Trooper's killer awaits execution (Texas)

[Ilsa]

Poor man was just an messed up teenager when he screwed up his life and this man's life.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/front/story/3076899p-3569290c.html

Cop killer Ronald Ray Howard, 31, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Thursday in Huntsville.

District Judge Joseph "Pat" Kelly signed the execution order in March for Howard, who was 18 when he killed Trooper Bill Davidson of Edna.

Davidson was shot through the neck after stopping Howard five miles south of Edna in April 1992. Davidson died from his wound three days later.

Allen Tanner, one of Howard's defense attorneys, said that David Dow, at University of Houston Law Center in Houston and with the Texas Innocence Project, is attempting to get a stay of execution. He said Howard has filed his own clemency petition with the state Board of Pardons and Parole.

SNIP

Howard was convicted by an Austin jury in 1993 of gunning down Davidson, 43, during the 1992 traffic stop in Jackson County. Tanner argued that Howard was not bad when he wasn't around fellow gang members and when he wasn't listening to rap music that called for killing cops.

SNIP

[MercutioATC]

1. "Poor man"???? He shot and killed a cop on a traffic stop!

Poor man my ass. I can feel sympathy for his upbringing, but he made the decision to pull the trigger. He deserves to be punished (severely) for that.

[Ilsa]

2. I was referring to what a stupid teenage does, and usually

without fully understanding the ramifications to others. Yeah, he did a horrible and dispicable thing. No doubt about that. No butts. And I feel as badly for his family as I do the trooper's family. This was a huge news items here when I first moved here. It is a horrible tragedy all the way around that sall of these lives have been ruined. Sorry you didn't get that from the original post.

[MercutioATC]

6. I agree, it's a tragedy all around.

...and I know that people make mistakes. However, when that mistake involves shooting and killing a police officer on a routine traffic stop, you pretty much deserve whatever you get.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. that's sad

It's not clear what an additional death would do to address the problem of the first death.

[Ilsa]

4. I think Davidson's family was the one to sue the recording company

voer the cop killer lyrics. I don't remember the outcome. Seems to me that even the family recognized the influence of trashy lyrics on a teenager.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Well, thank God it's Texas

because when somebody shoots a cop in Maine, the very fabric of space and time is compromised and God weeps, because they don't have the death penalty, America-haters that they are. :sarcasm: