Philip Workman was executed by the state of Tennessee this morning for a crime he swears he did not commit, a crime of which the evidence certainly leaves reasonable doubt of his guilt. I know a lot of folks are saying "he committed the robbery, which led to the police presence, which led to the officer getting shot, and in the state of Tennessee that is a crime punishable by death". Well, apparently at the time he committed the robbery that wasn't on the lawbooks in TN. But to me, that doesn't matter. I am not against the death penalty, but such use of capital punishment goes too far in my mind. I can understand it for the straight up killing of a cop, but for the death of a cop just because he responded to a robbery call and got shot by some other cop not paying attention (honestly, they were shooting at one guy, weren't they? kinda hard to miss your target and shoot another cop, isn't it?).
I've known a lot of cops in my lifetime, some of them were real good people, others were the devil inside. But they all knew what the job was about and that any rinky ass call could lead to their death. What kind of bulls**t crap can a law like that bring out? So a cop responds to a domestic violence call in the projects, arrives on the scene, the wife-beating husband pulls out a rifle and shoots the cop, and so the wife gets the death penalty too? I bet the law can be construed that way, when it is convenient. What about if a cop pulls me over for speeding and gets swiped and killed by another car while standing there writing me a ticket? Am I responsible then? Where do you draw the line?
It took 17 minutes for Philip Workman to die by lethal injection. One of the drugs used has been listed as unsafe for animal euthanasia.
I'm for capital punishment, but not under these conditions. I expect all convicts to get due process and I expect the execution to be humane. Yet we give human beings something a vet wouldn't even give a dog. Classy. You aren't going to win over the right to capital punishment by bungling s**t up this way.
2 comments:
My boss told me they had trouble getting the IV into his vein. I think that was the delay.
This is a travesty of justice. I no longer trust the criminal justice system of TN or Governor Bredesen.
Is there such a thing as a humane execution? Really?
I am totally against the death penalty, whatever the reason, whoever you are, whatever you do, the death penalty is not right. Taking the life of one person to exact judgement for a crime is never right, never has been and never will be.
An eye for an eye is an outdated concept. It deserves to be consigned to miserable history.
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