Sometimes The Death Penalty Is A Good Thing

I know there was a high-profile death penalty case in the news yesterday. I am not going to comment on that case because I don’t know enough about it and can’t get enough information from sources I trust to form a logical opinion. This article is about another execution yesterday that didn’t get anywhere near the publicity.

Associated Press reported that yesterday that Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in Texas. Lawrence Russell Brewer was one of the men involved in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.

James Byrd, Jr., was a disabled man who lived very modestly on his disability check. Because he couldn’t afford a car, he walked wherever he needed to go. He was seen on Sunday, June 7, 1998, walking down the road not far from his home in Jasper, Texas. Later, he was seen riding in the bed of a dark pickup.

The article reports:

Testimony showed the three men and Byrd drove out into the county about 10 miles and stopped along an isolated logging road. A fight broke out and the outnumbered Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a 24 1/2-foot logging chain. Three miles later, what was left of his shredded remains was dumped between a black church and cemetery where the pavement ended on the remote road.

I don’t know if the death penalty will stop anyone else from doing something so horrible, but I am glad this man will not be alive to spread the mental poison that allowed this crime to happen.

Enhanced by Zemanta