Community | September 09, 2009 | 39 comments

Psychopaths in Power: Why Texas is the 'Gulag State'

source: http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/09/pyschopaths-in-power-why-texas-is-gulag.html

lenhart
An innocent man has been executed in the Gulag State of Texas. This man, whose innocence is now proven, is the ultimate price paid for endemic, state-sponsored idiocy and less excusable psychopathy. Educational standards have declined under fascist GOP regimes --prominently Bush Jr and his successor Rick Perry. Incarceration rates have risen and justice is applied inequitably. The death of innocents at the hands of a psychopathic, GOP dominated state is the price we pay for allowing the GOP any influence, any power.

A report published today in the New Yorker finds that Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 in Texas for setting a fire that killed his three daughters, was innocent. He is pictured at left with his two-year-old daughter Amber, who died in the fire.

This is incredibly sad news, but it also marks the most conclusive evidence yet that an innocent person has been put to death in the United States. We’ve known for years that the arson science used to convict Willingham was flat-out wrong. Today’s New Yorker report goes further: it dismantles the case that sent Willingham to his death, point-by-point, proving that every shred of evidence used against him was false.

Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck wrote in the Huffington Post: "There can no longer be any doubt that an innocent person has been executed. The question now turns to how we can stop it from happening again." ...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current Cultural Issues,   Law and Justice,   Public Safety,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Crime,  GOP,  Racism,  Texas,  6 more
  3. recommended by:
    Vierotchka
  4.     
    |

39 comments // Psychopaths in Power: Why Texas is the 'Gulag State' // Video

  • echoz
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • bubl_415 - even the worst criminals deserve a chance to reform and/or be rehabilitated one way or another, even if some will have to remain in jail until they die, for even in jail they can be useful to the community by helping other convicts to reform and see the errors of their ways. There is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future.

    • 2 years ago
  • allIknowis
    • 0
      allIknowis  
    • Vierotchka:

      I think the one main exception to that would be a child molester. They have a very high recidivism rate, according to Sexoffender.com, from 10 to 40 % depending on gender. They should be 1 or 2 strikes and you're outta here.

      The damage cause by child molesters is multi-generational it usually has a ripple effect starting with the victim.

    • 2 years ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • 0
      MotherForTruth  
    • Vierotchka:

      allIknowis, let's follow this scenario. A high school teen (18 years old) had consensual sex with a younger high school teen. Her mother reports this relationship to police. The male teen goes to prison for many years and upon release he is entered into sex offender’s database for life. He is now walking on the egg shell. Should he break up with a girlfriend she may falsely accuse him and now he is a repeat offender. Under the current laws this scenario is more then possible in fact it is very realistic and unavoidable.

    • 2 years ago
  • allIknowis
    • 0
      allIknowis  
    • Vierotchka:

      Most states have different grades of sex offenders. In my state they're now grading levels, there were people caught urinating on the way home or what ever, charged with public nudity, listed the same way. I'm talking about people raping or molesting little children, big difference. A person caught urinating behind a shrub or skinny dipping shouldn't be branded a sex offender.

      Simply causing the death of a person isn't grounds for the death penalty, there have to be certain circumstances met, same here.

    • 2 years ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • bubl_415
    • 0
      bubl_415  

    • Great video, every eye opening!
      My stance is people who commit the "worst of the worst" crimes should rot in jail and have to live with what they did, no privileges.
      Why are we playing God?
      You could never get me to kill someone else no matter how bad they are because then I would be a murder too.
      If people are wrongly accused then they need to be freed and given adequate compensation to have a chance at a "normal" life again.
      Totally barbaric and racist, this needs to end.

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Image

    • Trial by Fire
      Did Texas execute an innocent man?
      by David Grann

      An extensive article leading to the conclusion that this man was most likely totally innocent.

    • 2 years ago
  • jubal
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  

    • I have a cousin serving life without parole in Huntsville TX, for murder. He made a terrible decision at 21 years old to take a life. He is 48 years now and I am glad he did not get the death penalty. However, in some cases it is warranted, but new DNA procedures and proof of false prosecution has reduced my support for the death penalty.

    • 2 years ago
  • Denica_Cassandra
    • 0
      Denica_Cassandra  

    • I was just talking about this with my boyfriend (the death penalty)... I don't think that responding to an evil deed with the same evil will ever help to heal society. It doesn't even prevent crime. The only "positive" I could see was the "benefit" of the family in seeing the person who harmed their loved one harmed themselves. Is that really a benefit, should we heal this way anyhow? In this case, an innocent person has had their life taken away as a form of justice. That, to me, seems cruel and unusual punishment.

      An eye for an eye will leave us all blind.

    • 2 years ago
  • biggranny
    • 0
      biggranny  

    • rick perry is more concerned about getting the aggie bonfire that killed eleven people back on campus than who else he can murder

    • 2 years ago
  • Progresshiv
  • lenhart
    • 0
      lenhart  

    • The following is from thge Death Penalty Information Center:

      "States Without the Death Penalty Have Better Record on Homicide Rates - A new survey by the New York Times found that states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty.

      The Times reports that ten of the twelve states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average, whereas half of the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above.

