Posted on 05/29/2004 8:00:34 PM PDT by Lagrange Point
Thanks to Gov. Rick Perry, Texans can rest a little easier knowing we have been protected, once and for all, from the future dangerousness of Kelsey Patterson, the paranoid schizophrenic who went to his death in Huntsville last week despite his belief that he had been granted an amnesty by Satan himself. That....
(Excerpt) Read more at austinchronicle.com ...
By the way anybody know what this guy did?
From the article you posted...
"It's worth remembering that Patterson's mind had broken down long before the murder in Palestine of Louis Oates and Dorothy Harris, ..."
On 25 September 1992, Patterson, then 38, walked out of his home in Palestine to Oates Oil Company, which was about a block away. The owner, Louis Oates, 63, was standing on his loading dock when Patterson walked up behind him and shot him with a .38-caliber pistol. After shooting Oates, Patterson began walking away. Dorothy Harris, Oates' secretary, walked out of her office and onto the loading dock, saw Oates' body lying on the ground, and began screaming. Patterson returned and shot Harris, 41, in the head. Patterson then walked back home, told his roommate what he had done, laid down his weapon, and removed all of his clothing except his socks. When the police arrived, he was walking up and down the street, naked. He later explained that he removed his clothes because did not want police to think he was hiding a gun.
Patterson had been previously involved in two shootings. In May 1980, Patterson shot Richard Lane, a co-worker, for no apparent reason. In 1983, he shot another co-worker, Kevin Hughes, again for no apparent reason. On both occasions, Patterson was found incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state mental hospital. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After receiving treatment and having his competency restored, the charges in both cases were dismissed because he was insane at the time of the shootings. Patterson was again admitted to a state mental hospital in 1988 after threatening his family. He was treated and released.
Why should we keep this nut around? Why should the guards risk their lives? Why should we have to worry that some shrink will make his bones by believing he's cured and get him turned loose?
Jeez..after reading this..I think society and the killer was done a good thing..society is now protected from this deranged individual..and this sick scumbag killer is now out of his pain...
Well, is anyone going to miss him? I will not. Money is tight nowadays, and keeping him in jail for 40 yrs would cost a million, while in jail unless he were to be kept in solitary confinement or under constant supervision in medical ward (much more expensive) there is no way to tell whom else he might attack - guards, or other inmates? It is one of those sad cases when "the fewer of him, the better for us".
Don't care who pardoned him, as long as they did it after he got juiced.
Austin sounds like the Ithaca of Texas.
(steely)
"...I agree with Perry on this one. What are your thoughts?"
I'm kind of shy of the death penalty. The problem, as I see it, is that I just don't like the possibility of government to pass laws and lay down the death penalty as a consequence to lawmaking gone wrong.
Now, don't get me wrong. I understand the need for killing a real bad man (or woman). It's just that giving the state the license to do so on the justification of their legal whoredom is troublesome.
As an alternative, I suggest that upon conviction of Murder 1, the guilty is refered to the victim's surviving kin for thumbs up or down.
If thumbs up, the guilty spends the rest of his/her life in the Joint - no parole. My idea of prison is 6 days of work in 10 hour days. No TV, movies or phone. Three hots and a cot and adequate medical care but no weight rooms, special diets or heroic medicine. The prison population should sustain itself through industry.
If thumbs down, the family would select a member of it choosing to deliver the injection of the lethal cocktail.
In this way, all manner of justice would be served:
1) Society would be protected.
2) The guilty would pay for their crimes with their lives.
3) The wronged would have justice and, if they wish, revenge.
4) Lethal power would be restricted to the people.
5) Mercy would be an option for those of merciful inclination.
6) Life imprisonment would be assured if the death penalty were not invoked.
7) Life imprisonment might be worse than death for many criminals.
8) Society would be freed from the cost of prisoner support.
9) Revenuse might actually acrue from prison work and go towards aiding victims of crime.
10) The certainty of death or a lifetime of work would, in fact, deter crime.
UT is as liberal as Berkley. In college, we hated UT!! I was an SMU man and many of my friends were Aggies.
Too bad, too. Austin is a beautiful place. What a waste.
When the police arrived, he was walking up and down the street, naked. He later explained that he removed his clothes because did not want police to think he was hiding a gun.
either you have read some of my past writings on this topic, or we are just naturally on the same wavelength!
Sorry, I haven't read your thoughts, but I make no claim to being the only one with these thoughts. At this time, all I have are the informal notions and nothing has ever occured to me that would be a downside. If you've got some links, I'd love to read them.
It is odd, though, how many people I propose this idea to seem to take to it - there seems to be little down side or political objection. As an example, I work on occasion with a multi-cultural diversity transgender type. He/she was a convert the first time this discussion came up and has been spreading the word ever since (in some odd places, no doubt).
The only ones that don't seem to get it are politicians that I have spoken to - they don't see a problem with state power (even if Republican). Another set, of course, is the lefty, pacifist, pro-abortion-but-anti-death-penalty types. It goes without saying that there's a lot of jumbled wiring in their noggins in the first place, so their objection is of little surprise.
I have considered and promoted this idea for the better part of 15 years or so. At times, I have considered doing the legal & research work needed to produce a white paper that might be circulated.
Yeah, sure.
I'll get to that task when I'm about 150 years old. Maybe I'd have the time if I were serving a life sentence...
I haven't been keeping track of the conversations - they're all over the net and the last six or seven years.
this solution is the only one that makes sense all the way around.
By the way anybody know what this guy did?Here is the thread and an excerpt:
Texas Puts Mentally Ill Killer to Death
Excerpt
Patterson was condemned for the 1992 shootings of Dorthy Harris, 41, a secretary at an oil company office in Palestine, and her boss, Louis Oates, 63.
Evidence showed Patterson left his home in Palestine, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas, shot Oates in the head with a .38-caliber pistol and then shot Harris when she began screaming.
Then he went home, took off his clothes and was arrested walking on the street.
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