise in assertion sans rationale.
I have struggled with this question for years. For me, it finally came down to...
What guarantee do we have that the murderer will spend the rest of his life behind bars? What is to stop some future court from having mercy on him and releasing him? What if he escapes? What if the nature of incarceration changes and he ends up spending the rest of his life in what amounts to a luxury resort?
Since there is no guaranteed “life in prison” I say that those who argue for it are either deceitful, deluded or ignorant.
In order to ensure protecting society today and tomorrow, it is society’s responsibility to make absolutely certain that this person never does it again. The only way to be absolutely certain is the death penalty.
You've ID'd the root problem: a broken penal code and prison system that does not put restraint (protection of society form dangerous criminals) as the #1 reason for incarceration.
It's easier to kill 'em than to fix the broken system. Nobody cares about criminals generally which makes it easier to stay with what we got.
Your words reminded me of this scripture.
Gal 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
That is a strong pronouncement and a terrible end for those it applies to. By our words we will be justified, and by our words we will be condemned. It at times amazes me some here who rush to judgment against others with their eye for an eye judgment. And the anger and vile hurled at the poor at times in some threads makes me think they follow someone other than Jesus.
Matt 12:30-37 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
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