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""When somebody says, 'How did your husband die?' and you say, 'Oh, he was executed by the State of Texas,' their hand leaves you and they walk away as if you are contagious with this death penalty disease," said Christina Lawson, whose husband, David Martinez, was executed last year for the rape and murder of Kiersa Paul, a 24-year-old University of Minnesota student, on Austin's Barton Creek greenbelt in 1997."

A sane person wouldn't admit that they married a serial rapist and murderer. Only someone looking for some sick, twisted form of notoriety would. They would quietly put that behind them and move on.

"When somebody says, 'How did your husband die?' and you say, 'Oh, he was executed by the State of Texas,' their hand leaves you and they walk away as if you are contagious with this death penalty disease," said Christina Lawson, whose husband, David Martinez, was executed last year for... rape and murder"

I agree. You'd think her husband's crimes -- and not his execution -- would be the real locus of her shame. Perhaps people are more likely to ask, "How did your husband die?" than "why did you divorce your husband?" but that's hardly a reason not to execute rapist-murderers. She could truthfully answer, "he died of a drug overdose."

Historically, a couple of hundred years ago in England, for example, while a "gentleman" was in theory just as subject to capital punishment, one of the bases for a "gentleman" getting his execution sentence downgraded was if he had unmarried sisters whose marriage prospects would be destroyed by the scandal of execution. (Apparently the execution was seen as more scandalous than the crime itself.) Working class people had no such out, since their sisters had no such prospects.

Since Ms. Lawson is now only 28, the 1997 murder took place when she was 19. It seems highly likely that she met and married the defendant after he committed the murder or even after he was convicted.

A sane person wouldn't admit that they married a serial rapist and murderer. Only someone looking for some sick, twisted form of notoriety would. They would quietly put that behind them and move on.
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What do you think of the nutcases who marry death row inmates after they are sentenced? IIRC most are European.

Also; If her husband wasn't executed but got life in prison she would be whining about people shunning her due to her husband's imprisonment. She would be speaking out about him being incarcerated.