Posted on 10/07/2005 11:38:17 AM PDT by Borges
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A man was executed Thursday for gunning down a Texas state trooper in 1992, a slaying his trial attorneys had argued was prompted by anti-police rap music.
For his final statement, Ronald R. Howard looked at the trooper's widow, daughter and brother and said he hoped "this helps a little. I don't know how, but I hope it helps."
Then he turned to friends and a brother who were among his witnesses, expressing love and thanking them for locating two of his young children, who visited him on death row within the past week. "Love you all. Thank you so much," he said.
As the drugs were administered, he lifted his head from the gurney and said, "I'm going home."
Twelve minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
The slain trooper's widow and daughter, who were standing next to the window, hugged and kissed as the 32-year-old Howard slipped into unconsciousness.
"Today justice has been served," said Linda Davidson, widow of Department of Public Safety Officer Bill Davidson. "It's real frustrating the wheels of justice turn very slowly."
Howard was executed for killing the 43-year-old Davidson during a traffic stop outside Edna, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.
At the time of the shooting, Howard, then 18 and a father of four, was on probation for burglary.
Defense lawyers argued at his trial that Howard's constant exposure to gangsta rap music and its anti-police messages influenced him to pull the trigger.
Everybody throw your hands in the air,
And wave them like you just don't care.
Now we're feeling good,
Like you know we all should,
'Cause Ron got the 'lectric chair!
They do? It obviously is not. It's rhyming noise with crude lyrics and virtually nothing else to redeem it. It is a fad, albeit a long-lived one. I predict is will fade away like all fads. Don't expect it to be listened to 10 years from now, let alone 100 years from now, like Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, et al. and this is by no means an anti-black statement when manifold black contributions to real music have long been extant.
the precious made us do it
That's a great story - stick it to them!
should the song be legal? Of course. That is freedom of speech and it must be protected, even if we have to protect some maggots among the population. Only an idiot (synonamous with liberal) would think that it CAUSED him to kill. Stimulus-response thought patterns work well for plants. Not humans.
IAHV Inappropriate Antisocial Hate-speech Venting
He had 4 kids at 18, but didn't know where at least 2 of them were.
> Twelve minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Sweet
No surprise there.
Me too!This clown deserved to fry or get lethalated or whatever.
Rap doesn't even
promise listeners thirteen
virgins when they die!
The irony of the Ice-T Cop Killer controversy is that our man Ice has made more money PLAYING cops on TV and the movies than he ever did rapping about KILLING them!
$
My give-a-damn's busted. Who's next on the list?
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