Pope meets with Argentine mother of man on Texas death row

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Pope meets with Argentine mother of man on Texas death row

Updated 12:08 pm, Saturday, June 11, 2016

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has met for a second time with the Argentine mother of a man on death row in Texas for two decades.

The Vatican announced the meeting Saturday between Francis and Lidia Guerrero but gave no details.

After their first meeting, in Rome in 2014, she said that the pope, who is also Argentine, assured her of his prayers for Victor Hugo Saldano.

Francis has vigorously promoted Vatican teaching saying capital punishment in morally unjustified.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Pope-meets-with-Argentine-mother-of-man-on-Texas-8038724.php

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[center]

Pope Francis and Lidia Guerrero [/center]

[mountain grammy]

1. Pray away, it won't do a damn bit of good

just like it never does, especially in Texas, where people claim to be "pro life" until they're pro death. Got that Frank? It's your religion.

[christx30]

2. Is the pope going to meet with the family of

Paul Ray King, the man that Victor Saldano murdered? Kidnapped him, drove him out to the middle of nowhere, and shot him to death in a robbery. The few bucks in his wallet meant more to Saldano than King's life.
That's where I will leave my sympathies.

[7962]

3. Thank you for bringing up what actually matters. There was a VICTIM.

I wonder if the Pope met with "Brock"'s dad if everyone here would be in an uproar about it?

[Major Nikon]

5. Good point. The Pope should just tell his mom to go fuck herself.

It's not like the eventual death of her son on behalf of the people of Texas really matters to her or any of his other family members, or that the death penalty in America is anything but fair, just, and humane. As far as that goes, the Pope should go fuck himself too. How dare he question the US judicial system just because the rest of the civilized world stopped doing it a long time ago.

[christx30]

6. Maybe the pope should provide

comfort to the victim of the crime rather than the perp? If he had gone home and watched TV that night, he'd be there right now instead of death row.
But instead, a man was kidnapped (a crime), robbed (another crime), then murdered (death that occurred in the commission of other crimes). His getting the death penalty isn't a question of fairness. It'd happen to nearly anyone. Why did he do those things?
Honestly, I don't care if he gets the death penalty, or if he dies of natural causes (shiv) in prison when he's 80. But he doesn't deserve any sympathy. He decided that the contents of a man's wallet is worth killing over. He made the choice to take Paul Ray King from his family forever.
He can rot.

[7962]

7. And also no question as to his guilt

I imagine the usual "mentally challenged" defense will be brought up at some point, even though it likely was never brought up at the original trial

[7962]

8. Wow, what a brilliant statement! Laughable, but brilliant!

It would be a lot better if the Pope maybe visited the family of a man on death row who has evidence of his innocence, instead of one who probably should have been executed 18 years ago.
And why not visit the family of the victim? Fuck THEM too, right? As long as you get to sit on your moral high horse while a worthless POS gets 3 hots & a cot for the past NINETEEN YEARS
Cant believe its taken Texas this long.

[Major Nikon]

10. No it really isn't funny at all, it's actually kinda sad

Because obviously you and the other person who replied have exactly zero shits to give for Lidia Guerrero, who most certainly will be an innocent victim once Texas puts her son to death. That's when you realize people who pretend to be so concerned about victims, really could care less about victims, and it has everything to do with them getting their pound of flesh even you admit you just can't wait any longer to get. That's where the so-called "moral high horse" is, except there's nothing at all moral about the death penalty. At much as I dislike Frank, at least he gets that. So let's please stop pretending it's all about the victims with the death penalty cheerleaders, because it just ain't. All the death penalty does is create more victims without making anyone else any less of a victim.

[Sand Rat Expat]

11. If Lidia Guerrero is a victim of anything...

That thing is her son's crime. In a very real sense, she lost her son just as much as the victim's family lost their son. He's been locked up for the last two decades, instead of being able to spend time with her and his other family members. Now, owing to his decision to kidnap, rob, and murder a man, he's set to lose his life.

All of this came about because her son exercised his free will and chose to murder another human being. I'm not an advocate of the death penalty. If anything, on the whole I'm opposed to it in general because innocent people have been put to death by the state for a crime they were ultimately exonerated of committing. In this particular case, that concern doesn't exist, as there is no question regarding his guilt.

I'm sorry that it appears his life is going to end, but he made the choice that brought about that result. His victim didn't have that option. His actions destroyed more than just one life, but... they were ultimately his actions, and no one else's. The death penalty didn't create any victims here. Victor Hugo Saldana did that.

[Major Nikon]

12. Nothing her son did will make her any less of an innocent victim

She can still interact with her son the same way families can interact with criminals sentenced to life without parole. The death penalty does create more victims. It kills fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, brothers, sisters, and every other type of friend and relative you can imagine. Those are real victimizations. Regardless of what Victor Hugo Saldano did, the victims he created will be no less of a victim once he is put to death. There will simply be more victims. You mentioned one negative outcome of the death penalty. There are several more. There are no positive outcomes.

[7962]

15. Why should she be able to interact with her son? Why should HE get that?

The victims family hasnt had that opportunity for 19 years.
Cases like this are what keeps the death penalty on the books. A few tweaks of the law would stop any innocents from ever seeing death row.
He'll get the needle at some point.

[Sand Rat Expat]

22. Still, my point stands.

Had her son elected not to kidnap, rob, and murder another human being, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Everything that's happened has proceeded directly from his decision, so the ultimate fault lies not with the justice system, but with the person who decided to kill a man for a few dollars.

