Thursday, October 19, 2006

"I didn't do it"

Those were the words scrawled by Texas death row inmate Michael Johnson in his own blood as he committed suicide by cutting his own throat just hours before his execution.

If true, this was an almost unfathomable tragedy. Johnson was scheduled to die at 6 a.m. this morning. He was 29 years old.

Another man, David Vest, originally confessed to the 1995 killing but later testified against Johnson in exchange for a lighter sentence. Johnson always contended the snitch was the real shooter. Mr. Vest has completed his 8-year prison sentence and is now free.

6 comments:

Renees Take said...

Well that's a pretty horrible story...

DC went well! My daughter had a great time.

Anonymous said...

I find it absolutely incredulous that evidence can be withheld from either side during a trial, and then when it comes to light afterwards, NO ONE will do anything about it.

I've said before, I'm not anti-DP, but in cases like this, why on earth wasnt there a retrial? How could Michael's appeals have go to the final stage without anyone saying 'hang on a minute, we may have got this wrong, shouldnt we look at it all again, just to be sure?'

Is this the kind of 'democracy' that Bush is trying to inflict on the rest of the planet?

Anonymous said...

What the Hell does Bush have do do with it?

Anonymous said...

Bush is a Texan, he has the power and influence to introduce changes in the law to make the court procedures more accountable and accessable, and he was governor of the state for a while I believe and could have at least given clemancy and asked for a retrial. That's what he has to do with it. He keeps saying he wants to bring democracy to the rest of the world, but if this is his idea of a democratic system then I can understand why other countries are resisting his efforts.

PDiddie said...

Bush also mocked a condemned woman who pleaded for mercy. Just before she was executed.

Bush has a lot to do with killing. His relishment of the death penalty aside, if it is accurate that nearly 700,000 Iraqi citizens have now died since 2002 -- not terrorists, people who simply got caught in the way of a war -- then he enters history as one of its most prolific murderers.

Not quite something Jesus would do.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the world is afraid of American influence because of the possibility that mistakes in the criminal justice system might occur in places other than Texas, which, so far, is the only place injustice had ever occurred.