Texas: A state without conscience

Metro NY ^ | June, 22, 2011 | Tony Metcalf, Editor

[Cincinatus' Wife]

So, the United States is One Nation, as the Pledge of Allegiance has it?

I sometimes wonder how that can possibly be so.

Yesterday, lawmakers here in New York were on the verge of making gay marriage legal.

Although the issue is controversial, it's a sign that the state is civilized and considerate, understanding that people should be allowed to love each other whatever their sexual orientation.

At the same time the state of Texas executed a mentally handicapped man by lethal injection.

How can one country produce such wildly differing moral landscapes?

How can one state prepare to take a massive step into the 21st century, while not 1,000 miles away another part of the same country travels back in time to the dark ages?

To be fair, the executed man, Milton Mathis, is not exactly the sort you'd want your daughter bringing home. He shot dead two people in a Houston crack house, and left a 15-year-old girl paralyzed.

But he had an IQ of 62. Psychologists routinely regard any adult with an IQ under 70 as being mentally handicapped. Mathis could not perform some of the most basic functions, such as dressing himself.

It was like executing a five year old child, and his death is an indelible stain on the state of Texas.

To those who say Mathis was smart enough to pull the trigger, there is a reason that there is an age of criminal responsibility. Elsewhere, children and those are children in an adult's body, are deemed to be unaware of the consequences of their actions and therefore not liable to the criminal law.

Mathis should have been detained for a very long time in a secure mental hospital, and he should have received treatment or therapy for his disability before, if and when it was deemed fit and proper, he was released into the community.

That would have been the civilized thing to do.

Instead, Governor Rick Perry, who vetoed state legislation ten years ago that would have outlawed executing the mentally disabled, gave the go ahead for the monsters to ram home the plunger on Tuesday night.

Perry, incidentally, is many people's tip as GOP candidate for the presidency in 2012.

If you live in one a state such as New York or Massachussetts, where they outlaw the death penalty, or in New Jersey where it has not been used since 1976, or even in Pennsylvania, which has resorted to it only three times since 1976, and if you are tempted to back Perry for President, remember Milton Mathis.

And just consider what electing Rick Perry's brand of medieval populism would say about the United States.

[Little Ray]

Typical murderer - blaming his victims to his last breath.

[Sherman Logan]

How can one state prepare to take a massive step into the 21st century, while not 1,000 miles away another part of the same country travels back in time to the dark ages?

So where did all the angst about "pushing your values on others" go?

[Bockscar]

I respectfully submit that Texas is a state with conscience and compassion for the victims of crime instead of the criminals.
I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing how 'society failed' the 'criminals' when, in fact, it is just the opposite. It is the 'criminal' who failed society.
It is the responsibility of each individual to adjust to the norms of acceptable civilized behavior not the other way around.
Go Texas!

[MrB]

Yeah, if they want to get down to brass tacks...
What is so special about one man’s desire to stick his p*n*s in another man’s *n*s?

[Liberty Valance]

What's that New York? Speak up, I can barely hear you ...

WASHINGTON — New York will lose 2 of its 29 seats in the House, while New Jersey will lose 1 of its 13 seats, both as a result of population shifts recorded in this year’s census.

The losses will leave New York with the smallest Congressional delegation it has had in 200 years.

The largest gainer is Texas, which has been gaining seats in the House of Representatives since 1950, and this time, with 4 seats, it gained the most from one Census in over 100 years.

[MrB]

Isn’t it spelled “MassAssachusetts”?

[presidio9]

Although the issue is controversial, it's a sign that the state is civilized and considerate, understanding that people should be allowed to love each other whatever their sexual orientation.

I stopped having a problem with so-called "gay marriage" here in NY when I realized that all non-religious weddings are actually just "civil unions" and nothing more.

That being said, how, exactly does the legal status of so-called "gay marriage" who or what a person chooses to love. That most recent episode of "Taboo" on National Geographic featured a guy who makes love to his VW bug. Last I heard, the FBI was not (repeat, NOT) on his case.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Article: How can one country produce such wildly differing moral landscapes? How can one state prepare to take a massive step into the 21st century, while not 1,000 miles away another part of the same country travels back in time to the dark ages?