It's not as if the state would be getting ready to execute him if, as another poster suggested, he'd stayed home and watched TV that night. He put himself, his victim, his victim's family, and his own family in this position.

[Skittles]

9. don't forget this mother is a victim too

[840high]

16. ...!100++++

[Adrahil]

21. Exactly. I do not support the death peanlty....

But I have no sympathy for this man who committed a heinous crime.

[Beacool]

4. Here's an article on the case.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Lidia Guerrero says that when she met with Pope Francis in Rome last year, her told her he already knew all about her son, who has been on death row in Texas for 19 years.

"I've prayed so much for that young man from Cordoba," she says Francis told her, referring to the Argentinian hometown of Victor Hugo Saldano. Pope Francis is also from Argentina.

The meeting with the Pope in February 2014 left Guerrero with more hope than she has felt in years about the future of her son, who she says is guilty of murder but has been driven to insanity on death row.

Pope Francis is a staunch critic of the death penalty. Like most countries in Latin America, Argentina does not have capital punishment.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/argentinian-mom-hopes-pope-can-help-get-son-out-texas-n416821

It appears that Saldano and another man kidnapped, robbed and killed King while high on crack. What the mother hopes to achieve is a commute of his death sentence to life in prison.

[Bigmack]

13. I cannot BELIEVE the hateful comments here

There is much tragedy here - but that is NO reason for the hateful remarks people have written. I thought Democrats were better than this, but i sure was wrong about that. Ms Bigmack

[christx30]

14. What do you think should be done?

Crime happens because someone makes a choice. The thief take something that doesn't belong to him. A rapist violates a woman. This man kidnapped robbed and murdered and innocent person. He made that decision. No one forced him into it. Maybe shouldn't get the death penalty. But he sure as hell does not deserve any sympathy whatsoever. The sympathy should go to the mother the man he murdered. If he hadn't done that, Mr. King to be at home with his family today, and the convict be at his home. But we're supposed to feel sympathy for a man that would probably murder you for 20 bucks.
Crime has to have some kind of penalty. Otherwise people would be stealing from each other in killing each other all the time. You would never be safe. This amended law, and he knew the possible consequences for breaking the law.

[Judi Lynn]

18. No one hear has advocated no penalty, as you know. The issue is capital punishment,

which the civilized countries discontinued years ago.

Cheap, sleazy politicians fight for it here for their twisted, diseased, violent voters, so they will keep returning them to do their murderous will in Washington.

[christx30]

23. I'm not 100% against capital punishment,

and I don't care one way or another if it happens in this case. He could be executed tomorrow or die of natural causes in 50 years.
My point is that I have no sympathy to anything that happens to this murderer. And I don't understand why the pain that his mother is going through deserves any more sympathy than the pain that Paul King's mother went through when her son was kidnapped, robbed, and murdered by this guy. The murderer caused the pain his own mother is going through. Had he done literally anything else that night, he would be at home right now watching football with a beer in his hand. His decision to kidnap and kill Paul King put him where he is. Why isn't the pope meeting with that family?

[rpannier]

19. Who said squat about no penalty

That's right... only you
Change your name to Red Herring because christ is certainly a poor choice

[Bigmack]

20. You said...

"Crime has to have some kind of penalty. Otherwise people would be stealing from each other in killing each other all the time."

Is fear of punishment what keeps you from stealing and killing..?
Not me.

Of course, I'm an atheist, so I have morality.

You are a classic American Puritan... a heritage from our colonial times.
Punishment is the name of the game.

Meanwhile... in the more civilized countries....

"Our role is not to punish. The punishment is the prison sentence: they have been deprived of their freedom. The punishment is that they are with us,” says Nils Öberg, director-general of Sweden’s prison and probation service.

Since 2004, Swedish prisoner numbers have fallen from 5,722 to 4,500 out of a population of 9.5 million, and last year four of the country’s 56 prisons were closed and parts of other jails mothballed. In contrast, the prison population in England and Wales is 85,000 out of a population of 57 million.

With reoffending rates at about 40% – less than half of those in the UK and most other European countries – does he attribute this success to the country’s effective policies on prisoner rehabilitation? “We obviously believe that it is part of the explanation; we hope we are doing something right. But it’s going to be very difficult to prove that scientifically. We are increasing our efforts all the time,” he says.

Last year a “national client survey” of several thousand Swedish prisoners was undertaken in order to identify the issues that have affected their criminal behaviour. “The survey did not bring up any surprises, but it gave us confirmation of what we have learned from experience – that it is not one problem that our clients face, but two or more, sometimes as many as seven or eight different ones, including perhaps drugs, alcohol and psychiatric problems. And these problems did not just appear overnight. These are things that have developed over years. Most of the sentences in this country are relatively short. The window of opportunity that we have to make a change is very small, so we need to start from day one. Our strategy is to cover the whole range of problems, not just the one problem.”

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/26/prison-sweden-not-punishment-nils-oberg

[Judi Lynn]

17. Democrats are better than that. There's a heavy right-wing troll presence here to dominate,

and we all know right-wingers are distinguishable by their complete slavery to an entirely self-centered point of view, infantile, grudge-bearing, emotionally violent, incapable of evolving past their uncivilized beginnings as others must, and do.

Always first out the gate to rain down insults and hatred, and the last posts on a thread made unnecessarily long by their determination to have the last word, and club opposition into submission.