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.
Talisker, with one statement through COMMON SENSE right out the window.
Pay no attention to buffons, they just like to babble.
We are in a very small minority here but we are in agreement.
meant THREW not THROUGH. Never type and spell something for someone else when you’re doing it.
Good grief.
“The world will not be a safer place because Mr. Clayton has been executed.”
Because it’s safer to allow a man who callously murders because he’s dangerously incompetent to walk the street.
His own brother said...
“...it destroys an evil person that would otherwise be walking this earth.”
Next you’ll have the defenders of vicious murderers arguing, “The arresting officer said he was “one sick bastard”, therefore we must let him live”
I do.Its because they’re nuckinfutts.
Actually it deters some and is justice to those of us who think this way
I’m all for it
But I have questions about this circumstance....severe brain trauma or surgical excision do alter personality markedly
The dulling especially when loss is frontal lobes raises my interest
I have personal experience with this
Ted Bundy hasn’t raped and killed another woman since he was put to death. Not one. He was in jail in Colorado. He escaped and raped and killed. Florida put him to death. He no longer rapes and kills. Get it?
Reading the story again, that “evil person” statement was made may the brother of the victim (Castetter), not the murderer (Clayton).
Well God bless you Greybeard. What is right is not often popular and depending on how innovative your idea is, it may threaten the status quo and the conventional wisdom of the day, which can make people very angry because you’ve challenged their mental and philosophical comfort zone. Historically it has even lead to death.
Mind if I add you to a list of those I sometimes copy on certain discussions and points of view that tend to be innovative?
Actually it is because they have no respect for INNOCENT life.
In Genesis 9:6 God gives justification for the death penalty in murder cases. He says “for in the image of God, he made man.”
To murder man is to murder God’s image. Thus when you commit murder, you give up your own right to continue to live.
It is simply not just that a murderer can continue to live while his victim lies buried in the ground.
God’s decreed punishment for that criminal’s specific crimes and murder was fully carried out and exhausted 2000 years ago on the body of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross.
It doesn’t solve anything.
That’s because we have a broken penal Code and Prison System that doesn’t place Restraint (protection of society against dangerous criminals) at the top of the list of why we incarcerate criminals.
Easier to just kill ‘em.
It removes one more murderer from society. And that’s good.
Capital criminals have been shown to be deterred because of the death penalty. Even if there was some kind of deterrence there, I’m against unjust deterrence. Torture , etc. would also be deterrents but is doesn’t make it just or right. I’m for deterrence but only from incarceration and for the right reasons.
Using that logic, we should not punish murderers at all. We shouldn't be locking them up for life because "God’s decreed punishment for that criminal’s specific crimes and murder was fully carried out and exhausted 2000 years ago on the body of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross."
If fact if Jesus Christ took on the punishment for all crimes at the cross, then we shouldn't even have jails. Who is man to punish man for sins against man?
Your logic is simply not logical.
That is simply more evidence that we have a broken penal Code and Prison System that doesn’t place Restraint (protection of society against dangerous criminals) at the top of the list of why we incarcerate criminals.
They had 24 years to do something about it, if they saw this violent massive personality change, instead of use it as an excuse AFTER he murdered someone.
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