*******

"......States have been called laboratories in democracy precisely because every problem potentially has fifty different approaches to solving it. Some solutions work in some states and not in others. Some states prefer some solutions over others. Some solutions may work in every state, and some just don't work at all. But the best way to find the best solutions is to allow the states to discover what works best for them, without the federal government interfering....... Newt Gingrich: Rick Perry's book "almost came too late" [Foreward to "Fed Up!"]

[Venturer]

How is allowing butt bandits to get married taking us into the 21st. Century. God Forbid.

As for this murdering sack of dog crap, I don’t care if his IQ is 27, if he is bright enouth to kill he is bright enough to die for it. AMF Milton , may the devil have fun frying you.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

“You kill somebody in Texas, we’ll kill you right back.”

[freespirited]

Almaguer, seated in a wheelchair and accompanied by her husband, was among a small group of people who watched Mathis die from behind a window at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “I never meant to hurt you,” Mathis, strapped to a gurney with tubing taped to his arms, told Almaguer. “You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”....

Sounds like he is mentally competent enough to know it is wrong to hurt people. I don't have a problem with the death sentence.

[Georgia Girl 2]

My solution is for NY and CA to secede.

[I cannot think of a name]

The football game is OK, but we need to bring back ‘ole Sparky. It’s just not the same since they retired the Sparkster.

[Pollster1]

From other articles: "On December 15, 1998, Mathis shot three victims in the head with a .45 caliber pistol at a known drug house in Ft. Bend County, Texas. One of the victims, a 15-year-old girl survived the shooting, paralyzed from the chest down . . . In 2005, however, a Texas court rejected his claims of mental impairment, siding with prosecutors who characterized Mathis as a "street smart" criminal whose behavior indicated near-normal intelligence . . . a stay of execution and a review of his case was rejected without comment by the Supreme Court late Tuesday afternoon . . . "Mathis has suffered from obvious mental disabilities since childhood," wrote White. "He failed the first, fifth and eight grades and dropped out of high school in ninth grade." . . . Steven Rocket Rosen, who defended Mathis in his original trial, said there was "no excuse" for the actions of his client. But he said Mathis's mental problems were severe and had been aggravated by heavy drug use from a young age. According to court records, Mathis began smoking PCP and marijuana soaked in formaldehyde, known as "fry," as early as age 12."

It looks to me like this predator is a loser who damaged his own brain and then murdered two people before permanently crippling a teenager. He's lucid enough for this:

Turning to Melanie Almaguer, who has been paralyzed from the neck down since the shooting, and witnessed the execution, he said he "never meant" to hurt her, according to Clark. "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mathis said.

Good riddance.

[Salgak]

Civilized people shoot their own mad dogs. Barbarians just store them away for time of need. . .

And it’s obvious which state is civilized, and which is rapidly screaming headlong into a Dark Age. . .

[freespirited]

But he had an IQ of 62.

I find that nearly impossible to believe. People with an IQ that low don't utter sentences like the one he said to the woman he injured. Those are the words of someone with considerably higher mental capacity.

Reminds me of the creep who murdered Jessica Lunsford. His lawyers insisted he had an IQ in the same range. When I heard him talk I knew it was total BS.

[MrB]

I’m sure you wouldn’t be all that amazed at the number of Clinton fans that are totally unaware of the Rickey Ray Rector issue.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A 54-year old woman who was married to the Berlin Wall for 29 years is now cheating on the iconic landmark with a local garden fence.

[al_c]

How can one country produce such wildly differing moral landscapes?

Puh-leeze! What a self-righteous idiot this author is! So it's morally good to promote gay marriage but morally bad to execute someone proven guilty in a court of law of a double murder and leaving another maimed for life?

I'm not a proponent of captial punishment, but this is ridiculous.

[Austin Vet]

New York: A state that should mind its own damn business.