To listen to Will and Nikki in the Morning’s interview/discussion about this very blog entry, please go here: www.blogtalkradio.com/willgriffithshow If you go into the site, click on the Archives tab, you’ll find it is the August 28th edition of the show.
During a recent discussion in the IBC chatroom during our very own Dan Cottrell’s Scam Buster’s show on www.blogtalkradio.com/ibc, I got into a rather heated debate with some fellow chatters over the death penalty. Those people that were engaged in the debate with me, well at least most of them, were adamantly against the death penalty. They were also mostly from countries outside the US.
I find this interesting because growing up in the US, you always hear about all the death and injustices of other countries, as if they condone such things over “there”. I’m seeing as I’ve matured into an adult and have stopped to question some of what we are taught on a regular basis, that really that’s not the case. Sure, you have your canings and hand choppings in some countries, but far and wide, I’m finding that the death penalty, or capital punishment if we’re being politically correct is more prevalent in the United States than anywhere else on Earth.
And, let’s be honest. Ron White hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that if the rest of the country has normal rates for executing executions, well, Texas has installed an express lane.
This week, there are three executions taking place in the state of Texas. I thought I would outline their crimes, name their victims and give my opinion on each of the individual cases. As I sit to write this, I’ve only briefly looked over their cases, and haven’t studied them in depth. This is more of an “off the cuff” discussion of sorts.
I’d like to preface their cases by saying that I think that certain cases require certain action. Child rapists/murderers in my world should be handed over to the parents of the slain children. Put them in a room together for a good ten minutes, and the problem corrects itself. Serial rapists and/or murderers…same plan. Victims families already have no control, and while I’m sure it’s not considered polite to seek retribution, and won’t make the victim come back, it sure gets rid of some of that negative energy that you are bombarded with when someone close to you is ripped from your life. You’re mad. Actually, mad doesn’t even begin to cover it. But when you learn it was premeditated, that someone actually planned out the torture of your child, your sister, your friend, or your wife…the anger can consume you. It indefinitely changes who you are as a person, and it causes any innocence that is within you to break in two. These people don’t just kill their victims. They kill off parts of us as family members, or as people who care about the lives that they are wiping away that are similarly irreplaceable.
That being said, you have to understand that you also have accidental killings, the rage killings and the “heat of the moment” killings. I don’t necessarily believe that all of those require the death penalty. Texas disagrees. So, without further ado, our executions of the week…
Daroyce Lamont Mosley: At the ripe old age of 19, in 1995 Mosley and another accomplice walked into Katie’s Lounge, and killed 4 people. It is believed that Mosley shot all of the victims, with help from the accomplice for one of them. The brutal facts of the crime are this: 53 yr. old Patricia Slack-Colter, 44 yr. old Duane R. Colter, 68 yr. old Luva Congleton and 54 yr. old Alvin Waller were lined up and shot execution style in the back of the head. All of this was to obtain a cash box from the bar, which they fled with. That cash box contained a whopping $308.00.
Daroyce Lamont Mosley will be executed by lethal injection on August 28, 2007 (today).
My opinion on this…was it necessary to execute each one of those people? Was the $308.00 worth it? That type of killing is merciless, cold and without remorse. If he’s sorry now, it’s because he’s going to die. Not what he did to those people. I’m good with this one. He should die for what he did.
John Amador:At 18 years old, in 1994, a mere year after being released from prison after serving a three year term for murdering someone else John Amador and his 16 year old cousin hailed a taxi cab, had the driver, 32 year old Reza Ayari and a friend of Reza’s, Esther Garza drive to a remote location and then shot them both. Reza Ayari died that night. Esther didn’t. Fortunately, she survived and was able to point out the suspects later. Amador and his 16 year old cousin rifled through the pockets of the victims, left them there to die and stole the cab.
My thoughts…a year. He was ON PAROLE for murder for crying out loud. He’s being executed on August 29, 2007 (Wednesday). Since it’s apparent he didn’t learn the first time after snuffing out someones life and killed someone else, with the intent to actually kill two a year after being released from prison, you won’t see any remorse or guilt from me for watching our system work on this one either. Buh-bye.
Kenneth Foster: Again, 19 years old at the time the crime was committed. 1996, Kenneth Foster approached 25 yr. old Michael T. Lahood Jr. with 3 other accomplices. The Black Deciples Gang Members (Foster and his buddies) demanded Lahood’s car keys and money. When Lahood told them no, accomplice Mauricio Brown pulled a gun and shot Lahood in the face, killing him. Foster drove the getaway car, taking him and the accomplices to safety.
Execution Date: August 30, 2007 (Thursday).
Thoughts…here’s the one I have the problem with. Foster didn’t pull the trigger. Yes, he’s a moron. Yes, he’s a jerk. Yes, the potential exists for him to be horrible person. But, he didn’t pull the trigger. He was present for the murder, but he didn’t kill the guy. Life in prison with the possibility of parole, maybe. Killing him for a murder he didn’t actually commit doesn’t make much sense to me. I like to think with a few years, and some knowledge and perhaps a swift kick in the butt from someone who gave a crap…Foster’s life could’ve been very different. But, basically, he’s being killed Thursday for the decisions in his life leading up to a single event that defined it, but in the end had very little control over. This is the case, and there are many more like it that causes me (and probably a majority of the rest of the world) to question if our system really works, and leaves a bunch of room for capital punishment abolishers world wide to scream in protest.
I guess if we could stick to eliminating and executing the black and white cases…the ones where there is enough proof, actual physical proof to sink the miserable idiot, then let’s do it. Get rid of them. But the ones that there is a lot of room for question – those ones, like Foster’s, I think just puts the blood on the hands of the State.
