Posted on 02/11/2007 4:45:46 PM PST by ellen_rometsch
There's an unsettlingly prosaic quality to "Texas Death Row: Executions by Lethal Injection'' that's bone chilling and distressing.
The exhibit, at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities new Exhibition Space, consists of 370 mug shots of executed convicts, as well as a chronological list on a gallery wall of these convicts and their victims.
As the gallery's curator, author and producer Bill Crawford, tells us in his introduction, "At midnight on Dec. 7, 1982, the state of Texas conducted the first execution by lethal injection in the U.S. In the 25 years since that time, Texas has conducted more than 370 executions by lethal injection - far more than any other state and most other countries in the world.''
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
So they show photos of the convicts, but only list the names of their victims? How about showing crime scene/autopsy photos, and family photos of the victims?
If there were a display of all the unborn killed in Michigan through abortion, it would be thousands of times larger -- but the arts community would ban it for its "tastelessness.
370 and still counting.
And on the other wall... the 2000-some-od victims pictures
(yeah, right)
One definition of a liberal: he who cares infinitely more about the criminal than about the victims of crime.
They are so desperate to "humanize" these murderers that they just about forgot there were people murdered by them. Oh, how generous, they give the "names" of the murder victims while glorifying the murderers. Even the murderers themselves would have approved of that much, as a form of boasting....
Far more lethal injections than any other country or executions? I'm calling bs if they are simply counting executions.
As for Michigan, as long as your state is dumb enough to keep Granholm in office despite an awful economy, you guys have no shot. The GOP needs to get off their asses up their and start hitting the pavement. It's a sad day when the voters consider a flop like Granholm more worthy than the GOP candidate.
Had that information been presented, then this exhibit would have been "neutral" on the death penalty. But it wasn't.
Congressman Billybob
There are easy solutions for those who have "issues" with capital punishment in TX:
If you're a murderer, don't do it here.
If you have philosophical problems with capital punishment in general, find another place to live.
Problems solved.
So since I live in Texas I'm supposed to be ashamed? Well I'm not!
How many criminals Texas executes is no business to any Michigan yankee.
Two of those fellows who dragged James Byrd to death over in Vidor, TX, got the death penalty. I don't remember whether either has been executed yet, anyone else remember?
I wonder if their pictures were included, and whether James Byrd's name was included in the list of victims. Probably not if no execution has yet taken place. But wouldn't that put the liberals in a state of cognitive dissonance.
In the interest of full disclosure I will point out that I am uncertain about the death penalty, but I agree strongly with a prior poster - if you disagree with capital punishment, don't live in Texas and by all means don't commit a capital crime here.
Unfortunately Granholm, born a Canadian, was re-elected by a wide margin. We have two Democrat U.S. Senators so that gives you some idea regarding our voters.
Michigan has never had the death penalty and we became a state in 1837. I don't really know why.
I imagine most victims' families would prefer not to see crime scene/autopsy photos publicly displayed.
Generally the murderers looked pretty nasty, if the intent was to create sympathy for them I don't think it was very successful. Some of them looked completely ordinary, and there's a lesson there too. Being that this is Ann Arbor and this is a University of Michigan exhibit I also think that the intent most likely was to make the viewer pity the poor murderer. Didn't work with me.
As best as I can tell Shawn Allen Berry and Lawrence Russel Brewer haven't had their sentences carried out yet.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice web-site, King and Brewer and not yet scheduled for execution.
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