Knowing Right from Wrong http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2001-03-08/feature.html/1/index.html
While Penry made sure no one was coming, Carpenter grabbed the pair of orange-handled scissors she had been using to make Halloween decorations and stabbed them into Penry's back. Penry then knocked the scissors out of her hand and pushed her to the floor. While she was on her way down, Penry whacked Carpenter's head on the stove. As she lay on the kitchen floor, Penry then stomped her with his work boots.
"We verified that later, because she had a perfect heel print on her side where he'd stomped her while she was on her stomach. It ruptured her kidney, and that's what actually killed her."
But Carpenter wasn't dead yet, nor was Penry through. After stomping her, he got down on the floor and raped her.
"Then he got up and went across the room and picked up those damn scissors," says Price. "Came back, sat down on her stomach and said, 'I'm sorry, but I've got to do this.' Said something about he couldn't have her squealing on him. And then he buried the scissors in her chest." That act, says Price, was a clear indication that Penry knew he had done something wrong and that he was in big trouble.
Even then, the notoriously strong-willed Carpenter refused to die.
"He thought that would kill her instantly," says Price, "but she reached up and pulled the goddamn scissors out. When she did that, it scared him and he jumped up and ran out of the house."
Carpenter managed to pull herself across the room to the telephone. First she called a friend, and then an ambulance. At the hospital, emergency room doctors were aware of only the stab wound. They mended the hole in Carpenter's chest and thought they had her stabilized. But when a catheter was inserted, her damaged kidney began hemorrhaging. Pam Carpenter immediately went into shock and died.
i've been really impressed with the absolute stupidity of New Jersey's carjacker/woman killers during the last 10 years. they're usually caught within days. there was one kid who suffocated a teacher (she recorded the abduction) and asked about the scheduled maintenance on the Camry before he killed her. he thought he would get to keep it??? they don't just waste the victims' lives; they waste their own for a few hours of driving or robbery or rape.
these evil lowlifes check out of civilized society early - they don't value education; they have no imagination to try on consequences. so should they be counted retarded and spared execution? i actually have more sympathy in a way for a clever criminal who takes a victim's life for bigger gains.
Mr. Penry's lawyers argued that he has the mind of a 7-year-old. Even a 7 year-old can tell the difference between right and wrong.
How many of the losers are going to try to feign mental retardation? It would be easy to do, don't you think? "Do you know what a gunshot blast can do to a person?" "No, what's a gun?"
23 years, and this scum is still breathing! I thought our justice system was supposed the model to the world. What an embarrassment.
A 7 year old may know it's wrong to kill, but he will not be executed for a killing. Why? (Pro/Con)