Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Yee-Hah Texas

Last year Texas executed 18 men. Their punishment was ordered by the state for the crimes of murder. 2011 is on track to beat that number. The 11th man to lay his body on the injection cross had heinously murdered a black man in 1998 by dragging their victim behind his Ford pick-up truck. A rope had tied the black man's feet together and the killers slung a chain through the knot, so they could drag their catch to the nearest black church.This lynching had been carried out by Lawrence Russell Brewer and two friends to inform their community that the KKK was back in town. Jasper, Texas was founded in 1824. The main industry in the Deep East town has been lumber. In 1998 the population was split between black and white. It was not a rich town, but Jasper not Philadelphia, Mississippi and 1998 was not 1964 when the Klan killed 3 civil rights workers. Brewer and his partners were arrested for hate crime and murder. Brewer rightfully received the death sentence, as one of his partner's in crime. The third man got life. He must have gone state's witness. Brewer received his punishment this week. His last meal was a big one. Two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. He declared that he wasn't hungry and went to his death without taking a single bite. His loss of appetite was not uncommon. The state prison chaplain said many men decline to eat their last meal. "Very few - I'd say less then 10% - ate all that we brought to them." A state senator was appalled by this murderer getting such a feast and called for the abolition of the an ancient tradition dating back to the Greeks and Romans. The director of Texas prisons was in the same mind. Classics be damned. The last meal will now be the same as any other inmate on death row at Livingston. Last year the condemned went on strike, because of bad food in their unit. One way or the other Texas will kill the dead men walking. It's the law and Rick Perry is governor. His favorite food is popcorn. Yee-Hah Texas.

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