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.
For awhile I thought you were sincere, but it looks like you’re playing ring around the rosy.
I think I’m done. Bye bye.
To be blunt you sound sick.
Christ forgave me and died on a cross for me. Me a sinner....guilty of much!
You don’t know how I and my family have been wronged and how much we have forgiven. May the love of Jesus Christ enter your mind and heart, in place of your self-righteous first stone throwing that is opposition to Jesus Christ and His teaching.
I see that you had the old Michael Dukakis question thrown at you. You handled it quite well, thank you.
I care more about the VICTIMS of the criminals not the criminals. You're more worried about the criminals. See the difference? I don't give two craps about someone who murdered a victim - I care about the murder VICTIM and their family! You're here on a conservative forum sticking up for the rights of murderers over VICTIMS.
Now receive the teaching of the New Covenant, for mercy has triumphed over judgment for you if you will receive it and walk in it. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
James 2
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
So you are another freeper who thinks that crime and sin are synonymous and that people should not be punished for their CRIMES?
So if someone breaks into your house and steals something from you that because Christ died for their sins that you don't think they should be punished by the state?
Can YOU forgive someone for murdering someone you don't even know? Is it your place to forgive people who have not sinned or committed a crime against you?
Do you completely throw out all the scriptures that show that God instituted the death penalty for murder because "in the image of God He made man"?
Did God change? Does he value the life of the murderer more than the life of the person who was murdered?
Thanks PapaNew, I would like that. I trust there are many here who follow Christ and live under and in God's grace with thankfulness that has replaced judgement under law.
Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection freed me from the laws of the Torah. I live under a new covenant, and obey those laws He reiterated, I could never be good enough to merit His grace, so He gave it to me freely. Thank you Lord Jesus
I am not and you don't know what you're talking about. Unless you tone it down I won't respond to you.
Are you implying that people who believe in capital punishment for murder are not following Christ?
Do you have a scripture that says that God repealed his law regarding the punishment of murder by death and replaced it with some new covenant that murderers are to be incarcerated for life and get fed, clothed, entertained, get free medical treatment, get conjugal visits from their homosexual husbands.... until they die peacefully in their sleep at age 99?
So you can murder someone and you should not be punished, right?
*
oh no no...the gospel will be preached here whether you receive it or not. It is The Good News of Jesus Christ Who died for all not the The Old Bad News of Judgment which you appear to be bound to, in and be under.
For those who disregard Jesus’ own words on capitol punishment...
What guarantee do we have that the one executed today is not found later to be innocent of the crime he or she was executed for, as so many others have been?
I’m very well versed in the Gospel and it’s certainly NOT the convoluted version that you’re preaching! I have absolutely nothing else to say to you and will not respond to anything you post to me. You and the rest of your ilk that worry more about the criminals than the victims of crime can kiss my butt! You’re all mentally ill and preaching garbage NOT God’s word!
Don’t worry - this is my last post to you and won’t respond to any from you. You most certainly are sticking up for the criminals over the VICTIMS and their families.
Thank you ... words of mercy triumph over words of judgement all day long.
Show me where I said that. You can't because I didn't. No point in me answering or even reading your replies or playing your asinine game of trying to put words in my mouth and trying to get me to answer something I didn't even imply, yet somehow, you inferred.
Boy it sure seems that we’ve been invaded by these “social justice” types here on FR. And some that have been around for years who are now showing their stripes! I can’t believe anyone who calls themselves a conservative would worry more about the criminal’s punishment over the rights of their VICTIMS. Bizarre world we’re living in.
I most certainly am not sticking up for the criminals over the victims and their families. You are an attack dog and killing the criminal does NOTHING for the victim.
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