Texas executes man despite opposition from Mexico

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MICHAEL GRACZYK

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Mexican national was executed Wednesday night in Texas for killing a Houston police officer, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department to halt the punishment.

Edgar Tamayo, 46, received a lethal injection for the January 1994 fatal shooting of Officer Guy Gaddis, 24.

Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, he mumbled "no" and shook his head. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a few breaths and then made one slightly audible snore before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 17 minutes after the drug was administered, at 9:32 p.m. CST.

Tamayo never looked toward Gaddis' mother, two brothers and two other relatives who watched through a window. He selected no witnesses of his own.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140123/DABG92LO0.html

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Yet a deformed unborn fetus is forced to live in a brain dead mother in Texas????????



This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edgar Tamayo. Attorneys for the Mexican national on Texas death row for the slaying of a Houston police officer hoped a civil suit, challenging what they argued is an unfair and secretive clemency process in the nation’s most active capital punishment state would block the inmate’s scheduled execution this week. Tamayo, 46, was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening, Jan. 22, 2014, in Huntsville. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

[Skip Intro]

1. I'm not for capital punishment, but Mexico's pleas should carry little

to no weight. The man was in the US when the crime was committed. The crime was killing a police officer. This man was convicted of that crime. He is not the victim. The police officer is the victim. The police officer's family are the victims.

As I said, I'm not for this type of punishment, but it is the law, and this man is as subject to that law as any of us. Mexico's wishes notwithstanding.

[DLnyc]

2. The problem, I believe, was lack of access to Mexican consulate.

The point of view of the Mexican government, as I understand it, is that he was not given proper access to his consulate in order to understand the charges in his own language and properly defend himself.

I think the American government routinely insists that Americans arrested abroad should have access to their (American) consulate in order to be able to understand the charges against them and their rights. In fact, I think this is pretty much the internationally accepted standard.

[Purveyor]

3. Anyone calculated the $$$ spent to kill this guy yet, trials and all ? eom

[mountain grammy]

4. I am afraid Texas will explode into some black cloud..

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2014, 09:44 AM - Edit history (1)

It's like a rogue state, executing a prisoner almost monthly and yet forcing a husband to keep his dead wife breathing to keep a fetus alive. The Christian conservatives have turned Texas into a pit of hate. Will nothing stop the killing machine known as the state of Texas?

[Unknown Beatle]

6. Facts

I'm against the death penalty, but here are the facts.

In the decade 2000 - 09, 248 individuals were executed in Texas. There are 3652 days in a decade. Do the math. Hardly almost daily.

[mountain grammy]

7. You're right, I edited my post to almost monthly, which is pretty accurate if you look at the Texas

website. It's kind of like the Germans... very good record keeping of who the state murders. Fifteen executed in 2013, more than half African American.

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/dr_executed_offenders.html

[Paladin]

8. Texas=Nazi Germany? Take some time off. (nt)

[mountain grammy]

9. Of course, Texas isn't herding people into death camps..

The state is ONLY killing at least one person a month. Sometimes the "guilt" of that person is in question, and there's little doubt innocent people have been executed. And when a rich kid kills 4 people, he gets time in resort rehab.
And, as the list of people on death row grows longer, it doesn't seem to be deterring crime much.
And it's not just Texas, but Texas is leading the way.
So, at what point, at what number of state killings, at what level of injustice do we recognize parallels in history?

[Paladin]

10. I'll let you know when I'm OK with such comparisons.

Don't hold your breath......

[mountain grammy]

14. Ok. Maybe I'm just easily offended, but I had this poem drummed into my head as a child:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Read about the author, Martin Niemoller.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392

State executions, in my opinion, are immoral, barbaric, and perpetuates the same mentality that ends in disaster.
Keeping "good records" sanctifies state killing.

[Paladin]

16. I'm with you, up until your last sentence.

Good record keeping provides state executions with no sanctification whatsoever. We'll have to disagree.

[marble falls]

12. You said it just fine the first time, I got your point. We execute too many, we execute wrongly, ...

we execute "unfairly", and we keep good records on it, just like another culture whose failings were far worse than ours. Turning it all into book keeping and numbers and laws makes it easier to make mistakes and ignore the moral consequences of those mistakes. We execute and jail more than any other society on the planet.

[former9thward]

17. "We execute more ... than any other society on the planet."

Ahhh no. We are #4. China, Iran and Iraq execute more than the U.S.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-Issues/2011/0918/Death-penalty-Top-5-countries-to-execute-the-most-people/China

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. I guess we have to try harder. n/t

[marble falls]

19. But we still execute more than what - 150 other countries in total numbers, per capita, what have...

you. And we definitely out jail everyone.

[marble falls]

11. Not at all what she said. She makes a point: just like the Germans in their moral failing......

the US and Texas keep very good records of their own, in this case execution. And I'm Texan and I agree with mountain granny's point. What do you make of the motor cycle cops gunning their engines? Not Nazi-like maybe but certainly unChristian and unAmerican in my opinion.

Don't be so judgmental.

[Paladin]

13. I stand by my comments regarding the evils of Nazi-like record keeping in Texas.

And as to the motor cycle cops gunning their engines---spare me a coherent explanation of that one, OK? We've both have better things to do with our time.....

[ripcord]

5. I've heard a lot of objections from Mexico

But none of them asserted Tamayo's innocence.

[Aristus]

15. Opposition from Mexico? Shit, Texas would execute people even if they had opposition from God!

I can here it now:

STOP EXECUTING PEOPLE! SO SAYETH ME!

Texan: "Sorry, old-timer. But y'ain't frum around here, is ya? Don't nobody go tellin' Texas who we cain 'n' cain't go ex'cutin'. Jes' run along now. Don't be interferin' in our bidness!"