Imagine her with a shotgun in your face -- "get it up, or you're dead!"
Posted on 10/19/2006 2:18:12 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Texas Death Row Inmate Commits Suicide
By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer
Oct 19, 4:53 PM EDT
LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP) -- A convicted killer facing lethal injection beat the executioner to it Thursday, committing suicide by slitting his throat and arm with a blade in his Texas death row cell 15 hours before he was supposed to die.
Michael Dewayne Johnson, 29, was found in a pool of blood by officers making routine checks on him every 15 minutes, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Johnson apparently scrawled words in blood on the wall of his cell, but prison officials would not say what he wrote.
He is at least the seventh condemned man in Texas to take his own life since death row reopened in 1974.
No other prisoner has killed himself so close to his scheduled execution time. In 1999, a death row inmate took an overdose of prescription drugs. He was hospitalized, then executed two days later.
Johnson had been set to die for the 1995 slaying of Jeff Wetterman, 27, gunned down at his family-run gasoline station and convenience store near Waco.
Prison system spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said that 15 minutes before Johnson was discovered, he was talking to the staff and awaiting breakfast, and gave no indication he was contemplating suicide.
He used a sharp piece of metal attached to what looked like a wooden Popsicle stick, Lyons said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breakingnews.nypost.com ...
Mike
Sounds like those cell shakedowns are kinda loose on Death Row in Huntsville. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, because this goon just saved Texas a few bucks.
15 hours before he was supposed to die.
Related article - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1722212/posts
Thanks. I did catch that after I made my post. Must learn to read more carefully.
A control freak sociopath to the very end. 11 years of wasting the taxpayers money.
One less democrat voter.
As someone mentioned on a related thread, what a pisser (for the deceased) if SCOTUS issued a stay this AM...
Just another example of why I don`t think the detah penalty is a just punishment, they don`t care if they die. I can understand using the death penalty to protect the public as it removes the chance of a liberal setting a killer free somewhere down the line, or having a Clinton appointed Judge setting a terrorist enabler free after 28 months, but the death penalty is not a punishment I don`t care what anyone says. To me, a just punishment is welding these animals in a cage and having Hillary Clinton speeches played over and over and over for the rest of their lives 24 hours a day with the only materials they can access is made of nerf so they can never take the easy way out. THAT is punishment! That or spending .00000005 seconds in bed with Helen Thomas.
Well, that saves some time.
I am fully aware that he exacted this pain on himself through suicide. I am not trying to deny that. Nor am I against the Capital Punishment or in favor of a Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, which CS Lewis tears to shreads so effectively. What I was merely saying, is that I don't think we wish pain on others. Whenever a story like this comes on, our first reaction is to say something like, "I hope it was painful." I'm not commenting on this to attack the person who wrote that, because I think and say things like that all the time. But I stand by my remarks that we shouldn't which suffering on others. We should wish that justice be done.
Was it just that this man would recieve the death penalty? Without knowing the details, I'd say yes. Was it just that this man took his life at his own hands? No, and that is to no one's fault but his own. I just wish we would be use better judgement when wishing suffering onto others. This is a temptation that seems great to us Conservatives, whether the issue be the death penalty, immigration, welfare, or the War on Terror. We should support our beliefs with moral clarity and in moral terms, and not with things like "I hope he suffered a lot."
I like what Charles Colson said about the death penalty: "Society should not execute capital offenders merely for the sake of revenge, rather to balance the scales of moral justice which have been disturbed...In the public debate over the death penalty, we are dealing with values of the highest order: respect for the sacredness of human life and its protection, the preservation of order in society, and the attainment of justice through law."
I was merely taking issue with the heartlessness with which some statements are seem to be made, not intentionally, but in effect. I understand the desire to see this man surrer more than the pain he caused. I have voiced things like that before. And so I am calling on myself, as well as others, to raise to a higher standard.
I probably should have ignored your message, as this issue is minor, but I wanted to clarify it.
Actually, now that he's dead, wouldn't he be one MORE democrat voter?
Imagine her with a shotgun in your face -- "get it up, or you're dead!"
Death penalty would be more of a deterrent if they did it publicly. They ought to. Not only would it be a deterrent, it would toughen Americans up to see death, real death on their TV screens. Americans are in the way of needing some toughening up.
That's gotta leave a mark !
I say you're thinking about it too much. BAM! Get'er done.
Please, shoot me!
I hope it was painful.
we shouldn't which suffering on others.
that is to no one's fault but his own.
You probably know what you meant but...damn!
I probably should have ignored your message, as this issue is minor, but I wanted to clarify it.
This leaves and immediate opening. The table is set, the chemicals are ready and the executioner is standing by. Get the next one in line; give him a Big Mac for his last meal and get’er done.
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