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.
There is no capitol punishment in hell, those there are there eternally.
What a strange reply since my post #125 was scriptures from the Word of God.
Are you saying the Word of God is unintelligent?
“Your logic is simply not logical.”
Agreed. He reminds me of Pete & Delmar from “Oh Brother Who Art Thou”, who think, just because they got baptized, the state won’t be pursuing them as escaped fugitives anymore:
PETE
The preacher said it absolved us.
EVERETT
For him, not for the law! I’m
surprised at you, Pete. Hell, I gave
you credit for more brains than
Delmar.
DELMAR
But there were witnesses, saw us
redeemed!
EVERETT
That’s not the issue, Delmar. Even
if it did put you square with the
Lord, the State of Mississippi is
more hardnosed.
God is clear that a murderer who takes the life of an innocent must not be allowed to keep theirs.
Is there a conflict in the scripture here, my friend? I'm certainly no religious scholar, but there appears there may be. Be assured that I'm less interested in influencing your position on capital punishment (if our positions are, in fact, different) -- I just want, and very much would like, a clarification of your point please.
G
Hope they are feeling better.
As a Christian I am not for the death penalty because no one is free from sin and worthy to cast that first stone as the Lord has instructed us. I wholeheartedly believe this is Jesus instruction on death penalty for crime. I understand some Christians believe otherwise. I will follow the Lord as best I can even if there have been times I felt differently.
Emotionally I remember feeling a certain murderer should be killed but I do not want a Justice system run by emotions.
As a conservative I am not for the death penalty because innocent people have been executed in this country, our justice system is run by men and women corrupted by sin too. Executions provide no added safety to our society beyond imprisonment.
Very informative. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the ping, dear brother in Christ!
God calls it the 2nd death. Are you in agreement with that being a part of scripture?
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
What does this have to do with the topic being discussed or about the fact the bodies of both the saved and unsaved die here on earth, not in the lake of fire?
1 Cor 4:5 do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes.
And the scripture showed that there is more than one death -- a second death -- so there is a capital punishment being administered when someone is "cast into hell".
So, is God wrong to administer capital punishment?
You seem to insist that I adopt your interpretation of what eternal separation from God is and why, when I and others here have already explained our interpretation of that is different than yours.
Jesus is without sin and He did not cast a stone at the woman caught committing a capitol punishment offense.
Are you or anyone you can name without sin and therefore worth to throw the first stone in executing someone?
Nope, we’re discussing your statement that ‘there is no capital punishment in hell’.
Hell is a capital punishment since it is the second death.
I’m not insisting you adopt anything. I’m stating the facts about scripture. I don’t believe the woman caught up in adultery, an event that happened before her first death, will be in the second death. If, however, she did not listen to Jesus, and she kept on sinning, then she will be.
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