It's been in the news lately: Texas to Execute #500 as though it was some sort of crazy fire sale where only the first 500 customers will be given a toaster oven with purchase. Number 500 happens to be a woman, which I'm sure is driving up the media interest along with the "milestone" total.
From the article linked to above: Texas has carried out nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions in U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second most populous state as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
I'm not particularly a pro-death penalty advocate, but I'm neither anti-DP, either. I wish for a time when we could value human life more than we do now; if that were the case, then there wouldn't be nearly the need for capital punishment. Until that time however, I would hope that the death penalty would be used almost exactly as how I would want abortions to happen: rarely and only with a good reason.
From the website: “The Last 40 Miles,” based on a true story, follows an inmate on his final journey from Texas’s death row in Livingston, to the execution chamber in Huntsville. During the ride, his memories, the scenery flashing by and the unexpected compassion of the guard escorting him keep him company.
44 1/2 minutes long, but well worth watching. I've often wondered what it would be like to be on Death Row and Skinner gives a cursory glimpse of that existence. As the video went on, I found myself in the place of the condemned being driven to the death house, looking out the window along the drive and seeing the beauty...and the ugliest...all the while knowing it was the last landscapes I would ever see.
The video is completely one-sided, the maker of the video making no bones about being against the death penalty. It doesn't paint Pampa in a particularly good light, especially in the scenes where it shows only the worst and ugliest parts of this small town.
I didn't realize it until I watched the video that I used to roughneck with a guy who had, several years prior, lived at the house where the murders were committed; I had driven by there doing some research for the book I had intended to write, but didn't recognize it as the place where my co-worker had lived, that I had been inside the house and visited with him and his family. I don't know why I didn't remember that when I was researching the book.
Personally, I've gone back and forth on Skinner's innocence; at first, I thought he didn't do it, then was convinced he had. Now, I'm not so sure. The uncle that Skinner claims to have done it died in a car wreck several years later after the murders and another witness* has also passed away. I've interviewed Skinner's ex-girlfriend (whose house he was found at after the murders) and I understand why her recanting her trial testimony has been discounted: she's not a credible witness.
*Witness, in this case, doesn't mean "to the crime" but rather a person with "evidence" offered to prove Skinner's innocence. In this instance, it was someone in jail who claimed to have called the house just before the murders and being told by one of the victims that Skinner was passed out on the couch.
It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. As it is, it's a landmark case in how DNA evidence will be treated in future trials and subsequent appeals.