      During the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48% - 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. "I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago," said the state's governor, John Engler, a Republican, referring to the state's abolition of the death penalty in 1846. "We're pretty proud of the fact that we don't have the death penalty." (New York Times, 9/22/00)"

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • One thing is ABSOLUTELY clear about the death penalty; if its going to exist at all we damn well need to speed things up and cut the costs. Way to little "bang for buck" the way it is managed now. I don't have a strong opinion about the death penalty being more or less inhumane than "life in prison", I would personally prefer a quick bullet in the head than rotting in a hole for life,....but thats just my personal preference. Why the hell we don't execute people with a slow overdose of heroin though.....that is a mystery to me. Ah yes,-that revenge factor bit. I just don't want axe murders on the streets, (ritualized socially condoned torture/punishment /get-eveness is a crock).

    • 2 years ago
  • lenhart
    • 0
      lenhart  
    • remanns:

      The death penalty OUGHT NOT to exist. EVERY MAJOR STUDY whether by Univerisities, government or think tanks have made clear: Death penalty states have higher murder rates.

      Many studies have shown that ALL CRIMES increase in death penalty states.

      States without the death penalty have had consistently lower murder rates than 'death penalty' states like Texas.

      Clearly --the death penalty is not only medieval and barbaric it is NOT even effective. It does not deter crimes of any sort.

      There is, therefore, no RATIONAL reason for the state to continue murdering folk whether they are guilty or not.

      It just does not work ...and it is CRAZY and psychopathic to keep on doing it.

    • 2 years ago
  • lenhart
  • Nephwrack
    • 0
      Nephwrack  

    • let's see, white needledick conservatives in charge, no oversight, good ol' boys network, it's because of american ignorance. oh and retarded cowboys.

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • The reason why there are more murders in states and countries which have the death penalty than in those which don't is probably because of "suicide by death penalty" (which is akin to suicide by police).

    • 2 years ago
  • allIknowis
    • 0
      allIknowis  
    • Vierotchka:

      Your last 2 posts are the very reasons i'm leaning against the death penalty. It quit being a deterrent when you got unlimited appeals, or at least 18 or 20 years worth.
      Regardless it may well be something we should outgrow.
      I was raised in a strong pro death penalty part of the country, but I think we should move on.

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • Civilized countries do not have the death penalty, and have the lowest crime rates of all. As it is, there has already been a significant number of innocent people executed in the USA. Even if just for that reason, the death penalty should be permanently banned in the USA.

    • 2 years ago
  • kennymotown
  • manfreddrake
  • echoz
  • clownpuncher
  • MotherForTruth
  • echoz
    • 0
      echoz  

    • funny...talking to a criminal defense lawyer just yesterday he said Texas is surely one of thE most fuqtup states in our union for criminalization...if you plan to do any crime just drive around that fuqtup state.

      TEXAS SUCKS ASS. ALWAYS has.

    • 2 years ago
  • lenhart
    • 0
      lenhart  
    • echoz:

      Re: "TEXAS SUCKS ASS. ALWAYS has."

      In general --YES!

      However, some great things have come out of Texas --Bob Wills, Roy Orbison and, most recently, the political commentary of the late, great Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower.

      See the movie Giant with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. It's a fictionalized story of how the OIL INDUSTRY fucked up the state.

      JFK was murdered in Dallas and some believe it was because he had threatened to RESCIND the oil depletion alllowance. Certainly --both CIA and TEXAS OIL INDUSTRY had motive to murder a President.

    • 2 years ago
  • allIknowis
    • 0
      allIknowis  

    • I'm very in the middle of the road on the death penalty. There are definitely some people that should not be breathing our air, but who is to say. I'm not sure 1 innocent man should be cause to throw out the entire system. If we were as adamant about convicting the guilty as freeing the maybe innocent... Who knows.

      The death penalty the way it is, is not a deterrent except for the ones put to death.

      I was working in Oklahoma City, when the Murrah building was bombed, but I don't think McVeigh should of been put to death so fast, if for no other reason than that's what he wanted. Having said that, I'm not sad he's not breathing today.

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  

    • Texas has demonstrated yet again what does not need to be demonstrated again, that the death penalty is wrong. Isn't this the state that just gave the guy a stipend for life for wrongful conviction?

    • 2 years ago
  • VoyagerFilms
    • 0
      VoyagerFilms  

    • Give the scofflaw prosecutor the same sentence given to his victim.

      We must realize the Judges and prosecutors are not inherently smarter, more moral or anything simply because they've wrangled their way into the position.

      I know for a fact the rate of psychopathic and sociopath judges and prosecutors is the same as any other demographic.

      I say it's time to weed them out of position of power, kick the petty tyrants out.

      Our judicial system is perverted, molested, rapped by such people and as a result, we all are - worst of all, we pay their wages to screw us.

    • 2 years ago
  • lj111
  • maof4brats
    • 0
      maof4brats [removed]  

    • Thats great texas has probably killed as much as China. WoW!I don't like the death penalty and I thought that California didn't have it. It was stopped when Manson was charged. hey you taught me somthing.

    • 2 years ago
  • hollyMiamiFla
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • A good reason why the state must be stopped from taking a life for any reason! ban the death penalty everywhere! Once someone is dead it no longer matters if their innocent cause they are dead!

    • 2 years ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • 0
      MotherForTruth  

    • Thank you for posting and raising awareness. Execution of an innocent even if only one in a million must be prevented. Our justice system is FAR from perfect. The size of the valet directly affects the quality of investigation and legal representation.

    • 2 years ago
  • carmalite
  • lenhart
    • 0
      lenhart  
    • carmalite:

      Re: "Texas makes Mississipppi, Alabama and Louisiana look like they have intellilgent citizens."

      There are intelligent folk in Texas but for obvious reasons, they have gone UNDERGOUND --or have emigrated.

    • 2 years ago
more from Community:
from the community

top videos